HAV PLENTY A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1998 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *
HAV PLENTY, as we are told in the beginning and reminded during the film, is a true story. Life itself is a series of true stories, but most are not movie material.
As scripted, directed, and acted by cinematic newcomer Christopher Scott Cherot, HAV PLENTY limps along at best. Its dialog is so stilted - "You know what they say, 'No women; no cry.'" - that the actors are content to read the screenplay rather than invest much energy in trying to act it.
In the story, Lee Plenty (Cherot) is a 28-year-old author and teaching assistant. The movie, which happens mainly over the New Year's holiday, consists of a series of incidents in which various single and married women try to kiss Lee or take him to bed. Since he consistently refuses, Caroline Gooden (Tammi Katherine Jones) figures that he must be gay.
Eventually he and Havilland "Hav" Savage (Chenoa Maxwell) get together, proving that he wasn't gay after all, just picky. Sexy women can sit on his lap and ask him to go to bed with them, but he will not even kiss them. He's a man who knows his mind, which he frequently shares directly with the audience in a series of trite and overly cute monologues.
Filled with wealthy African-Americans, the story is closest in tone to LOVE JONES, which was better. HAV PLENTY's story doesn't go anywhere. At the end it subjects us to Lee Plenty's new film, which is a movie of the movie we've just seen, but with even worse acting.
"Remember folks that, as outrageous as this all seems, this is a true story." Hav tells the camera, but the problem is that it's not outrageous at all or even the least bit interesting. HAV PLENTY isn't so much a bad film as it is a total waste of the audience's time.
HAV PLENTY runs 1:32. It is rated R for profanity and would be fine for most teenagers.
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