Pootie, played by Lance Crouther, was invented as a sketch on HBO’s “Chris Rock Show.” He’d appear in the studio or show up “via satellite,” confused and speaking in a country pig Latin that Chris Rock could easily understand (As Chris Rock explained on Inside the Actors Studio, Pootie is speaking the language of love). (“Sa da tai, Chris,” etc.) Wesley Morris said in his review, “Most of the show's cast -- including Mario Joyner and the peerless Wanda Sykes, playing a forecast of what to expect from Lil' Kim in those middle years -- tags along for the movie adventure the way the Muppets took Manhattan: blissfully ignorantly. Bob Costas, as himself, is on hand to do what Milton Berle, et al., did in those Muppet movies: act as if he knows what's going on.”
Morris continued, “Pootie is a ghetto superstar par excellence -- corny-cool right down to his cheap, tinted shades and wide-open short-sleeve shirts. He looks like a Commodore trying to get backstage at a Teena Marie-Rick James concert. A magic belt, bequeathed to Pootie by his late dad (one of a few roles played by Rock), is his crime-fighting lightsaber.” (The movie’s main hysterical running joke is the way the film goes backward, giving the one-piece appearance that, post-fight, Pootie is putting the belt back around his waist.)
Morris said, “When he's not recording ironic, soundless ditties, Pootie Tang is out doing public service announcements to keep the kids of America sober, off drugs and as far away from cheeseburgers and chicken as possible.” His PSAs have given evil empire Lecter Corp.’s profits into the ground.
Eventually Dick Lecter (wrinkled and with horrible dye-job by Robert Vaughn) releases his temptress (Jennifer Coolidge) to weaken Pootie so that Lecter can steal his belt and make him do malt liquor commercials. Morris said, “Redemption is around the corner, but it may as well be on Mars, it takes so long to come.”
One the show, the character utilized the line between gibberish and jive. The movie, written and directed by “Chris Rock Show” director Louis C.K., follows along. Morris describes, “Most of "Tang's" sequences are like anorexic Hype Williams videos -- colorless, under-edited, intentionally inconsequential.”
Morris continued, “The film is out to mock the place where hip-hop and blaxploitation meet. As it turns out, the shoddy assembly and low-budget sheen are its best critique of the retro-fabulousness the film is satirizing.” Just be forewarned: the film has comic violence and raw language.
In the end, this is a classic comedy. I had never seen “Chris Rock Show,” but that was because I never had HBO. However, if you have an HBO Max, you could probably watch it on there. However, I still think this should be a film everyone should see since it is a comedy that critics did not like when it first came out. I saw it and thought it was funny. I think everyone will too since this is based on a famous sketch.
Look out next Monday when I review a “President’s Day Movie.”
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