Movie Review: First Sunday

First Sunday (2008) 

Directed by David E. Talbert 

Written by David E. Talbert

Starring Ice Cube, Katt Williams, Keith David, Regina Hall, Chi McBride

Release Date January 11th, 2008

Published January 11th, 2008

I guess it was bound to happen. Success always leads to lame copies of that success. Now that Tyler Perry is a huge moneymaker with his series of soft headed, soft hearted, well intentioned comedies, it had to happen that someone would rip him off. Enter the good folks behind the new Ice Cube-Tracey Morgan comedy First Sunday.

This lame comedy about bumbling thieves trying to rob a church but finding god instead has a premise that Perry likely would not have touched but a simpleminded message about community and family that he damn near has a patent on.

Durrell (Ice Cube) has been the victim of his pal LeeJohn's (Tracey Morgan) follies since they were kids. Thus, it isn't much of a surprise when LeeJohn gets them both fired from a good job, repairing televisions. Caught trying to steal a TV, the two are sent to court where a helpful judge and prosecutor give us the character snapshots we need, you know the kind a better movie need not deliver with such an obvious device. Apparently, Durrell was the smartest kid in his graduating class but has failed his potential. LeeJohn was a forster kid, repeatedly abused. Sympathetic, the judge forgoes jail in favor of 5000 hours of community service.

This makes getting a job a pretty tough proposition. Durrell needs money bad because his baby mama (the movies words, not mine, sigh) is leaving soon and taking their son to her family in Atlanta. She'll stay if he can pay the 17 grand in rent for her beauty shop. LeeJohn meanwhile crosses some Jamaican gang members and now needs money to keep himself from being killed. The solution? They decide to rob a church. Stumbling on a church meeting where the elders are deciding whether to move the church from this bad neighborhood, our erstwhile heroes now have a hostage situation on their hands while their well meaning captives bicker and pray.

First Sunday is a tuneless mess of a movie. One moment Durrell and LeeJohn are bumbling stooges and the next Ice Cube is wielding a weapon as if flashing back to his Boyz In the Hood days. The lapses of tone are one of many problems for this misguided comedy. There is also a whole lot of casual homophobia and a vapid subplot about a church deacon, Michael Beach, stealing the money from the church before Durrell and LeeJohn ever get the chance. Naturally, among the church hostages there is the proper mix of sassy attitude, beatific certitude and sage wisdom. Oh, and of course, a token love interest.

As I am trashing this movie I should mention one nice thing about it. Comedian Katt Williams, whose concert DVD American Hustle is insanely hot at the moment, takes on the Wanda Sykes role here and does her proud. For the uninitiated, directors often hire Ms. Sykes to offer humorous commentary in the form of sassy one liners that only she can hear.

Watch Evan Almighty or Monster In Law for perfect examples of the Wanda Sykes role. The movies aren't funny but her one liners often fool one into thinking they are. Williams nearly pulls the same neat trick with his perfectly timed jibes and fey cowardice. I must give him credit, he made me laugh repeatedly even as I was bored to death with the rest of the movie.

With it's faux good intentions and religious underpinnings, it's clear that First Sunday wants to ape the pious good intentions of Tyler Perry but lack the understanding and care that Perry brings to even his cheapest efforts. Perry's good intentions are why he makes movies, he truly wants to change the world and see's movies as his avenue to creating social change.

First Sunday simply wants to make money off those good intentions. It plays at being good for you, pretends at a do the right thing attitude but the greedy nature of it all is obvious from the lack of care taken in crafting the feel good messages.

Tyler Perry may not be a great filmmaker but atleast he is honest in his good intentions and with his last film, Why Did I Get Married, he even showed improvement in his artistic side. First Sunday is merely a cynical attempt to make money off the formula that Perry created. How sad.

Movie Review: Are We Done Yet?

