BARBERSHOP: THE NEXT CUT – Review

This film franchise zeros in on something that many small towns and big cities (really the neighborhoods in said cities) share: mainly a place where everyone seems to gather. Some place aside from the obvious schools, city halls, and churches (or synagogues). It’s actually a business. There’s a popular corner diner, maybe a bar or pub, perhaps a locally owned clothing store. Well, for this neighborhood in the south side of Chicago it’s the hair salon known to moviegoers thanks to 2002’s BARBERSHOP. That modest little “slice of life” flick was popular that it inspired a sequel two years later (BARBERSHOP 2: BACK IN BUSINESS). The following year saw a spin-off (BEAUTY SHOP) and a TV series on premium cable channel Showtime. The scissors and shavers have been silenced for almost a dozen years, but now movie goers have another appointment with Calvin and his crew for BARBERSHOP: THE NEXT CUT.

There have been lots of changes at Calvin’s (Ice Cube) Barbershop over the last twelve years. Sure, many of the hair stylists are still there. Jerrod (Lamorne Morris) and Raja (Utkarsh Ambudkar) are snipping at each other while old-timer Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer) offers unsolicited advice to all. One new addition is Rashad (Common) the eloquent hubby of the enterprising Terri (Eve), a much in demand hair artiste’. She’s part of the other big change at Calvin’s. The shop is now co-ed with a beauty parlor run by Angie (Regina Hall) splitting the floor right in half. One of their most popular beauticians is the bombshell  Draya (Nicki Minaj) whose provocative wardrobe attracts the attention of all the fellows and rises the ire of her lady co-workers, particularly Terri who believes that she has set her sights on Rashad. The biggest change has occurred outside the shop, as brutal gang violence has turned the streets of the South Chicago neighborhood into a war zone. Calvin fears that he and his wife Jennifer (Jazsmin Lewis) will lose their teenage son, hoops prodigy Jalen (Michael Rainey, Jr.) to those very mean streets. His concerns are so great, that Calvin secretly makes plans to move his business to a new location on the north side. But before this happens, the employees attempt to stop the bloodshed over the weekend by establishing the shop as a safe zone, a peaceful haven, by offering free cuts over 48 hours.

Just how many film franchises can Ice Cube keep juggling? He’s returned to this one after the action comedy tent poles RIDE ALONG and 21 JUMP STREET, along with the family friendly ARE WE THERE YET?. Here he’s a great anchor/straight man, setting up punch lines and diffusing altercations, along with being a strong, strict but fair father figure. In the workplace, Common makes for an equally impressive, co-anchor especially in the more serious debates over social injustice. It’s a shame that he’s saddled with the silly, sitcom-style infidelity subplot. We never believe that Minaj’s Draya is a serious threat to the fierce Eve as Terri. All her form-fitting outfits don’t distract as from Minaj’s tepid line readings. She’s a talented singer, but she’s not a polished actress quite yet. Cedric is still an entertaining blustery old buffoon although I had some trouble understanding his low guttural growls. TV stars Anthony Anderson (“ABC’s “Black-ish”) scores laughs as food hustler J.D., while new addition J.B. Smoove (HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm”) is funny as all-around hustler (real estate, pharmaceuticals, you name it) and barber “One-Stop”.

Full disclosure: I have not seen the previous entries in the film series, so I can only consider this current effort (with franchises most film goers will debate the merits ala’ “Two is better than the first.”). Director Malcolm D. Lee tries to keep “all the plates spinning”, but eventually the disparate themes of the screenplay by Kenya Barris and Tracy Oliver crash and crumble on the multiplex floor. Every twenty minutes or so a character must deliver a proclamation or observation which halts any momentum of the story (“speech-i-fyin” is the slang phrase that comes to mind). The goofy caricatures and comedy stereotypes never gel with the very somber real-life tragedy that the script attempts to address. One minute Rashad is going down the list of those killed in the headlines and in the next he’s hiding out with Draja, and avoiding his wife Terri. It really trivializes the true situations, especially with the simple-minded ploy to stop the shootings. Free haircuts? Getting celebs to go viral? Shooting  endless cell phone video of Draya furiously “twerking” (ugly exploitation)? The well-intentioned hi-jinks comes off as a slap in the face to those truly working at lasting solutions. The hilarious and heavy-handed never mesh, particularly when a regular perishes (he may as well have had a target on his back) and becomes a martyr. Though the film has a very talented cast, BARBERSHOP: THE NEXT CUT just doesn’t really cut it as comedy or “message’ flick.

2 Out of 5