Chris Rock was drawn to his latest project, I Think I Love My Wife, after spotting a risqué DVD cover of a 1972 French film.

“I was at Tower Records, and I saw the movie Chloe in the Afternoon,” he said. “It had a naked girl on the cover, so I picked it up.”

Rock stars in and directs I Think I Love My Wife, which focuses on a married man’s battle between staying faithful to his wife and indulging in an affair with a friend’s old flame. In an interview in downtown Chicago, Rock called it a more humorous remake of Chloe in the Afternoon.

The comedian’s second effort at directing, involved having a good time and “just shooting jokes,” he said, outshines his 2003 directorial debut, Head of State.

“This movie is better than the last one,” he said. “I’ve improved a lot as a director.”

Rock said the film was influenced by a lot of real life.

“Everything [about marriage] is true,” he said. “It’s a composite of, like, ten married guys I know.”

College students should also be able enjoy his latest film, Rock said, because it involves problems many of them can relate to.

“I just hope the kids come out and see my movie, [which] deals with relationships, something college students have to deal with,” he said. “There is a lot of comedy in this movie, even though they may ask ‘why isn’t anybody fucking a pie?’”

When it comes to acting versus directing, Rock said he enjoys the role of the actor more than the director’s chair, even though he said he wants to direct more films after I Think I Love My Wife, perhaps even fulfill his Hollywood dream of working with big names like Steven Spielberg or Hillary Swank.

“I want to work with all the people I have no fucking chance of working with,” Rock said.

His post-promotion plans for I Think I Love My Wife include a stand-up tour, and maybe something even crazier.

“Maybe I’ll run for president,” he said, laughing.

My take on I Think I Love My Wife:

Chris Rock’s second directorial attempt has a dilemma deciding whether it wants to be a family drama or a wacky comedy. I Think I Love My Wife, a film focusing on a middle-aged, married man’s temptation of sleeping with a female from his past, works best when it doesn’t mix drama with comedy, and picks and sticks with one style for an extended set of time (a longer sequence revolving around Viagra excluded). But Rock’s film jumps too frequently between the two genres, never settling on one, muddling down the overall feature as a result. The flick also features one of the most mind-boggling ending sequences in recent film history, so out of place it almost derails the entire effort. I Think I Love My Wife is a solid second movie directed by Rock with some truly enjoyable moments, but overall it’s a confused feature unsure of what it wants to be and experiments a little too much. Call it a good effort.