kai ringler first off I bought the movie because I wanted a half decent story and I wanted to laugh,, and well folks,, that just what I got,, nothing more , nothing less.. Queen Latifah does well,, Kevin Bacon,, is kinda out of place in this , but does try his best... I wanted Alicia Silverstone to have more screen time , but we can't all get what we want,, overall I thought that the movie was well thought out,, I wish that people would stop comparing it to Barbershop,, that's guy's for heaven's sake,, this is women,, a totally different ballgame if you ask me,, all of the other actors did a fairly decent job,, it's not gonna win any Oscars anytime soon,,but it's not a pile of crap like some on here tend to think,, I would recommend this to anyone who needs a good laugh.

blanche-2 Queen Latifah has the dream of owning a "Beauty Shop" in this 2005 film that also stars Kevin Bacon, Alfre Woodward, Alicia Silverstone, Mena Suvari, Andie MacDowell, Della Reese, Keisha Knight Pulliman and Bryce Wilson. Latifah plays a widow with a young daughter who makes her living as a hairdresser for a pretentious phony (Bacon). When she's finally had enough of his bad attitude, she quits and manages to get a small loan from a bank to start her own shop. She takes some clients and workers with her and gradually builds up her clientèle and keeps going despite setbacks.There's not much to this story; it's the acting and the characterizations that make it enjoyable. Queen Latifah is a warm, natural actress and as the cast list indicates, she's surrounded by some top people. Woodward, a great actress, is very funny as Ms. Josephine, and Sherri Shepherd gives an energetic performance as Ida. But everyone is good, though Alicia Silverstone is over the top with her Southern accent. Andie MacDowell and Mena Suvari do good jobs as upper class clients, MacDowell as someone who hasn't forgotten her down home roots, and Suvari as a self-absorbed, nasty woman. Della Reese makes a brief appearance, which isn't enough. Kevin Bacon sports long hair with highlights and a German accent. He's a Eurotrash riot. The other men in the cast are total hunks - instead of the women being chosen for their looks, it's the guys! An entertaining, charming film.

edwagreen Queen Latifah opens a beauty shop after her big argument with her boss.Latifah is kind, intelligent but just plain out of luck.Kevin Bacon steals the film in his role as the gay boss with a thick German accent. Wearing his blond wig, Bacon is hilarious in a performance that should have been considered for best supporting actor.The women and man hairstylist have a comment for everything and everyone but the film just seems to meander about.The writers should have remained focused on Latifah's relationship with the evil Bacon, who conspires with the State Board to ruin her after she takes business away from him.An aging Della Reese has a wasted one scene role as a high class woman entering the shop. Miss Reese was offered few lines and disappears rapidly.Alfre Woodard, as one of the stylists, is effective in her common talk but no nonsense approach.

Polaris_DiB Beauty Shop You know, the more I think about it, the more I like Queen Latifah. For the overall uselessness of the movie Bringin' Down da House, that one scene where she transforms into a rich, upper class type public speaker just to show Steve Martin's character that she CAN do it, she just chooses NOT to, definitely shows a side of "black culture" that is much more relatable to-->the fact that (a lot/most/some?) choose that because that's how they WANT to identify themselves, and it's not meant to be confrontational at heart. It's like choosing to be a goth, or a punk, or all of those subcultures almost, conformingly anticonformist, grouping yourself in a similar minded alternative.So now we have this movie, where Queen Latifa plays Gina, a stylist whiz who feels under-appreciated at her job so opens her own shop, and there she shocks and appalls the neighborhood by bringing in white clientele and white employees and letting them all enjoy the scenery. It's actually one of the strongest movies dealing with integration I think I've seen, basically because when everyone gives trouble to the the white girl, and the white girl's getting upset and disturbed by it, Gina just has to say to her, "Hey, think how I felt in a white shop." Indeed.Plus, when dealing with those pesky issues of representation that seems to hover over every mediated creation of "black characters", this one is pretty broad, from the black women who refuse to work with the white woman and leave, to the young "white-speaking" black girl who keeps on getting hit on by the jive-talking twelve-year-old, to the African culture versed man above them who, also, happens to know a thing or two about playing good piano.And of course it would be. From the makers of Barbershop, it has that same more critical look at black culture that loves it, and yet knows what it really is and where people on "both" sides take it too seriously. Barbershop was actually quite a wonderful film, mostly because of it's political incorrectness, but also because of the pale-skinned barber who points out that being black is what he wants, not what he has to be born into, and Cedric the Entertainer doing his "Martin Luther King Jr. was a HO!" bit was just too much.Now if only this film didn't have ... well... Kevin Bacon. I thought that having Kevin Bacon in it would make it amazing, but it really, really didn't. He's just too weird for a too lightly humored film. Instead, I'd like to point out that this movie has Andie McDowell in a fantastic role, so with that cast, it's got to have SOMETHING to it.--PolarisDiB