'Belated Sequel That Is Better Than Expected -, Yet Missing The Old Characters'
10 years have passed since the second Barbershop movie; set in the southside of Chicago and the third movie in the trilogy and fourth in the series, if you include spin-off, Beauty shop, Calvin, Eddie and the gang must save their shop from the trigger-happy gang members. Now, a father, Calvin also has a son in now 14-yr-old Jalen of whom has grown up. Barbershop: The Next Cut is directed by Malcolm D. Lee, the cousin of Spike Lee & sees Calvin's shop (once a male sanctory) merging with a ladies beauty parlour and is now co-ed; whilst it feels like a play and doesn't seem to be evolving and ambitious, it addresses black issues in a serious matter and gets the conversation started. The plot is casual and loose and a simple watch and was easy to follow. A lot of people may feel the message and the serious tone it evokes is overdone and heavy-handed, but I was okay with it.
It wasn't earth-shattering, but it never mind tried to attempt to be both humourous in the comedy aspect and insightful in addressing the topic of gun violence by speaking directly about its issues, some of which are political and social (the battle of the sexes), and compared to the previous two Barbershop movies, the subplots and the added new characters made this instalment slightly more watchable and nuanced & gave the film more room to breathe.
Specifically, about gun violence, there were a few subplots with Calvin's son, whom I didn't care much for. His character seemed very, well, we are supposed to feel for him, but he came across onscreen as being forgettable and someone I wasn't fully able to get behind.
And Eve, Nicki Minaj and Common's storyline, whilst the quasi-love triangle was well thought out -if a little shallow, I just didn't like how it ended. Whilst it is catered towards Black audiences, it still manages to entertain and insight through its storylines and characters, although my favourite was probably Jerrod (played by Lamorne Morris) and I did miss seeing Isacc, Ricky and Dinka. Yes, Isacc did appear in the opening scene, but it was brief and it was a shame that the writers never brought him back for this movie. Meanwhile, so-called show-stopper/headliner act, Nicki Minaj's performance has divided audiences, but I liked that she performed it the way it was and is, and honestly, there was never a moment in the film whereby I felt she overacted or her character rubbed me up the wrong way. That, and she looked great here. The rivalry between Eve's Terri (who is maturer and older, and wiser now than ever before) and Minaj's Draya, as skittish it might have been, had me glued. The other characters played by Rashad's Common, Utkarsh Ambudkar as the token South Asian character, the sarcastic Raja, Deon Cole as Dante, J.B Smoove never, well, never made a huge impression on me. In particular, with Raja, the writers could have done a lot more with that character instead of making him a throwaway type.
The overlong 2-hour runtime was also not necessary to have for a film like this.
It's interesting: I prefer the ensemble in the first two Barbershop movies, yet those films were all right at best, it just was too earnest and played things too safe and lacked that one plot to get me hooked into those films; whereas with Barbershop: The Next Cut, the casting (quality) is somewhat lacking- and yet still, this was more riveting through the gang subplot and entertaining than Barbershop 1 and 2.
As for the beauty shop, it would have been preferable had it been Queen Latifah's beauty shop by bringing her back and its cast of characters into this movie; instead of having a new beauty shop and its set of staff.
Final Verdict:
I enjoyed Barbershop: The Next Cut out of the three films in the series - I just wished that Isacc, Ricky and Dinka were still in it and weren't written out in the first place, whilst getting rid of one or two of the newer characters, who never really clicked and despite being labelled as a 'comedy' I'd much file this one under the comedy-drama category.
Overall:
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