Barbershop 2: Back in Business

Barbershop 2: Back in Business

Calvin Palmer (Ice Cube) and his pals are back to follow up the stories that take place at his barbershop in south-side Chicago.

FILM FACTS

Starring: Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Garcelle Beauvais, Queen Latifah, Eve
Director: Kevin Rodney Sullivan
Rating: PG-13 for language, sexual material and brief drug references
Genre: Comedy

Official movie site

See showtimes (PG-13) 106 minutes

Grade: B+

Verdict: A most welcome second helping from Ice Cube and the gang.

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
Cox News Service

As Spike Lee demonstrated in his 1983 short film, "Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads," a barbershop is a sacred place - part community center, part confessional, part cutups cutting hair. In 2002, Ice Cube took that idea one step further. He starred in and produced the surprise hit "Barbershop," set in a neighborhood place on Chicago's Southside. Now he and the gang are back in the wonderful "Barbershop 2: Back in Business," a sequel with all the humor, compassion, raunch and camaraderie of its predecessor.

This time, Calvin's (Cube) shop is solid (i.e., paid for), but the neighborhood is fluid. The dry cleaner, the corner grocery and a lot of old standbys are being replaced by Blockbuster, Subway, Kinkos and places that sell lattes. Calvin finds himself in a fix when a huge franchise called Nappy Cutz is opening across the street from his family-owned business that's been cutting and cutting up since 1958.

Nappy Cutz has a basketball court, state-of-the-art equipment, massage chairs and a Web site. Calvin's place has, in his words, "real people, real conversation and, most of all, real barbers."

But can character, community spirit and customer loyalty defeat shiny walls and bikini waxes?

Plus, Nappy Cutz has one essential thing Calvin doesn't - a slick alderman (Robert Wisdom) in its back pocket.

The movie has other stuff going on, too. In flashbacks set in the volatile late �60s, we see how the outrageous and permanently ensconced Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer) first came to the shop. Meanwhile, Isaac (Troy Garity) has not only reconciled with the fact that no matter how down with the brothers he gets he's still a nice Jewish boy, he's also become the best cutter in the shop. Plus tough girl Terri (Eve) and womanizing Ricky (Michael Ealy) are striking opposites-attract sparks, much to the dismay of gentle Nigerian Dinka (Leonard Earl Howze).

The upwardly mobile Bobby (Sean Patrick Thomas) has left to become an aide to the crooked alderman (having no idea the guy's a crook). There's a new barber at the front chair ("Saturday Night Live's" Kenan Thompson) who, although he's Calvin's kin, is clearly out of sync with the shop's vibe. And there's a new next-door neighbor in the adjoining beauty shop - Queen Latifah in an extended role as a sassy beautician (no fool, she; her next movie is named "Beauty Shop"). Her confrontation with Eddie is a gem. He tells her she's "one Reese's Pieces away from Jenny Craig," and she fires back, "You ol' Negro spiritual."

This is a movie that values both Malcolm X and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. That treasures smart, pretty women like Queen Latifah and Eve over pin-up bimbos. That's so comfortable with itself that it can say outrageous stuff ("I'm nervous. I'm light-colored," pleads one character) yet know making fun of Luther Vandross is off-limits.

"Barbershop 2" is a tribute to messing around as much as it is to the importance of black pride. Hopefully, we'll be able to hang out at Calvin's again in "Barbershop 3."