Barbershop 2: Back in Business

What’s the Story?

In this sequel, Calvin's (Ice Cube) Chicago barbershop still plays a central role in the community. Money is always tight, but he finds a way to help out anyone who needs it. Calvin is glad to see more jobs, money, and tax revenues coming into the Southside neighborhood, but worries that the community's history and flavor will be lost in a sea of chain stores. Things look bad when a chain barbershop called Nappy Cutz puts up an "opening soon" sign across the street. Once again, Calvin must decide whether to sell out. There's plenty of give and take between the denizens of the barbershop: Terri (Eve), Jimmy (Sean Patrick Thomas) now working for an alderman, secretive ex-con Ricky (Michael Ealy), Nigerian immigrant Dinka (Leonard Howze), white barber Isaac (Troy Garrity), and of course, extremely talkative Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer). The old gang is joined by Calvin's cousin-in-law, Kenard (Kenan Thompson), just out of barber school, and gets some visits from Queen Latifah.

Is It Any Good?

Just as in the first film, the pleasures of BARBERSHOP 2 are in the delightful conversations, especially when compared to the fake-hipness of most portrayals of African Americans. This movie lets us listen in on conversations that are not just very funny; they feel much more authentic in the frank treatment of race, as the characters debate who they can "take credit for" and which white people they would be willing to have sex with.

The group discusses their disappointment in finding out that the DC sniper was black and the way the media portrays bi-racial celebrities. They debate what race Jesus was, and a woman explains that he is "Cablanasian, like Tiger Woods." Calvin explains to his baby that poor black people will always be asking him for money and that he won't know they're poor at first because they will dress very nicely. The movie also provides some historical context. We see how Eddie first came to the barbershop, and how he and Calvin's father stayed on through meetings of the Black Panther and the riots after Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination.