Pootie Tang

Lance Crouther plays Pootie Tang, a running character on Chris Rock’s cable TV show, an African-American folk hero who speaks a jive argot so cool and laid-back nobody can understand a word he says. It’s an idea that might be fun in a skit for, oh, several seconds, and there are one or two limp chuckles here. But mostly it’s shoddy, amateurish and cheap-looking. Writer/director Louis C.K. can’t whip up enough laughs, or even enough of a story, to fill out the film’s paltry 79-minute running time. Chris Rock himself shows up in a couple of scenes, playing Pootie’s father, who died in Pootie’s childhood after being mauled by a gorilla in the factory where he worked. Later, Daddy Tang reappears reincarnated as an enormous ear of corn, while Mama Tang comes back as a cow. It’s that kind of movie.