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Barbershop: The Next Cut

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A scene in Barbershop: The Next Cut (Warner Bros.)
A scene in Barbershop: The Next Cut (Warner Bros.)

What it's about:

It’s been more than 10 years since our last appointment at Calvin’s Barbershop. Calvin and his longtime crew, including Eddie, are still there, but the shop has undergone some major changes. Most noticeably, our once male-dominated sanctuary is now co-ed. The ladies bring their own flavour, drama and gossip to the shop, challenging the fellas at every turn. Despite the good times and camaraderie within the shop, the surrounding community has taken a turn for the worse, forcing Calvin and our crew to come together to not only save the shop, but their neighbourhood.

What the trailer:

Riding the wave of "the sequel" comes Barbershop: The Next Cut, 12 years after the previous sequel.

Fans of the franchise will no doubt feel at home in the familiarity of the shop and the return of the crew Calvin (Ice Cube), Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer) and Terri (Eve).

They're joined by new barbers Rashad (Common), Jerrod (Lamorne Morris), and Raja (Utkarsh Ambudkar).

Calvin's barbershop is pretty much still the same one-stop shop for getting your hair done, getting the local gossip, getting relationship advice and some other services offered by One Stop (J.B. Smoove).

To keep the shop afloat Calvin has partnered up with salon owner Angie (Regina Hall) and her stylists Draya (Nicki Minaj)  and Keyana(Margot Bingham).
While the patrons at the shop engage in a friendly battle of the sexes the community is plagued by gun violence and a gangster turf war. 

Things hit close to home when Calvin's son Jalen (Michael Rainey Jr.) gets caught up in the wrong crowd.

To do their part for the community the barbershop initiates a 48 hour ceasefire and offer people free hairstyling to keep the peace. 

While the socioeconomic circumstances and the Black Lives Matter rhetoric dominate the plot, there are other subplots including a love triangle, Calvin's family drama and business issues. 

There are just too many things happening in this film. The smaller plots add no weight to the film and are dragged out longer than necessary, purely just for its "entertainment value". 

When it comes to the acting it really is subpar. It's really hard to relate to Ice Cube as the caring dad, husband and business owner when his face is set in a scowl.

Nicki Minaj's character is an animated caricature and her backside had a lot of screen time as the camera focused way too long on her rear.

While the film probably had good intentions highlighting the gun and gangster violence which is rife in Chicago, it barely skims the surface of this very serious topic, a topic which is out of the league of this soap opera dramedy. 

Barbershop: The Next Cut might be good for laughs but don't expect any depth and meaning to the series topic it tries to address. 



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