Pootie Tang
(**1/2)
review by Ken Gumbs
You will laugh. Maybe only for a moment, but you will laugh. For some reason
the phrase “waddah tah” or “sin your pity on da runny kind”
will make you laugh. You may be laughing at yourself for actually watching Pootie
Tang. Maybe you are thinking of director Louis C.K.’s pitch of Pootie Tang
to MTV films executives. It probably went something like this, ‘Pootie
Tang is a superhero megastar that solves crime and makes women swoon all
without an intelligible word’.
While the charm of Pootie Tang wears off within the first twenty minutes, those
twenty minutes are extremely entertaining. But like a joke that goes on too
long, Pootie Tang drags out to a excruciating 80 minutes. While 80 minutes seems
short by Hollywood feature film standards, Pootie Tang could have worked very
well as a 20 or 30 minute short film.
Louis C.K. should probably stick to writing short skits on television instead
of feature film screenwriting. If you do like Pootie Tang, I recommend Louis
C.K.’s short films DVD.
respond to ken@filmbrats.com