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.

Mikelito Not every movie can be entirely original. But it's annoying to see obvious rip-offs from other movies combined with a lack of talent for story-telling (or in this case scene-telling). Obvious references which are simply taken and copied only with much lesser intelligence are: Coming to America, Big Lebowski, Do The Right Thing, Carwash, etc. For instance the car smashing scene: It isn't even done well, the guy takes forever to notice that his car is being smashed, then he runs out on the street and there isn't a single funny line. The scene is straight out of Big Lebowski (a movie I didn't like and found less original than almost everyone else but at least there was some craft involved in the making of that particular movie). And this happens all the time: people talk and do the most obvious things. No twists, no clever dialogue, just a shallow and flat deliverance. It sometimes even feels as if there was no script at all. People seem to have a general idea of a scene then just went along to see if anything (funny) would happen. It's all good and fine to try to capture alleged everyday life but this requires a skill. The "jokes" throughout the movie have Police Academy quality. i.e. they are primitive, slap-sticky and have been seen a million times. Fat guys are just fat and that is supposedly funny enough. For them to quote and make fun of Rosa Parks, MLK has absolutely no reason or twist or whatever. At one point in the movie guys talk about being entitled to reparation payments like Jews for the Holocaust. It's mystifying what all these touchy subjects that appear out of nowhere in the movie are supposed to be doing for a film that seems to want to be a light-hearted snap-shot of some inner city neighbourhood.It seems someone just wanted to cram every possible subject into a setting without rounding if off in any way thinking you can just loosely tie together scenes and ideas (from others), then mix in a few controversial subjects and voilà: Here's your masterpiece. Well: it didn't work.

wtnally always comparing, this is not as funny as bad Santa or the classic, Airplane! but i seriously could NOT stop laughing on this movie. Eddie cracks me up with his discussion on racism and Jesse Jackson. "Man fu@% Jesse Jackson!" This is more than just a comedy, it has a meaning to it. one of the few comedies with a meaning to it, and a good one. if you liked Friday, next Friday, any of Anthony Anderson's films of any comedies, check this out! i watched this over and over the first time i bought it. i HIGHLY recommend this movie to any movie buff or anyone period. Tim Story's best film by far with the only films i know by him being fantastic 4, which i hated and taxi, which was OK. 10/10

BrohmaBull007 .............. but I liked this movie. I'm glad someone could capture the essence of an all classic barbershop. I know people had to have seen something like this in TV shows. The black barbershop has all black people talking about stuff they saw on TV, music, or white people. I also like the fact that this is in downtown Chicago. Its got that touch to it. I like all the topics of discussion as well as the cool moments in here. Ice Cube really shines as the cool and calm Calvin. I wasn't expecting much from this movie but Id say it delivered in a big way. Barbershop captured every essence of just what its like in a barbershop, music playing........ uncensored topics....... TV roaring. I like the attitudes of each character and glad they are all different. Overall if you're looking for something.... real or something about a barbershop looking to make it big. This movie is for you 9/10