Are We Done Yet? (2007) 

Directed by Steve Carr

Written by Hank Nelken 

Starring Ice Cube, Nia Long, Phillip Bolden, Aleisha Allen, John C. McGinley 

Release Date April 4th, 2007

Published April 3rd, 2007 

2005's Are We There Yet(?) was a meanspirited, ugly attempt at 'family comedy'. Featuring crotch shots aplenty, nasty physical humor and ugly characters, Are We There Yet(?) set new lows for an already shallow genre. Yet, despite the films massive and obvious flaws there is now a sequel and since it would nearly impossible for this film to be worse than the original, Are We Done Yet? is better than its predecessor.

Oh, don't get me wrong, Are We Done Yet(?) is not a good movie, even by comparison, it's merely an improvement. If you consider compost an improvement over yard waste.

In Are We There Yet? Nick Person (Ice Cube) wanted to do a favor for a beautiful woman, Suzanne (Nia Long). Offering to drive her two demon children, Lindsey (Aleisha Allen) and Kevin (Phillip Bolden), to there fathers for the weekend, Nick endures unending abuse and bad behavior. Then again, he was only offering to help so he could get with the hot girl so; his motives weren't just about being a good Samaritan.

Cut to two years later and apparently Nick's gesture was a winner because he and Suzanne are married and the demon children are now his loving step kids. Having given up his sports collectibles shop, Nick has gone into the publishing biz, starting his own sports magazine where he hopes an interview with Magic Johnson can get his magazine off to a splashy start. (No points for guessing Magic will figure in to the wackiness of the films ending.)

Living in Nick's cramped bachelor pad is clearly not working, no explanation is given about why they just didn't move into the beautiful home Suzanne owned in the previous film. Needing a new home, the family heads for the country where a gorgeous old fixer upper, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, home awaits. When I say fixer upper, I am understating quite a bit. Though the real estate agent, Chuck (John C. McGinley) calls it homey and rustic, the place is clearly a dump from moment one.

Nevertheless Nick and the family move and naturally, the house begins to fall apart around them. Luckily, the crook who sold them the house is also the only licensed contractor, electrician and housing inspector in the area. Soon Chuck is living with the family and sitcomic wackiness has ensued. I'll say this for Are We Done Yet(?), at least, it is far less mean spirited than its progenitor Are We There Yet(?). That film combined an awful plot with these awful characters to create an awful moviegoing experience. The children were reprehensible, even by the standards of behavior set for movie children, coming up just short of being horror film villains in this alleged family movie.  

Are We Done Yet(?) softens the child characters from potential murderers to irritating clichés. They remain only plot devices for tweaking the always on edge Nick character but; at the very least, I don't hate them as much. Yes, I said I hated them. I realize, that to hate children is pretty extreme but if you were forced to sit through Are We There Yet? as I was, you would have hated them to. Them, their parents, their parents parents and many others.

It would have been impossible for Are We Done Yet(?) not to improve upon Are We There Yet(?) but improvement is a relative term. If getting hit by a car is an improvement over getting hit by a Mack truck. Or if getting stabbed is an improvement on being shot, then yes, improvement is the right word here. Are We Done Yet? is still an exceedingly bad movie with a rote plot and mindless characters but I will take it over the toxic poison of the previous film.

Movie Review: Are We There Yet?

Are We There Yet? (2005) 

Directed by Brian Levant

Written by David N. Weiss

Starring Ice Cube, Nia Long, Jay Mohr, Tracy Morgan

Release Date January 21st, 2005 

Published January 20th, 2005

Is Ice Cube attempting to shed his gangsta image in favor of being Martin Lawrence's understudy? It's a fair question when you see him choosing scripts like the one for Are We There Yet, clearly a role that  Martin Lawrence or even Cedric The Entertainer managed to turn down. Are We There Yet is brutally awful. An absolute utter mess of mean spirited physical humor and demonic child characters with a tacked on sappy and sentimental ending.

Honestly, this movie couldn't be worse if it had been inspired by a video game and directed by Uwe Boll.

