Beauty Shop

Beauty Shop (Director: Bille Woodruff)

Woodruff started out as a video director and went on to direct the Jessica Alba dancing opus Honey. This is a spinoff of the Barbershop franchise.

Here's a comedy with a couple of laughs, but major problems in trying to become a classic. The original Barbershop derived most of its laughs from Cedric the Entertainer, with great riffs on sacred subjects like Rosa Parks and Jesse Jackson. Then the sequel turned away from the taboo talk, and I think the premise lost its voice. The sequel also introduced us to Gina (Queen Latifah) who in this incarnation has moved from Chicago to Atlanta to try to make something of her life. Gina is sort of the female Eddie (Cedric), although not nearly as subversive.

With Gina taking the place of Ice Cube's Calvin in the narrative, who plays the "Eddie" character? The closest is a radio DJ spouting out some occasional you-go-girl material. After that, there's really no voice. What do women say, what is off-limits anywhere else but a beauty shop? You get a couple of innuendoes here and there, but nothing that ever builds any steam. Nothing where you spend your time on the floor because laughing takes hold. There's a fine cast here, with Latifah, Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou, who plays Latifah's love interest Joe, the smokin' Alicia Silverstone, who plays ultra-Southern token white chick Lynn, and Kevin Bacon plays Latifah's former employer and requisite antagonist Jorge in a Euro-trash performance. There's small roles filled by Andie MacDowell, Mena Suvari (who out of nowhere becomes a complete bitch and brings the movie way down), Bryce Wilson, Sherri Shepherd, Golden Preston, and Alfre Woodard. And man, has Rudy Huxtable ever grown up. Keisha Knight Pulliam, former Cosby kid and nearing 26 years old...boy is she a knockout.

The movie, like stated previously, just doesn't have the spirit of the original. Give me a whole bunch of women talking about some issues, cutting hair, maybe some inner-shop stories anyday, but don't give me Kevin Bacon trying to shut down the store, or Mena Suvari helping Latifah sell her own personal hair products only to take it away because she feels slighted later on...it's the inside of the shop that's the meat, and it becomes side chatter. You could have had, like, a black "Sex and the City" or something with this--that would have been a great selling point.