Woo

Obviously a starring vehicle for Jada Pinkett Smith who had already co-starred quite effectively in Set It Off and The Nutty Professor.

But where I knew her first and most fondly from at that time, was Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight.

She was sensational in that movie. And sexy as all get out too.

I just loved her there.

Now, we know more about her once seemingly perfect all star marriage than her actual work.

Which brings me to the set of this film.

Or off it.

We learned this year from Shannon Sharpe's podcast, that Will Smith tried to bully and intimidate her costar, the immensely talented and legendary Tommy Davidson, who himself, had already starred in the much funnier and superior, iconic In Living Color and Booty Call by the time this movie was released.

The cast here is incredible: Dave Chapelle, LL Cool J, and Paula Jai Parker among others.

The soundtrack is awesome too.

It's just that the movie is not.

It's not funny and not believable.

Jada Pickett Smith again looks completely amazing.

Wow.

But her character is just too obnoxious.

There's no way anybody puts up with that.

I don't care how fine she is.

And she is fine.

But this movie is not.

Watch any of those three previous films I mentioned if you're looking for your prime JPS fix, because this ain't it.

I should have known that this film wasn't going to be any good; the director made another film by the name of 'The Guru' which has the 'honour' of being the only film that I've ever rated lower than 4/10(!) The thing is with this film is that most of the time, you're laughing at it, instead of with it. Some typical examples of this are occurrences when the main character's friends, or indeed, any characters for that matter, talk in the way that they do. You'll instantly recognise the style; the typical 'gangster' accent which is actually more amusing than a lot of the jokes. Given the fact this film is made up of an entirely black cast, this method of delivering the dialogue is constant throughout and is, in my opinion, very annoying after a while. It's not 'Chris Tucker' annoying but it grates in its own way.

This film's setting takes a bit of a 'road movie' approach as it never lingers for too long in a certain place or setting, or at least that's how these single route journey's in film SHOULD take place. In 'Woo', the place of no return they set off from (the guy's apartment) right the way through to the final scene is crammed with ridiculous scenes in pretty generic settings and the frustrating thing is, is that they last for far too long and are far too unfunny to be appearing in a film which is listed under the comedy genre.

Incidences here include the farce that happens in an Italian restaurant, a rather pointless and unfunny scene in the next setting: a secret underground club which has the ability to hide its loud music RIGHT until you get up close and open the final door and also in a police station during which I can't even remember one joke. Other frustrating things include the use of slapstick early on and a rather irrelevant scene involving LL Cool J, whom the protagonist goes to visit for advice on: wait for it…..music(!) I think LL Cool J appears rather early/high up in the pre film credits yet lasts for about four minutes. Yes, it's ridiculous.

Romance? Yes. Drama? Probably. Comedy? Erm: No Chance. One moment in this film made me laugh and that was when a character went to switch off his car alarm, only to find the car gone and the alarm lying there, still in perfect working order. That's not enough, I'm afraid.

"Woo" is about a woman (named, of all things, Woo!) who goes on a blind date with a guy who hasn't been with a woman in a long time. Woo has been through a lot with men and gets the feeling this new guy just wants one thing, so she leads him on a series of late-night adventures a la Scorsese's "After Hours." This movie is L-A-M-E lame. It's packed with all sorts of awful dialogue, poor performances, racial stereotypes (including the big fat black woman who waves her finger at everyone and finishes every sentence with the word "girlfriend") and so on and so forth.

Nowadays it's best remembered for starring Jada Pinkett (Smith), wife of Will Smith. Her performance isn't that good and it's hard to believe they based an entire movie -- including the TITLE! -- on her character.

Overall this is poor, stupid, (intellectually) offensive and insulting, clichéd, stereotypical and worse than all that: uninteresting! It's not entertaining, it's not funny, it's just dumb and annoying.

Not even worth watching on TV.

"Woo" has a fine cast. Jada Pinkett has great charisma. Tommy Davidson is a fine comic actor, though he isn't too convincing as a straight-arrow law student. The film is written in sitcom format. The film consists of one implausible scene of conflict after another (especially at the Italian restaurant), desperate to find a punchline. Some of the scenes work. I thought the scene at the transvestite bar was hilarious. And I liked the little cameo by Billy Dee. That gave the film a touch of class. It's too bad LL Cool J only had one scene. I liked his smooth "mack daddy" character. But with a film like this, even though it's a comedy, your disbelief elevates by the minute and it just doesn't have a natural, character-driven flow. It forces itself upon the audience. And the third act is predictable and unconvincing. This is a film that could've been more than OK, if it had a little more wit and focus. If this is about a 1 or 2 dollar rental at your local video store--this is not a bad film to rent. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend this one.

This movie was absolutely hilarious. Jada Pinkett Smith did a wonderful job and so did Tommy Davidson. It was funny the whole way through from beginning to end. Especially the part when woo and timothy were in the Italian restaurant! Woo is a beautiful woman who just wants to be free, and Timothy is a nerdy guy, with jerks as friends. Throughout the whole movie you'll see how they slowly come together and form a "special" kind of friendship. Ow, and there's a transvestite in the movie that's suppose to be one of Woo's really good friends. She's very, very funny. And so is Woo's cousn who goes out Lenny, whose Dave Chappelle. I recommend this movie to everyone who likes a good laugh.