Coming Soon

Sprung

Rusty Cundieff's compulsively engaging, surprisingly sweet follow-up to Fear of a Black Hat disappeared almost immediately upon its no-soundtrack-tie-in release. Shame, as Sprung is a really good movie -- but then, any movie in which Friday's John Witherspoon orders a police lineup to grab their nuts must be. In Fear, Cundieff played Ice Cold, the "political conscience" of Niggaz With Hats, and here he stars as Montell, the easygoing, dreadlocked photographer who gets gaga over ("sprung" on) Tisha Campbell's straitlaced but vulnerable legal aide Brandy. But it's the pas de deux between second leads Joe Torry and Paula Jai Parker early on that puts the mattress springs in Sprung. Torry is Clyde, the self-styled "mu-fuckin' mack of the millennium," to Parker's Adina, whose skimpy wardrobe and unflagging pursuit of deep pockets sets some sort of hoochie archetype. Clyde spies Adina's periwinkle vinyl micromini, flashes his borrowed Porsche keys, and lets his bogus ATM receipt slip conveniently to the floor while he goes for punch. She locks in on the big-figure balance and both jaw and thong hit the floor. Clyde details how he'd like to lick Cristal "from every inch of your body." "You nasty," Adina coos. "I like that." Lots of grunting and exclamations like "Home run!" and "this the best punanny yo' ass ever had" follow, interrupted only when Clyde comes within a hair of yanking off Adina's wig (or her "good hair.") Soon enough, Adina realizes that Clyde is way more JC Penney than Armani, dumps a bucket of water on him, and the movie shifts back to Montell and Brandy. But down to the wildly overmixed bongos in the background, Clyde and Adina doing the nasty had me howling louder than maybe even Caddyshack. Besides, we could always use a few more movies that aren't afraid of the word "punanny."