Barbershop | | Cast : | Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Eve (II) | | Director : | Tim Story | | Studio : | MGM/UA Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | September 13, 2002 | | DVD Released Date : | January 13, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed), English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 06, 2005 | | Summary | An eye-opener | Content
 | Different people are struck by different things in movies, and what struck me about this one is that it is about community. People always form themselves into little villages, even if only one block square in a big city. There's always a vague, loose hierarchy, with what you could call the village elders at the top--in the case of this movie, Cedric the Entertainer. Then you've got the laziest and most dishonest at the bottom--that would be the guy who cheats on his girlfriend and sticks another woman under his bed when she shows up unexpectedly. The barbershop itself is the community gathering place. That's really what this movie is about--community, neighborhood, and how people interact in it. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 26, 2005 | | Summary | True to life, and keeps it real. Come hang out at the Barbershop. | Content
| Barbershop is a rare event in African-American filmmaking. It's one of the few that actually tells a fairly accurate story of what life is like for African-Americans. I love the fact that the movie showed how diverse the African-American community is; we see black people from different walks of life and different lifestyles shown onscreen. I really liked this movie. We definitely need more films like this
Calvin is the owner of a Chicago Barbershop passed on to him by his late father. Mired in debt from the shop and his crazy business schemes, Calvin is desperate to start something of his own and feels that the barbershop is a hindrance on his life. It's not until he sells the barbershop to a loan shark that he realizes the value of the shop to the community and sees a role for himself in the neighborhood. There are a dozen other stories that link to this main one and they're all easy to follow. One follows a stolen ATM machine, one follows the quest for love of an African immigrant, another follows a female barber and her cheating boyfriend, another follows a guy desperate for a haircut to go to a job interview, and yet another follows a white barber's quest for acceptance by the black barbers he works with. In a way, this film reminded me of those great ensemble movies like Pulp Fiction that follow many characters and their stories. Each of the stories lead up to the ending where Calvin saves the barbershop.
Director Tim Story does a great job of capturing life in Chicago and the informal environment of the barbershop. I felt the spirit of the Windy City and the informal environment of the barbershop. Watching the conversations in the movie reminded me of the barbershop in Harlem my father used to take me to when I was a boy. It also reminded me of the charged atmosphere of the old barbershop I used to go to get my flat-top trimmed (Both are closed now.) :(
There are a ton of great performances in this movie; I'm probably going to miss mentioning a few people. Ice Cube is great as Calvin. I liked his performance here. Michael Ealy stands out in his role as an ex-con trying to turn his life around by becoming a barber. Ealy makes you feel his characters' desperation. Cedric the Entertainer makes a breakthrough performance as an old barber. He's funny and poignant. Sean Nelson is great as an educated man who works as a barber while going to college. Anthony Anderson and Larenz Tate are hilarious as two bumbling thieves who steal an ATM with no money in it. Watching them try to open will make you laugh. Keith David is creepy as the loan shark. Then again, Keith David is always good in anything he does. I'd pay money to watch him and Sam Jackson read listings in the yellow pages.
I don't know why Movie Critics and the Rev. Jesse Jackson denounced Barbershop, it's one of the best movies ever made about African-American life. Looking at the box office of Barbershop and Diary of a Mad Black Woman, African-Americans actually WANT more films like this. As a black moviegoer I want different black films that allow the world to see the whole community, not just one small part of it. I for one and tired of the "Hood" movies like Never Die Alone, and Critically acclaimed movies like Monster's Ball and Hustle & Flow that depict black life as something negative. (Thankfully, it seems the rest of the black community is tired of these types of movies too, the box office and DVD sales for them is declining while the box office for movies like Barbershop and Diary of a Mad Black woman are going up.) End of rant, back to the review.
A Shawn James essential Five Star video. You must buy this movie. Get some friends together put the DVD in the machine, Pull up a chair and have a seat in front of the TV and hang out at the Barbershop.
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| Rating | | | Date | June 27, 2005 | | Summary | I Like This Movie. | Content
| This movie was funny. My favorite scene is where Lester Wallace came to the barbershop and he said Eddie and Eddie said nigga!. That was funny. I also like the part when they was talking about Rosa Parks. Checker Fred was mad at Eddie because he was talking about her and he said something about that he better not talk about Jesse Jackson and Eddie said man f*ck Jesse Jackson!!. I know that people been complaining because he was talking about Rosa Parks. That was just a joke and it`s just a movie. One more part that i liked was that Isaac and Jimmy were ranking on each other and Isaac won and they played the music and it was funny when they were dancing. I laughed hard. I give Barbershop 5 stars and i give Barbershop 2 4 stars because Barbershop 2 was kind of different. And they going to make Barbershop 3 and it should come out in 2006. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 24, 2005 | | Summary | Great movie | Content
| Ok to that man, woman, boy or girl, nobody needs a racist because i'm 14 and i feel insulted. All black people don't act this way. This movie was very funny and makes you feel good about yourself. So don't write anything like that again. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 25, 2005 | | Summary | A cut above! | Content
| I looked forward to watching this movie after I had seen its sequel. I enjoyed this movie better than Barbershop II, although, the 2nd movie was mostly funny. What especially impressed me was the ensemble of actors. Ice Cube showed depth to his acting that I had not before appreciated. I also found myself paying attention to all of Cedric the Entertainer's time on screen, all of his nuances and lines were equally entertaining.
This movie has enough positive reviews, but I only want to mention the controversy that arose when the movie premiered. That had to do with the scene in which Cedric's character mocks Rosa Parks, the civil rights figure. Some in the civil rights community took great offense that Ms. Parks would be ridiculed. If this is all that happened in the movie, then their anger would be justified. However, one needed to see the context of the comments, which was to highlight the sanctity of the barbershop for those who worked and patronized the shop. Cedric's character made a point of saying that anything can be said in the shop and that was the history of freedom enjoyed by all frequented the establishment. Also, the negative comments were vociforously countered by all the others in the shop, so Ms. Parks was not left with mud. I heard that some were so angry that they demanded that Cedric apologize. That would be like asking the actor who played Judas in the Greatest Story Ever Told to apologize for turning in Christ. He was an actor playing someone who would say these things. He did not say that he endorsed it.
Anyhow, I recommend this movie on dvd. There are some nice outtakes and other extras on the disk and it's a movie to see again.
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