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Nothing a trim wouldn't fix
[Photo: MGM Pictures]
Cedric the Entertainer, far left, shaves a customer in Barbershop as, left to right, Michael Ealy, Troy Garity and Leonard Howze look on. |
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 12, 2002
Barbershop has its shaggy sections, but overall it's a crossover comedy filled with fun characters and scene stealers.
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Just down the cinematic street from Car Wash is Barbershop, an ensemble comedy brimming with clumsy vitality and a decidedly African-American vibe. Director Tim Story's movie operates in the same fashion as Michael Schultz's 1976 hit, keeping it real with crossover appeal.
Barbershop reflects a growing sense of responsibility to black culture that so many comedies ignore. Ice Cube, the hub of this ensemble, has produced and starred in a few of those comedies, from the Friday series to All About the Benjamins, in which drugs, crime, sex and sociological alibis forged a dubious bond with some viewers and turned off others.
Each of those factors plays into Barbershop to an extent but always with some counterbalance suggesting it's cool to be African-American and still have virtue, dreams and community pride. Cube, who also produced this film, focuses his skill as a backstage player and onscreen personality on a rowdy scenario tinged with sweetness.
Like Car Wash, Barbershop occurs in one eventful day for the employees, customers and passers-by of an inner-city establishment. Cube plays Calvin, who inherited the barbershop from his father, carrying on more for respect than the shop's meager profits. He dreams of building a home modeled on Oprah's guest house for his pregnant wife (Jazsmin Lewis) and future son.
The fastest, but not easiest, way to build the house is to sell out to a slick neighborhood fixer, Lester Wallace (David Keith), who'll replace the community hub with a gentleman's club. Calvin makes the deal without informing his employees or patrons but changes his mind as the day progresses. His efforts to cancel the sale are one of perhaps too many subplots in a screenplay that's more funny talk than action.
Each of Calvin's employees has something on the line today: Terri (pop singer Eve), the lone woman in this male-oriented miniworld, has been played once too often by her boyfriend. Dinka (Leonard Howze) is a gentle West African transplant with a crush on Terri. Jimmy (Sean Patrick Thomas) shows off his education, a tool he still doesn't know how to use in building a future, a bit too much for everyone's comfort. Isaac (Troy Garity) is a white fly-guy whom nobody will trust with clippers. Ricky (Michael Ealy) is a twice-convicted criminal going straight, but the cops don't believe him, especially after a smash-and-grab theft of an ATM down the street. The crime was committed by his cousin JD (Anthony Anderson) and bumbling Billy (Lahmard Tate), who can't figure out how to hide or open that treasure chest.
And then there's Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer), a mush-mouthed 40-year veteran barber who mostly dishes out hilariously crude "wisdom" these days. His culturally blasphemous takes on reparations, Rosa Parks and Jesse Jackson are comic bombshells defying those monolithic expectations other African-American comedies inspire. Cedric steals scenes just by being there, which is not easy with such appealing actors working around him.
Barbershop is like a haircut that starts out shaggy, suffers some unattractive patches, then gets cleaned up with a few professional tricks by the end of the visit. It could still use a few trims, but you don't mind showing it off.
Barbershop
- Grade: B
- Director: Tim Story
- Cast: Ice Cube, Eve, Cedric the Entertainer, Sean Patrick Thomas, Anthony Anderson, Keith David, Michael Ealy, Troy Garity, Lahmard Tate, Leonard Howze
- Screenplay: Mark Brown, Don D. Scott, Marshall Todd
- Rating: PG-13; profanity, sexual situations
- Running time: 102 min.
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