It looks like writer-director Rick Famuyiwa started a popular trend with his marriage-jitters comedy about three friends who reminisce about their lives together as one prepares to leave the group when he gets married. Everyone who rushed to see The Best Man should catch this sleeper which also stars Taye Diggs (as Roland, the reluctant groom), as well as Omar Epps and Richard T. Jones, who together provide charming, cheerful performances full of warmth and humor. This buddy story is told through flashbacks to 1986, when the three met at public school. The young men gain our affection in their competition to win the most girls, which enhances the bond of loyalty we see in them as men on the eve of Roland's wedding. The casting of the boy actors is almost spooky in its perfection, especially Sean Nelson (who had already proven his acting acumen in American Buffalo) as the younger version of Epps. Although the cast is African American, there's no color bar to the themes or entertainment the movie offers, providing a salient lesson to network TV producers under attack by the NAACP for their inability to include characters of color in TV shows. Instead of stereotyping the characters by placing them in "the hood," where gang members and tragedy rule, this life-affirming comedy depicts the lives of members of "the wood," which refers to Inglewood, a middle-class suburb of L.A. that general audiences will find easy to relate to. --Lloyd Chesley
(7 votes)
2.
From boyhood to manhood, you can always count on your best friends.
Lots of guys have second thoughts about marriage. Three hours before his wedding, Roland (Taye Diggs) is having third, fourth and fifth thoughts. Good thing he's got best buddies Slim (Richard T. Jones) and Mike (Omar Epps) around to help sort those feelings out - and to remember their coming-of-age days in the "The Wood" (Inglewood, California). From the big dance to first love, the rites of passage that are part of everyone's growing up are winningly chronicled in this unforgettable tale of laughs and friendship that's set to the most memorable musical grooves of the '80s.
(6 votes)
3.
A mere three hours before he's scheduled to walk down the aisle, Roland (Taye Diggs--the man who helped Stella reclaim her groove) gets cold feet. Now it's up to his best buddies Slim (Richard T. Jones) and Mike (Omar Epps) to ease his pre-nuptial jitters and get him to the church on time--a task that inspires a trip down memory lane to their coming-of-age days in "The Wood" (Inglewood, California) during the 1980s.
(5 votes)
Mooviees.com is not the official site for this film.
All editorial views and opinions expressed here are for entertainment purposes only.
<>
Movie Database
In Theaters
