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A black President of the United States not named Clinton? Sorry, but there are just too many Rednecks and biased little old white ladies out there to let that happen anytime soon. In fact, I hypothesize that there will be a female or someone of Hispanic descent in the Oval Office before we see an African-American at the pinnacle of power. And to borrow a phrase from Head of State, “that ain’t right!” In the film we have DC Alderman Mays Gilliam (Chris Rock, Bad Company) running his little ghetto ward. He just wants to help the people of his ward without any real desire to be a successful politician (i.e. play the games and suck-up). This makes him popular in his part of town, but not at home with the fiancé Kim (Robin Givens) or with other politicians. However, he becomes a local hero when he helps to save an old lady and her cat from their house as it is about to be blown-up by demolitionists. Unfortunately, this costs the city money and pisses off the mayor. At this point Kim leaves because she wants a famous political husband, the mayor looks to replace Mays for rocking the proverbial boat, and Mays gets his car repossessed. Just as things can’t get any worse, they don’t and Mays gets a limo ride to national party headquarters (they never say, but you must assume that it is the Republican Party). You see the Presidential election is about ten weeks away and the party’s candidate and running mate both just died in a freak mid-air collision with each other (I know, not a particularly believable scenario). This means they need a new candidate, but the obvious choice, Senator Bill Arnot (James Rebhorn, Meet the Parents), does not want the nomination because he would surely lose to the incumbent Vice President Lewis (Nick Searcy, One Hour Photo). Instead Arnot wants to get a candidate that will lose, but will allow himself (Arnot) to be positioned as the leading candidate in four years, plus he wants someone that will position the party demographically to then win that election. So he and his assistants Martin Geller (Dylan Baker, Road to Perdition) and Debra Lassiter (Lynn Whitfield, Stepmom) get Mays Gilliam to run, but never expect him to get many votes (they don’t tell him their true plan). Mays is skeptical at first, but eventually comes on board and starts campaigning. At first he makes lots of speeches (but always the same theme) in a lot of states, but fails to gain ground in the polls. Not until he visits Chicago and his big brother Mitch (Bernie Mac, Ocean's Eleven) does he finally start running things himself and then makes his campaign his own and makes it Black. This is also where most of the laughs kick-in, not to say that the first half of the movie was not funny, it is just that the second half is funnier. As to the story, the question becomes, can a brother get a vote? Besides being the main character, Chris Rock also makes his directorial debut with this movie. He also wrote it with the assistance of Ali LeRoi. Others of note in the film were Tamala Jones as Mays’ love interest, Keith David, Stephanie March as the super whore, Jude Ciccolella, Tracy Morgan, and Nate Dogg. Head of State is funny throughout, and at some points hilarious (such as the debate about arguing). The film is completely unbelievable, but that really is not important here. You can definitely tell Mr. Rock is new to directing, but the jokes make up for most of his directorial rough edges. Not an all-time great comedy, but still good enough to garner seven couches out of ten. Goodnight, Elvis has left the building.
Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:46:30 AM Click Here to get back into frames.
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