The Good: One or two moments of acting and character
The Bad: Lack of humor, Obvious plot and moral, Unremarkable acting and character
The Basics: A disappointing comedy, in Barbershop a small businessman learns the value of the business after he sells it to a thug who wants to turn it into a strip joint.
If one were to read many of my reviews, one might be surprised to find me reviewing the comedy Barbershop. After all, I tend to shy away from the predictable and I make no bones about the fact that comedy has a difficult time maintaining my interest and respect. The truth is, I had read several glowing reviews of Barbershop by people I respect and I watched the film based on that. I cannot join my voice to theirs because I found Barbershop to be predicable, bland, mostly uninspired in the acting and in the end, just not funny.
Barbershop is a weaving together of two stories. On the one front, a couple of hoodlums break into a neighborhood store to steal an ATM and spend the day trying desperately to break it open. Dominating the film, however, is Calvin Palmer, owner of an inner city barbershop that is floundering economically. Surrounded by neighborhood personas like the elder Eddie and the sassy Terri, Calvin is forced to sell the barbershop to the local loan shark before realizing that the barbershop is a special place and an important part of the community.
Blah, blah, blah. The question one always has to ask in a film like this is, if the characters are smart enough to realize the importance of where they are after they sell the shop to the loan shark, why aren't they clever enough to figure it out before they let it get to that point? The plot is pretty well canned from the simplest of childhood fables, such that - were it not for the language - it might be fun to sit a child in front of Barbershop and see how quickly they could guess what happens.
The process then becomes "How is this different from the others like it?" and to answer that, we must always look at the characters. Unfortunately, the characters here are all "types." None of them stand out as individuals, they are all stereotypes. Eddie is the crotchety old man spouting out controversial logariah until the crucial moment where he is able to illustrate his worth and deliver something the young ones don't know. Terri is the generic angry young woman that is utterly without character beyond that guideline. There's the student (Jimmy) and the white guy who wants to fit in with this crowd. They are all types. Calvin Palmer is the generic stereotype (not archetype) of the small businessman under siege with dreams of doing something else.
Barbershop is too simple to be enjoyed repeatedly, especially considering how quickly one is likely to call the entire process of the film the first time around. Some of the acting steps up from time to time. Sean Patrick Thomas continues to deliver as the educated person who stands out in the crowd, which only goes to reinforce the most horrible of stereotypes by making the comparison. Still, Thomas plays the part well and consistently.
Anthony Anderson quite competently plays J.D., the ATM thief in a role that is largely unrewarding for its attempts at making humor and its failure to do that. Anderson, however, cannot be blamed for the poor script that surrounds him. Similarly, Ice Cube works within the confines of a poor script on a character that is utterly flat. However, he manages to be convincing in a way that we do not doubt that he could be a small businessman.
In a movie this bland, sometimes that's the best you can ask for.
At the end of the day, there are worse films, ones where the actors are all bad and the situations are all bad and the characters are utterly unredemptive. Barbershop comes close to suffering from all of those, save that it has actors who clearly have some talent (Eve, for example, steps up quite well to the acting plate), they just aren't able to tap it in this outing. If you're looking for entertaining, though, you can do much, much better.
For other ethnically-relevant films, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Crash
Idlewild
Shark Tale
3/10
For other film reviews, please be sure to visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2012, 2003 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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