to begin with , i certainly felt out of place sitting in the audience at the wood , a movie that not only is good , but will pleasantly surprise you . not only is there not one caucasian cast member , ( not even in a cameo ) i was also part of the minority of the five white people sitting in my auditorium . slim , ( richard t . jones ) roland , ( taye diggs ) and mike ( omar epps ) are all gathered at a wedding that roland is supposed to be at . he's at an old girlfriend's house , drunk as ever , having second thoughts about giving up his old wild lifestyle to settle down with one woman . this begins a whole set of flashbacks that are intervened nicely from the 80s to present day . while it's not quite plausible how the flashbacks begin , it's a cute way to make a movie , and they pull it to it's fullest extent . young mike ( nelson , who steals the show ) has just moved from north carolina and has his eyes set on alicia ( malinda williams ) while his buddies try to rack up telephone numbers . despite the fact that alicia's brother ( de'aundre bonds ) is an abusive gang member . amazingly , it manages to do this without too many racial stereotypes . another nice thing about the wood is that you feel like your a part of the movie . in beginning sequences mike talks right into the camera and acknowledges that we are there , watching everything that's happening to the characters . while this isn't anything original or inventive , it does add a nice touch . it also has several gags that seem taken right out of a toned down american pie , so for that , and the fact that i was taken aback by how good it was . the wood earns my * * * stars . 
