Woo

In a recent interview with the Village Voice, Spike Lee said, "I don't want to sound like Amiri Baraka or something, like I'm the gatekeeper of black cinema, but c'mon. A lot of these films that are coming out are just bullshit."

Woo is the latest example of the "bullshit" Spike's talking about. Here we have Jada Pinkett Smith as Darlene "Woo" Bates, a sassy New York party girl with a nefarious way of treating men. When a psychic friend tells Darlene that the man of her dreams is about to enter her life, she agrees to go on a blind date with law clerk Tim (Tommy Davidson). The stuffy yuppie clashes with snooty Darlene; she indirectly gets his car stolen, and she certainly doesn't appreciate his effort in treating her to fine Italian cuisine.

Directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Woo offers endless slapstick gags that are lame and obvious. Boxer shorts catch on fire, characters fall down at the most inopportune times, arguments are spawned by chaste hugs of friendship that are misunderstood by witnesses. Mayer has Pinkett Smith reprising, to no greater avail, Parker Posey's turn in the director's previous film, Party Girl. She's pampered and whiny and utterly annoying. A crass film from first frame to last, Woo leaves one wondering why it's so easy for studios to woo black audiences with crap like this.

-- Danny Lorber