Barbershop 2: Back in Business - **
Now Playing: (2004, Kevin Rodney Sullivan) [seen in theatre]
I found the original BARBERSHOP, released roughly a year and a half ago, to be a pleasant but middling effort. While this sequel doesn't really break new ground, it's certainly a marked improvement on its predecessor. One of the major reasons for this is because this time out the filmmakers have made the wise decision to focus on the characters who people the shop (in the original, the repeated cutaways to two bumbling ATM thieves got old really quickly). The central story is more compelling too- while the original focused on Calvin (Ice Cube) deciding whether to sell the shop, this one is about big business insinuating its way into inner-city neighborhoods and forcing out older establishments (Robert Wisdom, as a greedy alderman, memorably melds the self-satisfaction of Al Sharpton with the verbal riffing of Don King). Finally, while the first film essentially made Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer) into a comic-relief combination of Sweet Dick Willie, ML and Coconut Sid from DO THE RIGHT THING, here we get more of a sense of his history, which allows us to draw comparisons between him and his younger coworkers, particularly Ricky (Michael Ealy), who like Eddie has been able to better himself because of the positive influence of his job. Which is not to say the film is entirely successful, since the comedy is hit-and-miss this time out, particularly in an argument between Eddie and Gina (Queen Latifah, in a cameo/warm-up for her own spinoff film BEAUTY SHOP), which seems designed as a showstopper but never reaches takeoff velocity. Likewise, the business with Kel Mitchell as a bumbling new barber is pretty unfunny. Still, it's nice to see the ease with which the core cast interacts with each other, with Cube unafraid to be one of the group rather than taking center stage all the time- especially refreshing since, as producer, he could've hogged the spotlight. Fans of the original, Anthony Anderson lovers aside, should enjoy this one too.