Pootie Tang

Comedian-turned-writer/director Louis C.K., having created the best movie of last year in the independent, little-seen Tomorrow Night, now attains perfectly balanced karma by signing his name to a film that will undoubtedly be on many critics' 10 worst lists. Based on a series of skits C.K. created for The Chris Rock Show, this tale of a blaxploitation hero (Lance Crouther) who speaks in an invented pseudo-ebonics ("Sine your pitty on the runny kine!") brings to mind the times back in the '50s when Roger Corman would purchase an unfinished foreign film dirt cheap and then shoot some new scenes, insert stock footage and add narration in the futile hope of creating some coherence. While some of the scenes in Pootie Tang are truly hilarious (Pootie recording a hit single that's totally inaudible, Pootie's dad being mauled to death by a gorilla, Pootie seducing a woman by rubbing cherry pie all over his body to Zapp and Roger's "I Wanna Be Your Man"), the overall film is hideously grating, thanks to an inconsistent look, animated titles all over the place, excessive explanatory commentary and abrasive R&B videos inserted throughout. It seems as if the studio thought they had a black Austin Powers, while in fact what they have is more like a black Dude, Where's My Car?. Actually, that's being too kind. Robert Vaughn appears briefly as an evil CEO, and Chris Rock plays multiple characters, all of whom look and sound exactly like Chris Rock. Still, the movie is marginally better than his Down to Earth.