BarberShop 2

Starring Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Eve, Sean Patrick Thomas, Troy Garity, Michael Ealy, Leonard Earl Howze and Queen Latifah
Written by Don D. Scott
Based on the characters created by Mark Brown
Directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan
website: http://www.barbershop2.com

IN SHORT: yeah, well, here we go again. [Rated PG-13 for language, sexual material and brief drug references. 97 minutes]

To save you the time of looking up our review of the first BarberShop movie, we will quote the only line that applies to its sequel: "Once Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer) shuts up, BarberShop takes off like a rocket." Then, given the demographics of our audience we pushed it as a rental since the film was being hard marketed to the black audience (and that usually keeps white audiences away). BarberShop was too funny for that and managed to cross the color barrier. It was a good thing. It was also Ice Cube's movie, with more supporting characters than you could shake a stick at. That was also a good thing, considering what we're about to say about BarberShop 2.

BarberShop 2 pushes Cube to the background since the "I don't want to be a barber" bit was run to ground in movie number one. It isn't much use for anything other than a subplot in number two, which it is. BarberShop 2 puts its emphasis on Cedric the Entertainer's character, Eddie. We didn't like Eddie in the first one and now it's even worse because, with his character's elevation to main mouth status, we couldn't understand a word coming out of Eddie's mouth. No check that. We did get the bit where Eddie says he's been in Chicago's South Side for thirty years. Wait, no, that can't be right since the script flashes his character back to the riots of 1967.

Of course, we couldn't understand a word Eddie says, so maybe he's been working at the barbershop for thirty years . . . except that the 1967 flashback has Cedric working at the joint as a novice chopper. That's if we followed the flashback continuity correctly, because (everybody say it along with Cranky) . . .

We couldn't understand a word yadda yadda yadda. Those continuity question pretty much point out that this sequel is a flat out grab for some quick sequel bucks, else someone would have noticed the blatant time shift. Suits get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay attention to such stuff and nonsense. Critics get underpaid to gripe, by comparison.

Still, we really liked the first one, by comparison. We very much liked the addition of singer Queen Latifah to the cast, as the salon owner next door. That's a distinction that will become apparent to those who only grew up with unisex cutters when Latifah gets her own spin-off, which is inevitable (and it's also in the production notes). Cedric's headlining role desperately needs subtitles. We can't review what we couldn't understand. You're on your own, folks.

	Click to buy films by Queen Latifah
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	Click to buy films starring Cedric the Entertainer

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