Nick (Ice Cube) hates children. So bad luck for him when he falls in love at first sight with Suzanne (Nia Long), the mother of two small children. Nick's luck is worse than he knows because even before meeting him the two kids, Lindsey (Aleisha Allen) and Kevin (Philip Bolden), have it in for him. For Lindsey and Kevin no man is good enough for their mom, except their dad who has left the family.

Despite his hatred of children Nick really wants to get some, so of course when Suzanne needs someone to ferry her kids from her home in Oregon to Vancouver, Canada where she has to work on New Years Eve, Nick is the first to volunteer. At first they were supposed to fly in, but the kids set him up for Homeland security, putting the kibosh on the plane flight.

They try a train but once again the kids have it in for him. So they are left to drive in Nick's brand new Lincoln Navigator. No points for guessing what happens to this gorgeous vehicle thanks to these two evil children. Poor Nick is then subjected to every form of hack screen writer kind of human torture, from the classic kick in the groin to every form of gross-out humor imaginable.

The film attempts to establish a broad comic tone that might justify it's flights of gross-out humor and over the top elements like Nick's talking bobble head. However the film loses that attempt by tacking on scenes of import such as when the kids are forced to confront their no good father and find out he's never coming back. Such a weighty subject has no place in a film in which a child peeing on an innocent woman is a big comic moment.

And the film manages to get worse. For some reason beyond the comprehension of any right thinking movie watcher, Nick has a Satchell Page bobble head doll. If that is not indignity enough for the legendary Mr. Page, the doll talks to Nick in the voice of former SNL star Tracy Morgan. Why the four screen writers , who shall remain nameless, and hack Director Brian Levant, the auteur behind classics like Jingle All The Way and Snow Dogs, chose to denigrate Mr. Page in this way is anyone's guess. But why does Nick talk to the bobble head and it talk back, is the character supposed to be insane?

How does Director Brian Levant keep getting work? His films have managed to get worse every time he makes one. Jingle All The Way, Snow Dogs and now Are We There Yet are a triumvirate of films that on one resume should mean automatic dismissal. Instead he's already at work on another project. God help us if there is another bobble head or child in the vicinity.

Movie Review: Barbershop 2

Barbershop 2 Back in Business

Directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan

Written by Don D. Scott 

Starring Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Sean Patrick Thomas, Eve, Troy Garity, Michael Ealy 

Release Date February 6th, 2004 

Published February 5th, 2004 

There is an insidious disease raging through Hollywood. It's a disease that can afflict any number of good films and seemingly good ideas. It happened to Men In Black, it happened to Jaws, it happened to Jurassic Park and countless other franchises. The disease is sequelitis, and it strikes when Hollywood executives try to take advantage of a successful product by forcing a mediocre money grabbing follow up. 

The latest casualty of sequelitis is the 2002 surprise hit Barbershop starring Ice Cube. The film’s surprise success, nearly 100 million in domestic box office for a film that only cost around 25 million to make, threw execs into a feeding frenzy leading to the creation of an inferior sequel made solely for the purpose of printing money.

Calvin and his charismatic crew of barbers are all back in the shop for another round of loud talking and head cuttin'. The crew, Eddie (Cedric The Entertainer), Ricky (Michael Ealy), Terri (Eve), Dinka (Leonard Earl Howze) and Isaac (Troy Garrity) are still hard at work. Eddie is still stirring things up with controversial topics ranging from Bill Clinton to the DC Sniper. Ricky is moonlighting at school getting his GED while romancing Terri. Dinka has a burgeoning romance with a girl from the neighboring hair salon and Isaac has become a star cutter even signing his work. The crew’s former teammate Jimmy has left the shop to work for a corrupt local alderman played by Robert Wisdom.

