This came out a little uneven.
Beauty Shop (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:110
Fresh:43
Rotten:67
Average Rating:5.4/10
Consensus: Despite a strong performance by Queen Latifah, Beauty Shop is in need of some style pointers.
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: Queen Latifah reprises her role as Gina, who audiences first met in the 2004 sequel to BARBERSHOP. This time she's the owner of her own beauty shop. A widow and single mom, Gina has moved from... Queen Latifah reprises her role as Gina, who audiences first met in the 2004 sequel to BARBERSHOP. This time she's the owner of her own beauty shop. A widow and single mom, Gina has moved from Chicago to Atlanta so that her daughter Vanessa (the charming Paige Hurd), a piano prodigy, can attend a performing arts school. Mother-in law Paulette (Laura Hayes) and sister-in-law Darnelle (Keisha Knight Pulliam, who played Rudy on THE COSBY SHOW) live with them. The bills are paid by Gina's job at Jorge's (Kevin Bacon) high-end salon, but his obnoxious personality ultimately proves insufferable. Gina quits her job and decides to get a place of her own, securing a loan with some resourceful tactics. Situated squarely in the ghetto and featuring a revolving cast of eccentric characters, the shop's quirky employees provide a constant stream of witty banter. Meanwhile the electrician who lives upstairs (Djimon Hounsou, AMISTAD) slowly wins Gina's heart. Despite challenges, Gina maintains grace, humor, and a magnanimous air that sees her through everything. The ensemble cast of this feel-good comedy at times eclipses its good-natured star, who functions as a den mother to the madness. Andi MacDowell and Mena Suvari play wealthy Atlanta socialites who defect to Gina's shop, while Gospel legend Della Reese also makes an appearance. Bryce Wilson's turn as an ex-convict stylist of questionable sexual orientation provides humor at his expense, while Alicia Silverstone's bumbling black-girl wanna-be is so charming that we forgive her fake accent. Building upon the success of the BARBERSHOP franchise, BEAUTY SHOP holds its own both in its comedic acuity, and in its inspirational story of an underdog who comes out on top through force of will and strength of spirit. [More]
Starring: Queen Latifah, Mena Suvari, Djimon Hounsou, Alicia Silverstone
Starring: Queen Latifah, Mena Suvari, Djimon Hounsou, Alicia Silverstone, Kevin Bacon, Paige Hurd, Laura Hayes, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Andie MacDowell, Bryce Wilson, Della Reese, Golden Brooks
Director: Bille Woodruff
Director: Bille Woodruff
Screenwriter: Elizabeth Hunter
Studio: MGM/UA
Reviews for Beauty Shop
Looks, feels and unfolds with measured sitcom familiarity, right down to the storming of characters through the shop's doors and the relentless crossfire of sassy putdowns.
At this point, any humor left in the Barbershop series is limited to a few stray clippings on the floor.
Thanks to Queen Latifah, it manages to keep its comic shape, even with the wind of familiarity blowing around.
The result is not so much a follow-up as a newly conceived comedy, and a good one at that.
Funny, warm and relaxingly good-natured, the kind of movie that invites us to check personal woes at the door.
Both fresh and familiar, entertaining and uplifting enough in its own right even if it doesn't quite measure up to its predecessors.
The movie has a solid moral core that uses stereotypes to impart important lessons about respect, tolerance and hair conditioner. And Queen Latifah is irresistible.
It's refreshing how most of the movie is essentially about the characters, their stories, their lives.
The film resides in the realm of mediocrity, dreadful in spots, enjoyable on occasion, and disposable throughout.
For all the vivid, amusing characters that surround Gina, Beauty Shop rightly belongs to Latifah, who comes into her own as a star and an actress in this film.
There is much to enjoy in the struggles and triumphs of Latifah's Gina Morris.
[A] wan, third-generation photocopy, only with chicks, and despite the fact that it’s an enormous mess, the terrific cast is undeniably ingratiating....
It's a boisterous and amiable movie but not, in the end, a very funny one.
Fun, sassy, and the only mainstream Hollywood comedy you'll ever see that features Maya Angelou quoted throughout.
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