Head of State is Chris Rock's directorial debut, and I'm happy to say he shows much promise. I expected his movie to be a fairly straightforward comedy, but was surprised to find out it has a life of its own, located somewhere near the gleeful goofiness of Wayne's World.

Rock probably has all these funny scenes and their timing played out perfectly in his head -- in other words, I wouldn't doubt for a second that he has an excellent vision of what kind of comedy he's trying to accomplish. And sometimes it comes out perfectly in the film, as in a very early scene depicting Rock's character, Mays Gilliam, driving home and grooving to rap music radio, only to be interrupted by an announcement about the sudden death of the Democratic presidential candidate. The news bite ends by saying, "We now return you to the Jay-Zee song, already in progress," and Mays continues to groove as if nothing had happened.

What Rock did wrong was to choose a story about the campaign of a black Presidential fall-guy candidate as his first movie. Frankly, the subject matter is burdened with too much potential -- such a satire requires teeth and claws. One would think, then, that the wickedly sharp Rock would be just the man for the job, but, unfortunately, his greenness as a director shows. Head of State, wacky jokes and all, turns out to be too softball. It goes for easy laughs when it should be going for blood.

Rock would have fared better had he taken a relatively insubstantial subject as his first project, thereby allowing him to get used to the water and become more confident while making something like Head of State. As it is, the movie waffles between trying to say something politically sensible to the "common people" -- and, in the process, deflate Washington -- and just trying to be funny. Most of the time, the movie's funniest bits don't have anything to do with how Mays as a candidate tries to appeal to the populace. One minute, we see Mays at the podium rallying an audience by referring to their income problems; the next minute, we get the throwaway gag of his ex-girlfriend begging to be taken back by him until security pulls her away like the hook would to a bad Vaudeville act.

Too bad, because the movie exhibits a lively spirit and boasts several funny parts. It also contains its share of jokes that just plain fall flat -- another sign that Rock could've used a starter project to refine his skills. Meanwhile, what political statements the movie makes are mostly frivolous and wishful, but even that would have been forgiveable if they had some kind of edge. They don't, so the whole affair -- comedy and politics -- comes across as lukewarm.

The movie Bowling for Columbine features an excerpt from a Chris Rock stand-up performance that is an example of the kind of stuff that's missing from Head of State. In that clip, Rock jokes that the U.S. could decrease the number of gun-related murders if the price of bullets were hiked up to a ridiculous degree -- something like a thousand dollars a bullet. Hands in the shape of a gun, he takes mock aim and says with a snarl, "You know, I would kill you... if I could afford it!" Head of State made me laugh in spots, but it's a shame that it doesn't have one line in it as painfully, truthfully funny to me as the one in that clip.

(Released by DreamWorks and rated "PG-13" for language, some sexuality and drug references.)

Review also posted at www.windowtothemovies.com.