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July 18, 2006
Woo (review) - May 19, 1998
This article appeared in the Village Voice on May 19, 1998.
The unlikely couple brought together in Woo are on a blind date, but that doesn't mean audiences haven't been here before. This Jada Pinkett Smith vehicle written by David C. Johnson is a retread of Booty Call, and anyone who liked that previous outing will appreciate this new night of horrors.
Woo
Directed by Daisy V. S. Mayer
[ebog note: Why is EBOG reposting old articles?]
The unlikely couple brought together in Woo are on a blind date, but that doesn't mean audiences haven't been here before. This Jada Pinkett Smith vehicle written by David C. Johnson is a retread of Booty Call, and anyone who liked that previous outing will appreciate this new night of horrors. Woo is the unexplained moniker of Pinkett Smith's character, a borderline psychotic who's set up with nerdy paralegal Tim (Tommy Davidson, doing 90 minutes of reaction shots). Intended, I imagine, to scan as a hyperactive handful who needs aggressive male keeping-up-with, Woo is really just annoying, a walking compilation of neck rolls who veers wildly from glossy r&b bitch to black valley girl to club kid--cum-- drag queen. Woo takes Tim on the town and watches blithely as he suffers a range of indignities, the couple drifting through stylized black New York subcult spaces until they can appreciate each other's quirks. There are a few decent gags (the lowest yet most intriguing involves something called a ''Chicken 'Ho''), but overall Woo is the usual bottom-feeding crud aimed at black audiences.
Posted by ebogjonson in garchival, screened, on July 18, 2006 10:19 PM
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