The story is a lethargic take on some of the same themes from the first film. In this case, it's the encroachment of big business chain stores in the shop’s southside Chicago neighborhood. A developer played by Harry Lennix is attempting to buy up the neighborhood and replace the tiny mom & pop stores with chains like Starbucks and a new hair salon called Nappy Cutz which he plans to open right across the street from Calvin's. Nappy Cutz offers food, massages, basketball and various other amenities to go with your hair cut.

Calvin tries to be competitive but in doing so, he nearly forgets why his shop became a neighborhood institution in the first place. The film is rounded out by an odd subplot involving Eddie's history in getting work in the barbershop and the woman he nearly married reappearing. The subplot is cute and well played by Cedric The Entertainer but it never feels like anything more than filler. Also on the filler side is a subplot that introduces Queen Latifah as Gina, one of the stylists at the beauty shop next door to Calvin's. The subplot is only in place to setup a spin-off series starring Latifah that will launch later this year.

The Beauty Shop spin-off looks kind of funny but also feels like another very cynical cash grab, another attempt to squeeze this Barbershop cash cow for more and more money.

Barbershop 2 has bright moments, it's just as smart and quick witted as the original film. However, it lacks that first film’s energy and coherence. Especially in its ending which wraps thing's up a little too easily and unsatisfyingly abrupt. Director Kevin Rodney Sullivan, picking up the reigns from Director Tim Story's original, can't seem to find a consistent theme. He has the set pieces, the likable characters and enough smart funny dialogue but not enough of a story to give it all proper context.

Barbershop 2 is not a bad film but it is obviously inferior to the original Barbershop. Another casualty of sequelitis.

Movie Review: Torque

Torque (2004) 

Directed by Joseph Kahn 

Written by Matt Johnson

Starring Martin Henderson, Ice Cube, Monet Mazur, Adam Scott, Jay Hernandez

Release Date January 16th, 2004

Published January 16th, 2004

The trailer for Torque is so eye-rollingly derivative as to bring about a physically painful reaction. The trailer inspired in me a groan of such depth it's almost indescribable. The trailer is as big, dumb and loud as any full-length action movie of the last ten years. Ear splitting metal music, dopey, mock tough guy dialogue and stunts so hokey they are beyond laughable. But it would be unfair to review the film based solely on the trailer so I actually went to see Torque and found exactly what the trailer promised it would be and worse.

Martin Henderson stars as motorcycle tough guy/ underwear model (okay not really an underwear model but you know what I mean), Cary Ford. Cary has just returned from Thailand where he was hiding from the Feds after being sought on drug charges. Cary has returned to California to set things right with the cops and get back the girl he left behind, Shane played by Monet Mazur.

With a pair of his old motorcycle buddies, Dalton (Jay Hernandez) and Val (Will Yun Lee), Cary makes his way back to LA but not without starting trouble with the motorcycle gang The Reapers, headed up by Trey (Ice Cube). Cary is able to reconnect with Shane though she fights it for a few minutes. Cary also reconnects with the guy who set him up on the drug charge, a fellow biker named Henry James (Matt Schulze). Cary still has Henry's drugs stashed somewhere and Henry wants them back. Rather than just kick Cary's ass and get the drugs back that way, Henry sets up Cary for the murder of Trey's brother (Rapper Fredro Starr). Henry will help Cary get away from Trey if Cary gives him his drugs back.

Why Henry can't just directly intimidate Cary into giving him his drugs back instead of setting up this byzantine murder plot that also involves a pair of FBI agents played by Dane Cook and Justina Machado, is one of the film’s innumerable plot issues. Then again, why do you need a plot when you have cool looking motorcycles?

Herein lies the problem with Torque. I was willing to give 2 Fast 2 Furious a pass because that film was laughably bad but had the coolest cars. Paul Walker is a terrifically bad actor, so bad that it's enjoyable to have him onscreen just to make fun of him. Torque on the other hand wants to be a better film than 2 Fast 2 Furious and it wants you to know it with lame little jokes about motorcycles being cooler and faster than cars. Unfortunately the motorcycles aren't cooler than the cars and the superior attitude of the film is badly misplaced.

