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The Wood has not received very much attention and PR that many of the other movies have, but it should.

The movie is about three best friends who grew up in Inglewood California (hence the title - The Wood). The movie actually takes place on the wedding day of one of the friends and two hours before the ceremony, the groom is a no-show. The other two friends manage to track him down and proceed to bring him back.

As they bring the groom back to the wedding, the three begin to discuss old times and throughout the movie, flashback is used to show these experiences. Younger actors are used to depict the current friends and their past experiences are shown to the audience. The acting by all the characters is superb and the flashback technique is used beautifully.

The movie shows the relationships develop over the years through the eyes of one of the characters (Michael) and the humor is sprinkled throughout the movie in well placed and well timed deliveries. This is a very endearing movie that everyone should see but unfortunately, in a summer of either blockbuster or toilet humor movies, this one may get overlooked. For anyone who gets a chance, see this movie. Overall rating 9/10.

I really liked this movie, and I think many teens and adults, particularily African-Americans will like this movie. All those young adults who grew up will really like this movie, too.

I thought it was excellent, and many parts made me laugh so hard I cried. All the actors did a very good job, too.

The most refreshing aspect of this movie is the mere fact that the three main African American characters are not : drug dealers, wise cracking officers of the law, pimps, womanizing alcoholics, bums, etc.

However, they are also not annoyingly wholesome. These three guys are real people with real problems. I'm not saying that the previously mentioned stereotypes don't exist, but I'm sick of being beat over the head with stereotypes while at the same time being told how evil stereotyping is.

This is the coming of age story of three black kids growing up in a suburb of Southern California. I don't know if Rick Famuyiwa is black or not, but he can write excellent black dialogue. Contrary to popular belief, most black people do not say f*** seven times in every sentence and this film acknowledges and respects that fact. The film does drag at points, but there are definitely big laughs and the flashbacks taking place in the mid 1980's are beautifully done. One almost feels that the film should have been shot as one long flashback sequence.

All in all, I feel that this is a great movie for people of any color to see. The movie is rated R, but it's very light hearted and aside from some language that any child over the age of ten has been exposed to, and one very funny and non-graphic sex scene, there's nothing offensive. I am inclined to think that African Americans have come to expect nudity, explicit sex, and violence in movies aimed at them, and some might ironically be disappointed by the cheerful mood of the movie. I hope that I'm wrong.

This is an American Pie-ish movie that you won't be ashamed to show your kids (or your parents) and a Soul Food-ish movie that your kids will actually enjoy. An excellent first movie for Rick Famuyiwa and a nice change of pace in black cinema.

I am searching for the soundtrack and a particular song which has a refrain Higher. I thought it was by Teddy Pendergast but am not sure. And I need to find the album which contains the song. The cast and script was great for it showed how men grow up together and support each other through some tough times. It also developed the character of the parents,the bride and groom,and the close friends around the Wood. Fortunately, the picture of the close families helps keep the movie on track.The mistakes of the bride and groom seem normal in this modern world.The forceful father made it far more realistic. The diting of the scenes helped it move faster as it began to drag during the scene outside the door when he is being held by the father with his head on the door. At the end when the groom throws out the arm band it was well done and effective.

The Wood starring Omar Epps, Taye Diggs, Sean Nelson, Melinda Williams, De' Aundre Bonds and Antwon Tanner was a perfect positive black film that deserves alot of credit. Unlike The Best Man, it doesn't have a boring pre-wedding story - actually it's a lot of fun as the three friends talk about their fun childhood in 'The Wood' a.k.a Inglewood, California. The flashback scenes are done so nicely and the characters are written in detailed fashion and come across very realistically.

When I first seen the trailer I was like it would probably be an O.K. movie but it was alot better than I could possibly expect and turns out to be a big winner, this is a sleeper for 1999

10/10