Sketch comedy rarely transfers over to the big screen very well. But, on occasion, a popular TV character makes it to the movies and entertains.
Pootie Tang is not one of those.
Based on a character from Chris Rock’s HBO talk show, “Pootie Tang” in film form is a waste of time, money and talent.
The attempt at humor revolves around the fact that the hero Pootie (Lance Crouther) speaks abnormally. OK, that’s funny for the first 10 minutes.
But the next 65 minutes hold a painful expedition into the crappy nature of modern filmmaking.
In fact, the inability to understand the hero makes him even more difficult to care about. We don’t know him, don’t comprehend a word he says, and in the end, we don’t care what happens to him.
We just want out of the theater.
The plot centers around Pootie and his belt, a supposedly powerful tool that he got from his father (one of Chris Rock’s cameo roles) that allows him to be both a famous personality and a crime-fighter - a challenging dual-lifestyle. After all, it’s not every day that a person can record a hit album and then cruise the streets as a vigilante.
Pootie is presented as a wholesome role model who encourages kids to stay away from unhealthy food, booze and tobacco. Of course, this frustrates “corporate America,” as it is generalized in the film, and it’s decided that Pootie must be enlisted to endorse their products so that they can continue to rake in cash from kids.
So they steal Pootie’s belt and trick him into signing a contract, thereby ruining his image and sending him running from the city to a rural life.
It’s there that he realizes his abilities never came from the belt, but from himself, and he returns to save the day. Not the most original of ideas, and one that’s been done better by a million movies made for toddlers and sold at local cut-out bins.
The movie features a number of talented actors, but all of them are wasted. Rock himself plays several roles and proves to be the only entertaining part of the whole production.
Other notable personalities include Dave Attel, a talented comedian and writer, who plays one of corporate America’s goons, and David Cross from HBO’s “Mister Show,” who plays a stand-in Pootie after the real one leaves town.
Television talk-show host Conan O’Brien also makes an appearance as himself. Once again, the funny men are completely wasted on unfunny bit parts.
The movie stands as a testament to the horrible nature of one-joke films. Like many sketch comedy movies before it, “Pootie Tang” is unable to make the move from television to the movies without losing the humor of the original work.
While the movie is mercifully only 75 minutes long, it feels like an eternity and will make the audience beg their watches to speed up.