Martin Henderson is a better actor than Paul Walker, which presents a different problem because there isn't much to make fun of. None of the material in the script for Torque is very good yet as delivered by Henderson it's not so terrifically bad that we can make fun of it. It's all just sort of there…it's not good, it's not bad, it's just a dull and derivative.

The action in Torque isn't all that shabby. First-time director Joseph Kahn is a pretty good technician behind the camera and he shoots some okay action stuff. None of it however rises to the memorably ridiculous levels of the worst of Bruckheimer and Bay or even it's cousins, The Fast and The Furious, and it's sequel. Sure Torque is big, it's dumb and it's loud, but in a more mediocre and far less interesting way than in a memorably good or awful way.

It's odd, I'm almost disappointed at how good Torque is. Let me correct that, I meant to say how bad it is but not as bad as it should have been to be good. It's a bad movie, but it's not bad in the way that 2 Fast 2 Furious or The Rock or Gone In 60 Seconds is bad. Torque isn't bad in that campy, fun unintentional way. It's just a bad movie and that's it.

Movie Review: Barbershop

Barbershop (2002) 

Directed by Tim Story 

Written by Don D. Scott 

Starring Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Troy Garity, Eve, Keith David, Anthony Anderson

Release Date September 13th, 2002 

Published September 12th, 2002 

Recently the question was asked what rapper was the best actor. The answer? Ice Cube, and he deserves the accolade. Cube proved he had something with his debut in Boyz In The Hood. But it was Friday that showed Ice Cube was going to be around for a while. Now with Barbershop, Cube may finally shake the rapper actor label altogether and just be seen as an actor.

In Barbershop, Cube is Calvin, owner of a Chicago barbershop once owned by his grandfather and his father. Calvin, however, isn't satisfied running the family business, he would like to run his own record company from his basement. As the day unfolds Calvin decides to sell the shop to a local hustler played by Keith David. 

Meanwhile we get to know Calvin's employees. There is the grizzled vet Eddie (Cedric The Entertainer), the college kid Jimmy (Sean Patrick Thomas), African immigrant Dinka (Leonard Howze), former gangbanger Ricky (Michael Early), the lone white guy Isaac (Troy Garity) and the girl Terri (EVE). Each has their own problems, Ricky is a two time felon who if he gets in trouble again will spend the rest of his life in jail. 

His trouble is compounded by his no good cousin JD (Anthony Anderson) who uses Ricky's truck to steal a newly installed ATM machine from a market just down the street from the barbershop. Terri has a no-good boyfriend who she can't seem to shake, while Dinka is nursing a serious crush on her. Isaac, because he's white, can't get any customers, and is feuding with Jimmy who thinks he knows everything because he went to college. Then there is Eddie. Eddie is the ringleader, he begins the conversations and says everything on his mind no matter what anyone thinks. As Eddie, Cedric The Entertainer delivers the film's funniest performance.

For me though the movie was about Ice Cube. As we watch Barbershop we watch as Ice Cube the actor becomes more mature and relaxed. Cube is in command playing an older wiser character, a guy with dreams that have passed him by who is just now seeing what is real and important. The character of Calvin holds the movie together while observing it from the outside. Calvin is hardly ever involved in the barbershop conversations but he is always watching and his perspective is the audience's perspective. As he realizes how important his shop is to the neighborhood, we in the audience do as well. It is a marvelous performance.

Barbershop does have its flaws, particularly Anthony Anderson as JD. Anderson is becoming a cliché, playing the same character over and over. In Barbershop his constant mugging is tiresome and unnecessary. The film could have done without his entire subplot. Still, Barbershop is a very good movie. For me the most important thing in comedy is consistency. Most films take too long setting up jokes that aren't funny enough to justify the time taken to set them up. In Barbershop, laughs come early and often, making for one of the funniest movies of 2002.

