It's easy to pick out what people would object to in this movie. It really is little more than a sketch comedy bit extended to 80 minutes, it really only has one joke and it really is pure silliness. But I thought it was really funny. Some of it, like Pootie's defending himself with his braid, was even brilliantly silly. Having seen it three days ago, I have already forgotten virtually the entire movie, but I thoroughly enjoyed it at the time, and my girlfriend, who is less tolerant of pure silliness than I am, laughed throughout. It did run out of momentum a little as it went along, with a great first half hour followed by diminishing returns on that one joke, but there was enough fun through to keep us watching. 7/10

Thing I never understood is that these sort of simplistic and silly comedies often get slammed, while movies from the early days of the genre (the Jim Abrahams and Leslie Nielsen type of comedies) are being loved and considered to be classics, even though the humor and comedy of the movies is just the same. For me it's very simple; when a comedy amuses me and makes me laugh I consider it to be a good and effective one, no matter how bad and silly the movie got done.

It's just the sort of movie in which things simply just happen, without often share a clear connection with each other and without featuring a real solid or clear main-story. It's really simplistic, especially story-wise but lots of its moments are simply funny and therefor this movie does work out as a comedy.

I really won't pretend like "Pootie Tang" is the greatest thing ever. It's often just too simplistic for that and it's story and acting is definitely too much lacking. but there is no denying that this movie simply serves its purpose and I definitely can say that this is a movie that genuinely made me laugh because of how silly and crazy it at times got. Still, at the same time it's also true that the movie doesn't quite live up to its full potential. I mean, the movie never really lives up to its great and promising beginning. But luckily the movie is too short to start to further decline, below the level of average.

Still the funniest Chris Rock comedy I've seen in years.

6/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This movie, based on sketches written for the Chris Rock Show, flopped back in the summer of 2001. Since then, it's garnered a bit of a cult following. I had to check it out, as I've become a little obsessed with comedian Louis C.K. lately. He was a writer for the Chris Rock Show at the time, for which he won an Emmy, and he wrote and directed this film. Nowadays, C.K. directs and writes (and edits, too, I think) his own show for the FX network, and it's easily one of the best things on television. Unfortunately, his talent does not at all shine through in Pootie Tang, and I honestly have no idea how anyone could find this movie funny. Really, it's a disaster. It's so bizarre that it is somewhat watchable, like a train derailment, but funny is something it absolutely is not. Lance Crouther stars as Pootie Tang, a folk hero of sorts who speaks in gibberish but is world famous for his movies, his music and his general heroism (he often gets in fights with drug dealers who end up in prison). The thing is, this character completely lacks charisma. He sounds like a rip-off of Eddie Murphy's Buckwheat character from SNL, but not even close to as amusing. Chris Rock co-stars in multiple roles (Pootie Tang's father and a member of his crew). Wanda Sykes is the most tolerable thing in the movie. I liked her dancing, at least. The plot reminds me of another lame 2001 comedy, Zoolander, but at least that one had a couple of laughs in it.