Chris Rock’s all grown up now! After thankless roles in movieslike “Lethal Weapon 3” and “Dogma,” his talent’s been given room toexpand and shine in last year’s “Bad Company” and this lastspring’s sleeper, “Head of State.”

He plays Mays Gilliam, alderman in a South Central-likeneighborhood of Washington D.C. He says things are so bad, you canget shot while you’re getting shot.

The 2004 presidential election is at hand, and thanks to thedie-hard cell phone usage of one candidate, his plane went down ina fiery crash. So who’s gonna run?

Mays gets tapped to be the new candidate of an unnamedparty, and he gives the administration and the country at large arun for their money. He campaigns at pimp and hooker balls, admitsto smokin’ da’ chronic and brings his big brother, bail bondsmanMitch (Bernie Mac of “The Bernie Mac Show”), on board as hisrunning mate.

There hasn’t been a satire this sharp and easy-to-swallow in adecade or so. Really. Because while comic minds have been at workin the time since the Zucker brothers reigned with the likes of”Airplane!,” none have hit the nail hard, and specifically that ofpolitics, as Rock has.

He co-wrote, produced, directed and starred in this rolling ballof energy that no average American should participate in a futureelection without seeing. It’s a good lampoon executed with such anaudience in mind. No talking down, nothing too wordy, just a sendup of what’s obviously wrong about politics.

The DVD is quite the catch, with a running commentary byRock that’s almost as fun to hear as the movie itself is. Afeaturette goes modestly into the development of the film, but thedeleted scenes are also a bit above average (seems to be a thingwith the Dreamworks studio, nice touch!).

Fans of the film must run, not walk, to pick this title up. It’scertainly not Chris Rock at his best, but it is Chris at his mostaccessible. The film proves the man is on his way to bigger andbetter things.