Barbershop 2: Back in Business

The original Barbershop was a cute enough movie, but this one stops having fun. Realizing they had a good thing in Cedric the Entertainer’s character of Eddie—the wisecracking barber with a controversial sense of humor—they practically hand the new film over to him. They should’ve left him in the corner, providing the occasional quip rather than giving him a big background story. Taking away from the fun is a script that cleans up Eddie’s barbed tongue so as to avoid the kind of controversies that swirled around the first movie. Ice Cube is good in the film, but the story of his Calvin’s struggle to save the barbershop from evil land developers feels like a rehash of the first film. The movie also stands as a poor excuse to launch Queen Latifah’s attempt at a franchise, with her making a cameo as a character that will show up in this year’s Beauty Shop. She’s not funny, and neither is the movie.