Woo (1998)

User Rating:

3.4/10   

Director:

Daisy von Scherler Mayer

Writer (WGA):

David C. Johnson (written by)

Release Date:

8 May 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

It's Woo's world.. we're just living in it.

Plot:

Gorgeous and extravert Woo meets insecure and straight-laced law clerk Tim at a blind date.

Plot Keywords:

World Trade Center | World Trade Center New York | Statue Of Liberty | New York | Independent Film

Cast

Jada Pinkett Smith	...	Woo
Tommy Davidson	...	Tim
Duane Martin	...	Frankie
Michael Ralph	...	Romaine
Darrel Heath	...	Hop
Dave Chappelle	...	Lenny
Paula Jai Parker	...	Claudette
LL Cool J	...	Darryl
Aida Turturro	...	Tookie
Lance Slaughter	...	Lamar
Dartanyan Edmonds	...	Shakim
Foxy Brown	...	Fiancée
Sam Moses	...	Cabbie
Tiffany Hall	...	Denise
Girlina	...	Celestrial

MPAA:

Rated R for sexual content and language.

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Germany:16 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Gotham Entertainment Group

Trivia:

Pam Grier and Isaac Hayes were originally cast to play Woo's parents, but their scenes were deleted.

Goofs:

Continuity: Tim's wet t-shirt in the taxi.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Be Kind Rewind (2008)

Soundtrack:

Found A Cure

Very basic film with few laughs but plenty of racial clichés

Tim is a shy man who hasn't been with a woman in quite a while. Woo is a woman who is looking for her perfect man but has been played once too often. When a friend hooks them both up on a date things go wrong from the start when Woo feels that Tim is only after one thing. After that she drags him through a series of misadventures as he gradually loses patience.

I must admit to have taped this because of the presence of the lovely Jada Pinkett Smith. Ironically I watched this on the day that The Matrix Reloaded opened in the UK – I wonder will she be boasting about her presence in this film now that she has real hits under her belt. The plot here is almost an `urban' rehash of Blind Date, with Woo leading the mild mannered Tim to despair. However the majority of the film is poor and not very funny. The plot is very thin, so thin that it needs separate little subplots for the other characters just to sustain the running time. Sadly neither of the two `friends' subplots are any good at all and are either stupid or obvious.

The main `romance' between Woo and Tim is badly translated. At no time did you wish for these two to be a couple, even the `slow music during a thoughtful taxi ride' moment seemed to come out of nowhere and indicate that the film would be ended soon. To be honest other than Woo's body I could see no reason any man would want to be with her – certainly Tim could do a lot better, which kinda goes against the point of the film. Their episodic adventures raised a few small laughs for me but not enough to justify the time.

Pinkett-Smith is OK. Her looks are spoilt by a lipstick colour that doesn't suit her face and a general attitude that alienated her from an audience that she needed to keep. Davidson is better despite playing the same sort of character as he did in Booty Call, he has more of a knack for comedy and his character was easier to emphasis with than Woo. The support cast are all pretty poor whether it is Chappelle demanding his wife dress as a `chicken ho' or Martin, Heath etc being `dogs'. Cameos from LL Cool J and Foxy Brown do nothing to liven it up.

Overall I am not against urban comedies although many of them do tend to fall into lazy cliché that would border on the racist were they not produced for the very groups they stereotype. Here I had low expectations but was still let down., Very few laughs, very basic plotting and such poor characterisation that it was hard to like anyone in the film. Best avoided and very probably being tippexed off Pinkett-Smith's CV as I type this.