Barbershop.

Review #2351: Barbershop.

Cast: 

Ice Cube (Calvin Palmer Jr.), Anthony Anderson (J.D.), Cedric the Entertainer (Eddie Walker), Keith David (Lester Wallace), Michael Ealy (Ricky Nash), Sean Patrick Thomas (Jimmy James), Eve (Terri Jones), Troy Garity (Isaac Rosenberg), Leonard Earl Howze (Dinka), Jazsmin Lewis (Jennifer Palmer), Lahmard Tate (Billy), Tom Wright (Detective Williams), Sonya Eddy (Janelle), Jason Winston George (Kevin), and DeRay Davis (Ray Ray) Directed by Tim Story (#011 - Fantastic Four and #013 - Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer)

Review: 

Barbershop was the first prominent movie directed by Tim Story. A Los Angeles native who made home movies from a young age, he graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts before turning his attention to filmmaking, which debuted with One of Us Tripped (1997), a $30,000 movie that he made when he read a story about how Clerks (1994) was made on its modest budget; his second film failed enough for him to have to music videos before Barbershop came along. Over the course of his career, Story has directed fifteen movies of varying quality, ranging from the Fantastic Four films (2005, 2007), to the Think Like a Man features (2012, 2014) to a few Kevin Hart concert films and The Blackening (2022). Mark Brown (previously a writer on Two Can Play That Game and How To Be a Player) wrote the story for the movie and co-wrote the screenplay with Don D. Scott and Marshall Todd. Producers George Tillman Jr and Robert Teitel (who had previously worked together on Soul Food [1997]) spearheaded the production and brought in Story, who impressed them with his prepardness. Incidentally, the dialogue expressed by the character played by Cedric the Entertainer about Civil Rights leaders apparently stoked a bit of controversy because it is apparently true that Jesse Jackson cannot take a joke at his own expense (the bit about Rosa Parks is a bit funny for those who are truthers about Claudette Colvin); predictably, calling for a boycott of a movie (cough cough Al Sharpton) did little to hurt the film. As it turned out, this was the first of four films in what you might call a franchise, with two direct sequels (and a spinoff) coming out between 2004 and 2016; some of the cast reprised their roles for those films, although each had a different director behind it.

You've got your movies or shows about bars or the neighborhood, but it does help to see one come around about the odds and ends of a barbershop. For me, I don't know a lick about barbershops, but I'm sure you get the gist of a workplace with plenty to look and listen about. For the most part, this works out to a casual work comedy, having a worthwhile ensemble for 102 minutes of generally interesting stuff. It comes and goes in amusement that has a familiar haircut (Car Wash comes to mind), which is generally helpful for those who like their movies to have a little bit of insight sprinkled with gags and subplots. Cube has the commitment required to sell the movie as one to look within oneself and realize again what community means besides the money (don't get it twisted, the money matters, particularly for its latter half, but, well, there's more to life than daydreams and schemes). He maneuvers the movie with general commitment that plays it straight enough, at least when compared to Cedric, who manages to sell the wayward "elder statesman" part with good timing. The rest of the ensemble (Ealy, Thomas, Eve, Gairty, Howze) are also pretty game in being pretty distinct in that certain kind of worker group that one can see in all the facets that matter (opinionated, argumentative, useful, what have you). Anderson and Tate play the long reaching subplot of the film (an ATM that can't quite find a place to be opened in peace) for a bit of physical jokes that are serviceable. David makes for quite the craven figure to pop in and out of the background, that much is for sure. The movie coasts along with a laid-back style of entertainment that manages to not override its welcome because of a game cast that have at least some part of it that will remind someone of a memory long ago or to just have a neat chuckle for the hell of it.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Halloween: Resurrection.

Review #1286: Halloween: Resurrection.

Cast: 
Busta Rhymes (Freddie Harris), Bianca Kajlich (Sara Moyer), Thomas Ian Nicholas (Bill Woodlake), Ryan Merriman (Myles "Deckard" Barton), Sean Patrick Thomas (Rudy Grimes), Tyra Banks (Nora Winston), Jamie Lee Curtis (Laurie Strode), Brad Loree (Michael Myers), Katee Sackhoff (Jennifer "Jen" Danzig), Daisy McCrackin (Donna Chang) Directed by Rick Rosenthal (#268 - Halloween II)

Review: 
"Ultimately, this is a Halloween product that only serves as a pale shadow of the original two films that should have served as the end for this series." Those are the words I said about Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), which had the clearest way to defeat its main horror icon with a chop of an ax. So how does a sequel endure? (box office profits, really). Within the first five minutes of this film, it is explained that when Laurie had chopped Michael's head off, it was (get ready for this) actually not Michael in the mask, since he choked a paramedic and his larynx and had him put on the mask. It's nice to know that even in a mediocre Halloween film, its climax can still be shortchanged by some silly idea like its own sequel. It should only prove that Halloween is a scary time of year for horror films. This is especially true when it comes to horrifyingly bad films, as is the case here, which we should expect with a cliche title like Resurrection. Trust me, the shortchanging doesn't stop there, particularly with the end of the only living interesting character in this series in Curtis (who described the film as a joke, one that she was contractually obligated to do, for which she asked the character to be killed off) by the first 15 minutes. Maybe they really wanted to give a shock to the audience, but the only real scare is in how ridiculous everything turns out to be.

The characters are as cliche as they come, right down to the basic characteristics they all do. Yes, there really is a character that actually tries to apply "critical studies" theories to Michael. Guess how that works out. It isn't even worth the effort to call out the cliche things done here, because this is already ridiculous enough. Imagine casting someone slated to be the final survivor and they literally cannot scream. No joke, Kajlich had to be dubbed in post-production because she cannot actually scream. Nobody really delivers an interesting performance among the ones slated to participate in the "show", so one doesn't care all too much when they start dropping, which minimizes the tension.  Of course it also takes an hour before anybody watching might think that Michael might actually be in the house killing the contestants. If someone wanted to make a live internet horror film (complete with portable camera)s), perhaps it could've worked in making this franchise seem like it wants to do something different, as opposed to just changing the setting for where Michael hunts (which at least seems better than being at a boarding school, I guess). But the show within the film doesn't even seem that interesting to go with, what with the fake skeletons (in the midst of the shape already having killed some of the crew) and then a sequence of another person (take one guess) dressed up as Michael Myers. It is the funniest thing in the whole movie, for all the wrong reasons, where it takes the film into new lows on a horror level but raises the unintentional hilarity levels significantly. Actually, of all the people in this film, Rhymes is likely the one reason to watch this film. How many movies feature a kung-fu fight in fire? Plenty might exist, but none are as relentlessly silly as this turns out to be, which inspires plenty of snickers, particularly since this leads up to a lame cop out ending. Supposedly there were multiple endings considered, with one involving Myers popping out of a manhole and grabbing at someone. But I suppose they really needed to bait audiences further with Myers' eyes opening up suddenly. It didn't matter anyway, since despite the film making a profit (making over double its $13 million budget at the box office), a sequel did not come to pass. Instead, a remake was commissioned, done in 2007 (which was technically better). In the end, this is a movie that represents the last laugh of miserable sequels that does get one thing right: It's all being done for the money.

Overall, I give it 3 out of 10 stars.