neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Barbershop
	Tim Story Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Sean Patrick Thomas, Anthony Anderson, Troy Garity, Eve, Michael Ealy 2002		Actor/rapper Ice Cube made a good straight man in the mirthful urban comedy "Friday," and the oafs-in-tha-'hood film was so successful that it spawned a lesser sequel and another to come. After appearing in the lame action-spoof "All About the Benjamins," Cube is back in "Friday" form with "Barbershop" — a damned good ghetto comedy despite overly familiar motifs and a reliance on dumb slapstick. It's an ensemble piece about the staff and hangers-on at a Chicago hair salon. Calvin's barber shop is a social nexus where local characters shoot the breeze while the stylists work over a parade of customers, from job-seekers cleaning up before an interview to balky kids to fashionable thugs. As the financially strapped owner of the shop, Cube brings realness, sweetness and emotional weight to the film. The laughs are courtesy of the supporting cast, led by Cedric the Entertainer as an elder barber/resident sage and Anthony Anderson as a hapless, accident-prone thief. With Sean Patrick Thomas, Troy Garity and Eve.