Barbershop: The Next Cut Movie Review

I've talked before about how the best comedies out there (Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Deadpool, for instance) are the ones that go all out and are off-the-wall, 100% over-the-top goofy, but sometimes, a comedy doesn't need to be the absolute best. Sometimes, a comedy just needs to be a casual, sentimental, relaxing comedy where people can just be straight-talkers, and that's exactly the kind of experience audiences got out of 2002's black comedy, Barbershop, a film about a man trying to decide if he wants to sell his barbershop or keep it for his buddies on the south side. The film featured an all-star cast as well as some light-hearted comedy, so naturally, it became a big hit, which resulted in a sequel as well as a gender-reversed spinoff, neither of which sprung any kind of heavily positive response (and neither of which I have personally seen). So, the franchise was put to rest for a while until just last week when the gang returned for another round of more (ahem) cutting-edge comedy, and while it may appear unfamiliar in certain ways (Trust me, you'll know what I'm talking about in a sec....), it holds up as one of the better comedies of its kind.

The film once again follows Calvin, played by Ice Cube, who still runs a barber shop on the south side of Chicago with his buddies, including Eddie, played by Cedric the Entertainer, Rashad, played by Common, Jerrod, played by Lamorne Morries, among others. They're all concerned about the rise of gang violence in the area, fearing for their families' safety, fearing for their futures, and fearing that the government won't take the right actions to help them out. Calvin is so concerned that he's thinking of moving the shop up north, as well as sending his son to Catholic school. As for the rest of the barbers, they propose to gang leaders in the area that they cease fire for 48 hours in exchange for free haircuts during that period for anyone who walks in.

So, as you can tell, there's a lot more focus on dramatic, political elements here than there was in the first movie, making this less of a comedy and more of a dramady. While that may shut out a lot of hardcore fans of the first film, I honestly felt it fit in exceptionally well and doesn't detract from a lot of the comedic elements from the first film. Cedric the Entertainer still delivers a lot of laughs, you still get a lot of that straight talk with no limitations.... Nothing's really missing; the film just decided to look at a few more serious elements. Part of what still keeps it together is Ice Cube as Calvin; he's no Chiwetel Ejifor or Denzel Washington, but as the protagonist that we're all supposed to relate to, he keeps a pretty straight face among all these comedy stars, allowing the dramatic elements to flow naturally.

My consensus? For fans of the first film (as well as the sequels I still haven't seen), Barbershop: The Next Cut definitely worth a look.

My rating:

The Jungle Book (2016) Movie Review

The Jungle Book is the latest in Disney’s line-up of live-action reboots of their animated classics directed by Jon Favreau.

In this version, we meet Mowgli, a young man cub who’s part of a wolf pack accompanied by a panther named Bagheera. They join the rest of the jungle in a temporary truce at a spring lake where he gets discovered by a tiger named Shere Khan, who vows to hunt him down once the truce is over with. For this reason, Bagheera leads Mowgli towards the man village when, along the way, he bumps into creatures known as Kaa the snake, King Louie the Primate, and, of course, Baloo the bear, all the characters we recognize from the original.

Now, I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this; I wasn’t a huge fan of the original film, Disney’s live-action reboots, thus far, have been literally a hit and a miss, and the trailers didn’t really say that much about the film itself. However, I was overall incredibly impressed by this film. Unlike Alice in Wonderland where they tried to tell what was essentially a mindless trip of nonsense as a war story, The Jungle Book converts its story that was originally used for jazzy musical numbers in its predecessor into a dark and dramatic action story with phenomenal character development and a few twists up its sleeve.

A good chunk of what makes these characters so strong is in its performances. Ben Kingsley brings majestic characteristics to Bagheera, practically a match made in heaven. Idris Elba holds a very intimidating performance as Shere Khan. Seriously, name another actor that can roar his lines like him. Bill Murray is very fitting as the lazy, goofy, but also friendly and relatable Baloo, Scarlett Johansson is very sinister as Kaa, and Christopher Walken…. Well, he’s hilarious in anything he does. The only performance I didn’t like was Neel Sethi as Mowgli. His performance is very stiff and lifeless. Despite him shouting every line he has, there’s just not much energy to his delivery. But to cut him a break, he did have to go on green screen for basically this entire movie.

The entire jungle in this and all of its inhabitants is 100% CGI, but much like Avatar or the two recent Planet of the Apes movies, the texture and detail that went into it is so extensive that it’s still cool to look at, and the animation on the characters is much more fitting to their personalities than if the filmmakers had attempted to use real animals.

Overall, The Jungle Book is by no means perfect, but it’s much more impressive and far more engrossing than any other live-action reboot that Disney has sent out thus far. Definitely check it out.

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