Movie Review: All About the Benjamins

All About the Benjamins (2002) 

Directed by Kevin Bray

Written by Ice Cube, Ronald Lang

Starring Ice Cube, Mike Epps, Anthony Michael Hall, Eva Mendes

Release Date March 8th, 2002 

Published March 8th, 2002

I've always liked Ice Cube as both a rapper and an actor. His performance in 1991's Boyz In The Hood was a blistering announcement of an actor who was here to stay. While at times Cube's style can be a little too laid back, his persona is such that he's always likable. In All About The Benjamins, his laid-back style is put to good use against the backdrop of sunny south Florida.

Cube plays Bucam, a bounty hunter who picks up petty criminals who skip bail while indulging in his love of expensive rare fish. After taking down a redneck criminal (Anthony Michael Hall in an unnecessary cameo), Bucam is once again assigned to pick up Reggie Wright (Mike Epps) a small time hustler whom he has picked up numerous times. Things are different in this pursuit however as Bucam, while chasing Reggie, happens upon diamond smugglers who try to kill him as Reggie hides in the back of their getaway car.

We've seen all of this before; the difference this time is the chemistry between Cube and Epps who have the easy rapport of a couple of good friends. Unfortunately Epps act is tiresome and Cube can't get out from under both Epps's hamminess and the script’s clichéd action.

The film attempts to buck action movie conventions but the attempts are obvious as if the film is trying to tell us, “See normally it's done this way but we are doing it this way.” This “too clever by half” approach only calls more attention to the clichés rather than subverting them.

Cube is great and has a great future as both a writer and actor. Epps on the other hand needs to work on his shtick, which gets tiresome quickly. The same energy and over the top attitude worked in How High, but in All About the Benjamins it's gone from funny to obnoxious.

Movie Review The Longshots

The Longshots (2008) 

Directed by Fred Durst 

Written by Nick Santora, Doug Atchison 

Starring Ice Cube, Keke Palmer, Dash Mihok, Tasha Smith, Matt Craven 

Release Date August 22nd, 2008 

Published August 21st, 2008 

"Zzzz" Zzzz" Huh, what. Oh. Right. I am reviewing The Longshots starring (Yawn) Ice Cube and Keke Palmer. "Zzzz" "Zzzz". Oh. Sorry. Even thinking about this sports movie snoozefest makes me nod off. It's not that The Longshots isn't appealing or well crafted, it's just not all that interesting. A girl quarterback is novel and the true story thing makes it more novel. Beyond that however, the film, directed by (I kid you not) former Limp Bizkit rocker Fred Durst, is a by the numbers sports movie filled with all of the uplift, pomp and circumstance typical to the genre.

Ice Cube stars as Curtis, a layabout former high school football stud whose life just didn't pan out. Now a neighborhood cautionary tale, Curtis is pushed by his sister to take an interest in his niece Jasmine. They have little in common. When one day Curtis tempts Jasmine into throwing the football with him he finds her surprisingly adept.

Curtis decides to nurture her talent and before long she is throwing with more power and accuracy than most boys her age. Curtis decides to get her a shot with a local pop warner team. Coach Warner (Matt Craven) is, not surprisingly, dubious of the girl's talent but is soon won over. The team stinks anyway, why not a girl quarterback. Jasmine gets a shot and whaddaya know, the team starts winning.

You can plot the rest of the movie in your head. There is a subplot with Jasmine's no good, deadbeat father. That plot, like the main sports story, plays out in just the same by the numbers fashion. Clearly, Fred Durst and writer Nick Santora have read their McKee books. They plot everything on a flow chart and never deviate. Predictability quickly gives way to boredom in The Longshots and boredom is a sin no film can survive.

Keke Palmer is a young actress with a very bright future. She however, needs to choose the right roles. Akeelah and the Bee, definitely the right role. The Longshots? Not so much. It's not that she doesn't perform well. It is rather that she is forgotten amidst the supremely dull presaged plot. No actress, no matter how engaging, can overcome a plot as rote and uneventful as that of The Longshots.

