Everybody's back for a fresh cut
There is so much banter and backchat flying around on this third visit to the familiar barbershop on Chicago’s South Side that it is a wonder any haircuts ever get done, particularly now that Ice Cube’s Calvin and his staff are sharing the premises with the beauty shop run by Regina Hall’s Angie.
Amid the sassy battle-of-the-sexes repartee, however, Barbershop A Fresh Cut also addresses the burning issue of gang violence in Chicago - the subject, too, of Spike Lee’s recent Chi-Raq. Calvin fears his teenage son will fall for the lure of gang life and while he ponders a move to the safer suburbs he sets about organising a weekend gang ceasefire centred on the shop.
The film does get preachy, but director Malcolm D Lee (Spike’s cousin) ensures there’s plenty of fun, too, with Cedric the Entertainer’s rambling elderly barber Eddie and Nicki Minaj’s saucy sexpot Draya providing the biggest laughs.
Certificate 12. Runtime 109 mins. Director Malcolm D Lee
Barbershop: A Fresh Cut debuts on Sky Cinema Premiere on Saturday 22 April and is available on DVD from Warner Home Video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xklf_8rl14g
