The Wood

I really liked this movie, and I think many teens and adults, particularily African-Americans will like this movie. All those young adults who grew up will really like this movie, too.

I thought it was excellent, and many parts made me laugh so hard I cried. All the actors did a very good job, too.

When I saw this I thought "I hope this movie can relate to me and not insult me at all!", and I was clearly wrong. This movie related to me a whole lot! Just because I'm white doesn't mean I can't relate to this. I did in more ways then one! I know how it feels to be left out like some of the characters and growing up is a fact of life and I liked the way they show their friendship growing by day. Taye Diggs was wonderful as the groom who was having doubts, I liked his character a lot. I also loved the flashbacks throughout most of the movie, it was interesting and I also loved the way you knew a flashback was about to occur was when the record player would start with a different record each time. I think everyone will relate to this movie~ white, black, asian, or pink! Everyone needs to see this!

The Wood has not received very much attention and PR that many of the other movies have, but it should.

The movie is about three best friends who grew up in Inglewood California (hence the title - The Wood). The movie actually takes place on the wedding day of one of the friends and two hours before the ceremony, the groom is a no-show. The other two friends manage to track him down and proceed to bring him back.

As they bring the groom back to the wedding, the three begin to discuss old times and throughout the movie, flashback is used to show these experiences. Younger actors are used to depict the current friends and their past experiences are shown to the audience. The acting by all the characters is superb and the flashback technique is used beautifully.

The movie shows the relationships develop over the years through the eyes of one of the characters (Michael) and the humor is sprinkled throughout the movie in well placed and well timed deliveries. This is a very endearing movie that everyone should see but unfortunately, in a summer of either blockbuster or toilet humor movies, this one may get overlooked. For anyone who gets a chance, see this movie. Overall rating 9/10.

This is the type of film that you can just sit back and enjoy. The male leads(Diggs, Epps and Jones) have chemistry as well as their young counterparts. The plot is simple and easy to follow. Roland(Diggs) is about to get married, but chickens out and goes over an old girlfriends house instead.Then Mike(Epps) and Slim(Jones) are sent over there to go get him before the wedding. While getting him sobered up, Mike reminisced on when they first met. This movie is better than movies of the same theme(The Best Man, The Brothers, etc.) because the male leads are more likable and less one dimensional, although Rolands reasons for not wanting to get married aren't explained enough. Also, the girl that plays young Alicia is way too old for the role.

Bottom line, the narrative by Epps is good and it's not riddled with stereotypes. Also, the 80's soundtrack is great and this is an entertaining movie. 7/10

It is nice to see movies that deal with the African-American experience outside of gangsters and violence. However, this movie fails to take off and manifest itself as a really good coming of age story. The leads are well cast and do good in their parts, but the script and the way it is handled is pedestrian at best. 6/10.