(Yawn) The Longshots is a devastatingly dull sports movie. Despite the very talented Keke Palmer and the likable Ice Cube, this movie was DOA. Director Fred Durst and writer Nick Santora doomed this project when they failed to find something more to do with this plot beyond adhering to every melodramatic, sports movie cliche in the book.

Movie Review Friday After Next

Friday After Next (2002) 

Directed by Marcus Raboy 

Written by Ice Cube

Starring Ice Cube, Mike Epps, John Witherspoon, Don D.C Curry, Katt Williams 

Release Date November 22nd, 2002 

Published November 25th, 2007 

For all the talk about how great Eminem is, people lose track of the man who paved the road Em is now traveling. In 1991, an L.A rapper took an acting role. Mind you, not an easy role, but a serious dramatic role in the inner-city drama Boyz In The Hood. Ice Cube in the role of Doughboy showed real depth and emotion and brought real experience to a character that would have seemed inauthentic if played by anyone else. Cube had every opportunity to take the easy road. He could have played the same gangsta roles and picked up bigger paychecks, but instead he chose to go out on his own and by 1996, he was writing his own movies.

After several stops and starts Cube finished a script for an urban comedy simply based on real life in South Central Los Angeles. Friday was a raunchy comedy, in the vein of Cheech & Chong. Most memorable for launching the career of Cube's co-star Chris Tucker, no one would have imagined that Friday could inspire two sequels. Now with the release of Friday After Next, could a third sequel be far off?

As we rejoin Craig (Ice Cube) and his cousin Day Day (Mike Epps), it's the day before Christmas and as they sleep their apartment is being robbed by a guy dressed as Santa Claus. Craig wakes up to find Santa in the kitchen but can't stop him from getting away with all of the Christmas presents and the rent money they owe the next day. Craig and Day Day wouldn't worry about the rent so much, except that the landlady (Bebe Drake) has a son named Damon (Terry Crews) who is fresh from prison and ready to extract rent from any tenant unwilling to pay. In one of the movie’s many low points it is revealed that Damon has an affinity for prison sex, if you know what I mean. Craig and Day Day's only hope for avoiding a date with Damon is their new jobs as security guards at a strip mall, where their fathers have just opened a rib joint.

While Craig just wants to get through the day and get paid, Day Day takes to the job a little too much leading to even more problems and another run in with Santa Claus. Among the other businesses in the strip mall is a new clothing store called Pimps & Ho's. No I'm not kidding. It's run by a pimp named Money Mike (Katt Williams in the film’s funniest performance) and his 'Ho,' Donna (the unbelievably gorgeous K.D Aubert).

All of the film leads up to a Christmas party at Craig and Day Day's apartment that they use to raise the rent money and where Money Mike has an unwanted meeting with Damon. Of course, there is one more run in with Santa Claus and a chase scene that provides the film’s funniest moments. Unfortunately, it isn't until the end that the film picks up steam and provides the few chuckles of the entire film. Until the end, it's mostly unfunny stereotypes and misogyny. Throw in a little gay bashing and you have a comedy that is attempting to push the boundaries of political correctness but failing miserably.

I believe anything can be funny in the right context and intent, but there is nothing funny about the character of Damon threatening to force guys to have sex with him. Ice Cube's script too often falls back on the excuse that because the characters are black they can make fun of black stereotypes. The problem is that the stereotypes aren't funny. You would expect stereotypical characters to be played broadly and over the top but too often on Friday After Next, they play straight.

At some point in his career, I vaguely remember this, Mike Epps act was funny, but now it's so tiring. Epps quickly wears out his welcome in Friday After Next and his work provides the film’s lowest of low points. As for Cube, it was sad to see such a talented actor go through the motions as he does here. Even with material he wrote himself, Cube can't seem to wake up. And sadly, with the successful opening weekend box office for Friday After Next, don't be surprised to see yet another sequel. If it happens, though, I think I will take next Friday off.