TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

zardoz-13 Ice Cube and Cedric the Entertainer headline an all-star cast of characters in "Friday" director Tim Story's enjoyable African-American comedy "Barbershop" about the ups and downs of running a hair cutting salon in Chicago. Calvin Palmer (Ice Cube of "xXx: State of the Union") inherited the barbershop from his father who had established it back in 1958 and survived the Chicago riots intact unlike all the other surrounding businesses. If you want to know about the history of Calvin's barbershop, you have to watch "Barbershop 2: Back in Business." Meantime, this origins epic establishes Ice Cube's character. Apparently, he didn't see himself as a barber and he blames his father for being too free and easy with his customers and running the business down. In reality, Calvin learns from his wife Jennifer (Jazsmin Lewis of "Deliver Us from Eva") that he is principally responsible for driving them into debt with his hare-brained schemes, particularly opening a recording studio. Naturally, Calvin sees things completely different and he makes a big mistake when he sells out to the local loan shark, Lester Wallace (Keith David of "Cloud Atlas"), for $20 grand because he cannot afford to pay the bank. Calvin realizes the enormity of the deal that he has cut with the devil when he understands how much the barbershop plays in the life of the community. Unfortunately, when he tries to give Wallace back his money, Wallace informs him that he has until 7 pm to pay up an additional $20 grand if he wants to own the place himself. While Calvin and his fellow barbers are weathering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, two crazy thieves smash a pick-up backwards into a grocery store across the street and drag off an ATM machine. J.D. (Anthony Anderson of "Exit Wounds") and Billy (Lahmard J. Tate of "Jason's Lyric") are two numb skull thugs who take the ATM and dream about the $50-thousand dollars that they will find in the ATM. The misadventures of J.D. and Billy as they struggle to crack open the ATM alternate with Calvin's woes. The dialogue between the barbers in the barbershop provides most of the laughs while Lester Wallace's lethal loan shark constitutes the film's chief villain. Everything works out in the end for Calvin and company. One interesting subplot concerns a white barber with an African-American woman and a vehicle. Isaac Rosenberg (Troy Garity of "Bandits") is the white barber who argues that he is blacker than some of his co-workers. Eventually, Isaac fits in with the other barbers. "Barbershop" qualifies as an amusing comedy, and some of Cedric the Entertainer's dialogue, especially his rants about African-American Civil Rights sensations sounds politically incorrect. The characters are individualized. Tim Story doesn't wear out his welcome with the antics of the protagonists, and "Barbershop" is a good comedy.

RustyShacklefordd Barbershop is one of those films that you try hard to like because there are some really good things about it. The cast puts in good work and the chemistry between actors is strong, there are some funny moments, it gets the urban atmosphere down, and it even has a good amount of heart and a nice message about community. But with "A Day in a Life" film, there needs to be something fresh or at least a strong connection between the intertwining subplots. This is where Barbershop falls short. The subplots in the film are not only weak, but feel as if they could have been apart of any other movie. The whole film also feels rather like watching several episodes of a television sitcom cut together instead of an actual movie and it really is felt by pushing the runtime beyond 90 minutes. While there are funny moments in the film, most of them never go beyond a chuckle and there are a handful of cringe-worthy moments as well. The moments when the film truly shines are when the entire cast is in the same room playing off one another. Just seeing all the areas where Barbershop shines makes it all the more frustrating to see it's potential be wasted on a lame story and messy script. It has it's moments, but it's a overall a mediocre dramedy that doesn't have enough of a cut.

Steve Pulaski After digging through Ice Cube's filmography and finding some mediocre films like All About the Benjamins and Janky Promoters I finally found a gem shining out from the pile. Barbershop is to smart to have its characters fall into an endless pit of clichés. It knows that somewhere these characters exist and they give them a sense of individuality. They are being themselves, not who they should be. And not what movies expect them to be.Barbershop takes place all in one normal work day. Calvin (Cube) runs the barbershop that was once occupied by his father and grandfather. Calvin gets by working there, but isn't as into cutting hair as his former generations. Desperate to try and get his record company on its feet, he sells the shop to a shady loanshark named Lester (David). Regretting his deal, he tries to undue the damage and call of the negotiation but Lester refuses.The other subplot is two bumbling thieves (Anderson and Tate) steal an ATM machine and spend the whole film trying to get inside to the money. Their antics are idiotic and sometimes humorous, but ultimately, these two subplots make the film a little less enjoyable.When I look back on Barbershop, I will remember very funny dialog, realistic characters, and an enjoyable setting. I will not remember the loan shark or the idiot thieves. If the whole movie would've been set in a barbershop with these characters I would've loved it even more. The screenwriter and the director probably figured it would be "too boring." But with these characters it probably wouldn't.The rating seems to hold back the film as well. A PG-13 rating on any comedy movie holds it back from being, not necessarily funny, but daring. Some comedies, like Just Married for example, could've been better if they would've gone further and not watered their material down. Barbershop doesn't water it down too much, but you can tell at times the characters are holding back their true feelings.The employees at the barbershop are some of the funniest and cheeriest of people you'll ever meet. We have Ricky, a felon, Jimmy, a College graduate looking to make more out of his alive, Terri, a hostile women with a passion and devotion for apple juice, Issac, the token white barber who says he is just as black as the other employees in the shop, Dinka, the Nigerian barber with a love for poetry and harbors a crush on Terri, and my personal favorite, the sixty year old veteran barber Eddie who seems to be on a continuous break.These characters have their own place and purpose, and each are as welcomed as the next. Barbershop has enough passion and soul to be labeled a drama or even realistic fiction. It's a comedy, but not always. I feel that if the two subplots were removed the tonality would completely change and we would have a bunch of people doing what they do best; talking and cutting hair. It's more than a barbershop, it's a constant social hour amongst employees and customers.Starring: Ice Cube, Anthony Anderson, Sean Patrick Thomas, Eve, Michael Ealy, Troy Garity, Leonard Earl Howze, Keith David, Lahmard Tate, DeRay Davis, and Cedric the Entertainer. Directed by: Tim Story.

vchimpanzee While this was supposed to be about Calvin's barber shop, I enjoyed the misadventures of J. D. and Billy and the stolen ATM, which became relevant only toward the end of the movie. As for what took place in the barber shop itself, I enjoyed those scenes only part of the time.I thought Cedric the Entertainer did a great job, not only with comic lines but also in a couple of dramatic scenes. Of course some of what he said was offensive, but it was probably realistic. I say 'probably' since I'm white and don't really know the culture.One well-done scene involved Isaac, the one white barber, and one of the black barbers who had a racist attitude. And another one of the best scenes involved an angry woman, a baseball bat, and a car.I liked Dinka, who was from Africa. How could anyone not like him? Well, apparently in black culture, in addition to light-skinned blacks being prejudiced against dark-skinned and vice versa, there are some American blacks who are prejudiced against African immigrants. At least that was the case in this movie. Some really harsh comments.Ice Cube did a good job. I think most of the actors did. There were some characters I didn't like and that may have clouded my opinion of the acting performances, but overall a lot of talent was shown here.