Like a good barber, Barbershop 2: Back in Business knows just what to do when you ease into the chair.
By STEVE PERSALL
Published February 5, 2004
[Photo: MGM Pictures]
Gina (Queen Latifah) gives Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer, left) a piece of her mind in Barbershop 2: Back in Business. Cedric’s brash humor and style make this movie, for the first hour anyway. Ice Cube, right, plays Calvin, the barbershop’s owner.
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The sequel to the surprise 2002 hit Barbershop picks up where that movie ticked off some people, with grumpy old Eddie, played by the irrepressible Cedric the Entertainer, giving his politically incorrect opinions about biracial celebrities like Tiger Woods, Mariah Carey and Vin Diesel, and why the D.C. sniper should be considered the Jackie Robinson of crime. "He broke into the white leagues" of insanity, Eddie declares.
Barbershop 2: Back in Business, like Eddie, knows what its customers like and doesn't care much about what they don't. Most of all, director Kevin Rodney Sullivan and screenwriter Don D. Scott know Cedric's character was beloved by audiences - well, except for the NAACP, Rosa Parks and Jesse Jackson - and nearly built the entire sequel around him.
We learn how Eddie ran into a Chicago barbershop and never really left, why he isn't charged a fee to do business like the other barbers and the kind of women who take the wind out of his bluster. Sullivan stages these flashback sequences in various stylized color schemes more arty than anyone might expect, giving Cedric free range to steal another movie.
Thematically, Barbershop 2 isn't very different from the first movie. Calvin Palmer Jr. (Ice Cube) faces another decision to sell out his property and principles to a shady developer (Harry Lennix) revitalizing the neighborhood. That means making it whiter, with upscale java spots plus a Nappy Cutz franchise across the street from the clip joint Calvin inherited from his father.
Most of his employees return for the sequel, some with more to do: Isaac (Troy Garity) is the white barber with Eminem's crossover appeal. Terri (Eve) is still as sexy as she is feisty, still an object of affection for several co-workers and customers. Dinka (Leonard Earl Howze) remains a sweet lug. Ricky (Michael Ealy) is making something better of himself, but nobody notices because of his reputation as a player.
The most notable additions to the crew are Queen Latifah as Gina, renting space from Calvin to operate a salon (a trailer for her upcoming movie about the character, Beauty Shop, is attached to Barbershop 2), and Saturday Night Live's Kenan Thompson as Calvin's in-law expecting a job.
Barbershop 2: Back in Business is brash fun when Calvin's shop is the social hub of the neighborhood, with a variety of citizens popping in and out for snaps or fades. Ice Cube confidently plays straight man to the crazies, striking a streetwise nobility when the chips are down.
But the movie belongs to Cedric the Entertainer, whose brazen attitude never wears thin. The rest of the movie is good fun for an hour, loses its focus in the second act and flounders for much of the third. Sullivan recovers with a feel-good message about loyalty and community, leaving us with a feeling that a third visit with these folks wouldn't be a bad idea.
Barbershop 2: Back in Business
Grade: B-
Director: Kevin Rodney Sullivan
Cast: Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Eve, Troy Garity, Sean Patrick Thomas, Michael Ealy, Queen Latifah
Screenplay: Don D. Scott
Rating: PG-13; profanity, sexual material, drug references
