“Barbershop: The Next Cut” film is flawed with boring jokes

By Harrison Mayesh
Staff Writer

The movie “Barbershop: The Next Cut” is back in theaters, for its 4th film of the series that does not live up to expectations.

Overall, the movie’s plot is slow in developing, and the movie is plagued with boring jokes. A few scenes aren’t relevant adding unneeded time to the film, and some scenes are confusing with the large amount of people that are on set. However, the film’s strongpoint is that the celebrity guest stars in the movie make the film more appealing.

Calvin Palmer (Ice Cube) plays an overly protective father and owner of the local barbershop on the south side of Chicago. After the recent gang violence Palmer’s goal is to make the south side a safer place for his family and friends in the community.

Jalen Palmer (Michael Rainey Jr) is Palmer’s son and from the beginning of the movie his goal is to make his son into a man. Many suspect Jalen of being affiliated with a gang that is contributing to the terror within the community.

The overall message of family in the film is very strong and powerful and touches the audiences heart because it shows how important family is and the unconditional love that the Palmer’s have. Palmer is an amazing actor and the love he shows to his family seems truly genuine and realistic.

The beginning of the movie is very slow because it takes a while for the plot to be developed. It takes a long time for the plot to further because the main characters are talking about irreverent things. Most of the dialogue in the beginning of the film is the workers in the barbershop making jokes to each other, which is funny at first but quickly becomes unexciting.

The film becomes more exciting with familiar faces of celebrities that are apart of the movie, but ultimately fails because of the terrible acting. Yummy (Tyga) is one of the gang leaders in the south side and Draya (Nicki Minaj) is a worker at the barbershop and one of the main characters of the film. Both of these characters should just stick to singing because both of their acting seemed very forced.

In one scene the workers at the barbershop decide to invite people from the south side to talk about the issues in their city and try to resolve them. Once the townspeople are there, they don’t say anything or give any ideas about how to fix the problem. This scene is pointless because there is no reason to have so many extra people in one scene if they don’t say anything crucial to the movie’s plot.

Overall, the movie is amusing from beginning to end but extra unnecessary jokes and scenes add unneeded time to the film, making it less enjoyable. Some of the acting is so abominable it is almost funnier than some of the jokes. The celebrities throughout the movie make the film more intriguing with so many familiar faces.
The movie “Barbershop: The Next Cut” is rated PG-13. The film was released on April 15, 2016 and can be seen at all local movie theaters.