Woo was released in May of 1998, near the end after Titanic hit it's stride of making more than a billion dollars worldwide at the box office and winning the top Academy Awards of that year. Well 1998 was a memorable year for me, and Woo was apart of it. Woo was far from earning any of the money and awards Titanic did, but it also had major competition of other block busters such as Godzilla.To digress, I saw Woo back in theaters then and thought it was a reasonable romantic comedy. Jada Pinkett Smith was good as the sassy and sexy party girl who tries to seduce and date a straighted headed young lawyer (Tommy Davidson). I later re-discovered Woo on video a few years later and realized that it was indeed quite a dull comedy with little laughs, but the talent and directing and plot sorta kept it going. With Duane Martin and cameos by LL Cool J, Woo was nothing too special but at least viewed for the fans of Tommy Davidson and Jada Pinkett Smith.On another note, Woo does have a good rather hip rap song 'Nobody Does it Better' performed by Warren G and Nate Dogg. Awesome song.

The film is set among New York's black community; all the main characters are black, with white actors seen only in minor roles. (Is this revenge for the way in which Hollywood used to discriminate against black actors?) The title character Woo (this is presumably a nickname although we never get to find out her real name) is a beautiful young woman who is having difficulties in her love-life, and accepts a blind date with a young man named Tim, largely because he is a Virgo. (Her astrologer has told her that she is fated to find romance with someone of that particular star sign).This is an example of that classical romantic comedy plot, love blossoming between two people of different temperaments. The shy, diffident Tim, a law clerk, is having even more difficulties with his love-life than is Woo; he lacks a social life to such an extent that his friends nickname him Macaulay Culkin (because he's always home alone). Woo, by contrast, is an outgoing, extrovert party animal, and is keen to take Tim out for a night on the town. As this is a romantic comedy, we know that there will be a happy ending; the interest of such films lies in the route taken to reach such an ending. Unfortunately, in this case the route taken is an uninteresting one. We quickly realise just why Woo, despite her physical beauty, has not had great success with men; the woman is spoilt, wilful and a prize bitch, the sort of person who (in one of the film's most manic scenes) wrecks an Italian restaurant after a trivial quarrel with a waiter. It hardly seems credible that Tim would tolerate such an annoying and unlikeable character, let alone conclude that she was the love of his life. He is evidently even more frustrated than we realise. I am not sure whether the problems with Woo's character are the fault of the scriptwriter or of the actress, Jada Pinkett Smith. Probably a mixture of both.The film has been criticised for allegedly perpetuating stereotypical images of young black males. The character of Tim, in fact, seems to have been designed to get as far away from these stereotypes as possible- he is quiet, middle-class and lacking in self-confidence, especially where women are concerned. The other male characters, however, are written in a stereotypical way, presumably deliberately so in order to accentuate the contrast with the untypical Tim. They are loud, outgoing and streetwise, sexist in their attitudes towards women and prejudiced towards gays. These characters did, however, provide some of the more amusing scenes, which mostly had little to do with the main plot, like the scene in the gay bar where one of the men mistakes transvestites for real women (an old joke, going back at least to "Crocodile Dundee"), or the "Chickie Ho" scene where a man makes his girlfriend dress up as a chicken while making love. (She, unfortunately, is allergic to the feathers and can't stop sneezing). Unfortunately, amusement is in short supply, and the film as a whole makes for pretty dull viewing, a sort of romantic comedy version of those old blaxploitation action films from the seventies. 4/10

"Woo" is about a woman (named, of all things, Woo!) who goes on a blind date with a guy who hasn't been with a woman in a long time. Woo has been through a lot with men and gets the feeling this new guy just wants one thing, so she leads him on a series of late-night adventures a la Scorsese's "After Hours." This movie is L-A-M-E lame. It's packed with all sorts of awful dialogue, poor performances, racial stereotypes (including the big fat black woman who waves her finger at everyone and finishes every sentence with the word "girlfriend") and so on and so forth.Nowadays it's best remembered for starring Jada Pinkett (Smith), wife of Will Smith. Her performance isn't that good and it's hard to believe they based an entire movie -- including the TITLE! -- on her character.Overall this is poor, stupid, (intellectually) offensive and insulting, clichéd, stereotypical and worse than all that: uninteresting! It's not entertaining, it's not funny, it's just dumb and annoying.Not even worth watching on TV.

I had the displeasure of seeing this movie last night. It was on one of the HBOs and it was one of those movies that is so bad, you can't stop watching. Afterwards, you just think to yourself, "why the hell did I just sit and watch that awful, awful movie???" Please don't waste your time with this. There are only a few memorable, funny lines, but I don't even remember them. My mind is so clouded with how bad this was. You'd think Will Smith could get his wife a decent part with how powerful he's become in Hollywood.