Barbershop is a funny movie with heart. The plot is certainly not groundbreaking but the irreverent humor and likable cast easily make up for it. It's been more than a decade since rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube made his movie debut in Boyz n the Hood and he continues to build on a solid career and is now a bona-fide movie star.
From the producers of Soul Food, Barbershop is the story of Calvin, a young man in Chicago who runs a small neighborhood barbershop that was started by his grandfather and has been handed down to his father and now him. Calvin is unsatisfied with his life and is constantly hatching get-rich-quick schemes. When he is unable to pay the bank note on his business, in a moment of weakness, he sells it to a local loan shark. He quickly changes his mind but now it is too late. Or is it? We spend a pivotal day at the barbershop with Kevin and his assorted barbers as they talk about life and anything else that comes up.
The eclectic supporting cast of characters really makes the movie shine. We have the old-timers from Calvin's father's day, most notably Cedric the Entertainer, who gets most of the best lines; also there is the young gangsta trying to turn his life around, the pseudo-intellectual guy, the African guy, the chick and the white-guy-who-thinks-he's-black. The beauty of it all is that each one of these characters is fully fleshed out and allowed to grow over the course of the movie.
A sub-plot involving a stolen ATM machine is milked dry of laughs in a slapstick manner, but it garners enough chuckles to not hinder the overall enjoyment level.
