Pootie Tang
Next Level Films

Adapted from a sketch on the short-lived Chris Rock Show (1997-2000), Pootie Tang, is a botched masterpiece—a postmodern riff on the blaxploitation films of the 1970s about a slick, virtuosic superhero who is—and remains—“too cool for words.” Showcasing the remarkable acting chops of Truckie, Bad Bitty, Dirty Dee, Lacey, J.B., Biggie Shorty, and Robert Vaughn, the film follows our titular hero as he takes on Dick Lecter, the president of Corporate America, with nothing but a belt (yes, as in the object that one would use to hold up a pair of pants) and right on his side to, I kid you not, stop them from selling cigarettes and malt liquor to children. But there is something that Daddy Tang forgot to mention to young Pootie…

“Pootie Tang is not bad so much as inexplicable. You watch in puzzlement: How did this train wreck happen? How was this movie assembled out of such ill-fitting pieces? Who thought it was funny? Who thought it was finished? For that matter, was it finished? […] It’s like one of those lab experiments where the room smells like swamp gas and all the mice are dead.” – Roger Ebert