Barbershop (2002)

the audience applauded

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

I give this movie a 10, it may not be very artistic or profound but it has a lot of "magic" in it. By magic i want to it's a movie about the life of people and their symbol. During the movie the barber shop transforms from an ugly place in a bad neighbourhood to a family. It's full of stories and hope, the chance for a clean life. In a way i want to own that barber shop and i think everyone wants that barber shop. It's about something we all lost and need back. We could live without a lot of things if we don't know their value but this movie actually reminds us of a few of them. And it has a lot of lost concepts nowadays in a movie. It has a low budget and great dialogue with great people in it. They are not glamorous they have a message to share and no stereotypical dialogue(like in iron man,avengers, spiderman etc) So if you watch this movie, don't quit, don't stop, don't do something else. It's a life lesson that needs to be seen. I would say this is a more diverse Raisin in the sun with a bigger family and the business is a clean one.

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.

Likable, engaging story about the day to day operation of a black barbershop in downtown Chicago. The plot centers around Calvin Palmer, a promising young barber who inherited the family-owned shop years earlier from his late father and his attempts to save the shop from foreclosure even if it means agreeing to an offer from a miserly neighborhood loan shark. Cast is appealing and enthusiastic, the story interesting and well-intended, but it's let down by bickering characters, uneven comedy, and a few distracting subplots. A decent way to pass the time, and a good change of pace for lead actor Cube, but it's never quite as on target as it needs to be. **½

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