Woo
1.5/4
Starring: Jada Pinkett Smith, Tommy Davidson, Duane Martin, Michael Ralph, Darrel Heath, Dave Chappelle, Paula Jai Parker
Rated R for Sexual Content and Language
"Woo" is a tone-deaf romantic comedy made by people without a clue. Nearly everything that the film tries to do misses the mark, but what's strange is how badly everything misfires. Some of the gags don't land because they are ineptly handled, but others are so bizarre that they belong in the "what the hell were they thinking?" category. This is a textbook example of how not to do a romantic comedy.
Woo (Smith) is every guy's dream girl: she's sexy, confident and vivacious. She's also superstitious, so when her friend and spiritualist Celestrial (Girlina) calls with surprising news about her fortune, Woo answers. Apparently, Woo is going to meet the man of her dreams soon, and he will be a Virgo. So when Lenny (Chappelle) asks her to take out his friend Tim (Davidson) so he can have some private time with his girlfriend Claudette (Parker), she agrees when she learns that Tim is a Virgo. Things don't turn out the way she expects. Unlike herself, Tim is tightly-wound and a complete dork. It's going to be a very wild night. Allegedly.
I like Jada Pinkett Smith. Best known as Will Smith's wife, she has some serious acting talent to back it up. Anyone who has seen "Set it Off," the best heist movie after "Heat," can attest to that. But there's not much she can do to save this movie. In fact, it could be argued that she's miscast as a larger-than-life character. Smith's best qualities are her earthiness and her intelligence. This script is too dimwitted to make her anything more than a caricature.
Her co-star Tommy Davidson fares little better. When he's low-key, he's solid. But when he goes for laughs, he comes across as too calculated. It's as if he spent all his rehearsal learning the mechanics of comedy without understanding how they work. He's either trying too hard or is an unfunny actor trying to be funny. Whichever sounds worse, I guess. He does have a bit of chemistry with Smith, although the film is too busy with its alleged hijinks to take advantage of it.
As bad as the central material is, shoehorned in are some truly distasteful scenes involving Tim's boorish bros, played by Duane Martin, Michael Ralph, and Darrel Heath. Their scenes are meant to parody masculine immaturity, but they misfire in the same way that Seth Rogen does: their scenes come from fear rather than affection. Even worse is the scene where Lenny forces Claudette to dress and act like a chicken for his sexual pleasure. I sat there thinking, this isn't funny. Parker is a natural actress with an expressive face, and even if she weren't, no one needs to humiliate themselves the way she has to.
This is a comedy made by people without a sense of humor.
Starring: Jada Pinkett Smith, Tommy Davidson, Duane Martin, Michael Ralph, Darrel Heath, Dave Chappelle, Paula Jai Parker
Rated R for Sexual Content and Language
"Woo" is a tone-deaf romantic comedy made by people without a clue. Nearly everything that the film tries to do misses the mark, but what's strange is how badly everything misfires. Some of the gags don't land because they are ineptly handled, but others are so bizarre that they belong in the "what the hell were they thinking?" category. This is a textbook example of how not to do a romantic comedy.
Woo (Smith) is every guy's dream girl: she's sexy, confident and vivacious. She's also superstitious, so when her friend and spiritualist Celestrial (Girlina) calls with surprising news about her fortune, Woo answers. Apparently, Woo is going to meet the man of her dreams soon, and he will be a Virgo. So when Lenny (Chappelle) asks her to take out his friend Tim (Davidson) so he can have some private time with his girlfriend Claudette (Parker), she agrees when she learns that Tim is a Virgo. Things don't turn out the way she expects. Unlike herself, Tim is tightly-wound and a complete dork. It's going to be a very wild night. Allegedly.
I like Jada Pinkett Smith. Best known as Will Smith's wife, she has some serious acting talent to back it up. Anyone who has seen "Set it Off," the best heist movie after "Heat," can attest to that. But there's not much she can do to save this movie. In fact, it could be argued that she's miscast as a larger-than-life character. Smith's best qualities are her earthiness and her intelligence. This script is too dimwitted to make her anything more than a caricature.
Her co-star Tommy Davidson fares little better. When he's low-key, he's solid. But when he goes for laughs, he comes across as too calculated. It's as if he spent all his rehearsal learning the mechanics of comedy without understanding how they work. He's either trying too hard or is an unfunny actor trying to be funny. Whichever sounds worse, I guess. He does have a bit of chemistry with Smith, although the film is too busy with its alleged hijinks to take advantage of it.
As bad as the central material is, shoehorned in are some truly distasteful scenes involving Tim's boorish bros, played by Duane Martin, Michael Ralph, and Darrel Heath. Their scenes are meant to parody masculine immaturity, but they misfire in the same way that Seth Rogen does: their scenes come from fear rather than affection. Even worse is the scene where Lenny forces Claudette to dress and act like a chicken for his sexual pleasure. I sat there thinking, this isn't funny. Parker is a natural actress with an expressive face, and even if she weren't, no one needs to humiliate themselves the way she has to.
This is a comedy made by people without a sense of humor.
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