Beauty Shop
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Movie Reviews of Beauty Shop
Movie Review: "Down It Latifah's Way"
Summary: 4 Stars
"Queen Latifah" is in the house with her fabulous Hair Salon. She returns back to the set as "Gina". *Beauty Shop* is a spin-off from
Barber Shop 2. If you enjoyed watching *Barber Shop 1 & 2* then you will enjoy Beauty Shop. Check-out how the women do it there way.
IT"S ALOT OF FUN!!!!
Movie Review: Great Movie!!!
Summary: 4 Stars
I was pleasantly surprised this was a good movie!
It was one of those cute little films that made me want to watch it more than once. Queen Latifah did a great job in her role.
Bottom Line is this is a great feel good family fun movie!
Movie Review: Quantity & Quality ....Fitting for a Queen
Summary: 4 Stars
I hesitated on picking this movie up, but I am sooo glad I did. The casting was incredible and the wit was non-stop ! I laughed the whole way through. Good pic-me-up and stay positive movie. Try it.Movie Review: A very fun movie.
Summary: 4 Stars
I liked this movie a lot. Yes, it was pretty predictable for the most part, but it made me laugh. Also, the gag reel was a hoot, be sure to check that out.Movie Review: Beauty Shop is not as funny as it could have been.
Summary: 3 Stars
I'll be the first to admit that I'm a big fan of Queen Latifa. She's just so versatile and so immensely talented; she can sing, dance and act, and she has a sassiness that is a beguiling mixture of the adorable and the sexy - she can shake her booty with the best of them. Which is why I expected better from her than what she gives us in Beauty Shop.
Yes - the film is minimally entertaining, but it's also a rather flat, standard, and pedestrian affair, where the jokes aren't nearly as funny as they should be and where the producers are just content to let the proceedings meander along without much of a plot. There are a few humorous moments, along with occasional randy, and outrageous one-liners, but generally the movie lacks impact and a lot of the humor just doesn't quite work.
There's no doubt that Beauty Shop is earnest and sweet natured, but it's also a rather ramshackle affair, thrown together from leftover materials and, in the last reel, so rushed to completion that it threatens to collapse from the effort to cobble everything together at the last minute. It doesn't help that the movie is stuck with a PG rating.
Black women of this nature can be so inherently funny, bawdy, and outrageous that perhaps an R rating would have helped give the film the naughtiness that it so desperately seems to desire. It's as though there's a much better and far more shocking film buried somewhere beneath the blow driers and the bottles of conditioner just waiting to burst out and surprise us.
Queen Latifah stars as Gina -a talented hair stylist who has moved from Chicago to Atlanta so her child, Vanessa (Paige Hurd), can attend a prestigious music school. She moves in with her mother-in-law (Della Reese) and headstrong sister-in-law Darnelle (Keisha Knight Pulliam) in what looks like a nice suburban house in a good neighborhood - hey, she can park her SUV on the street overnight and not even lock it!
Unfortunately, she's not happy working at a pompous beauty shop run by her unappreciative, euro trash, and streaky haired boss, Jorge Christophe (Kevin Bacon, having a lot of fun). It's an upscale, fancy place with some nice customers, and the money is pretty good, but Gina can't stand Jorge. He treats her like trash and ends up taking the credit for all her hard work.
Finally, she quits, and with the help of a back loan, goes off to start her own shop helped by the enthusiastic and sweet-natured stylist Lynn (Alicia Silverstone). The hook is whether Gina will succeed with the colourful assortment of staff that she assembles. There's the eccentric Josephine (Alfre Woodard), outspoken Chanel (Golden Brooks), sassy Ida (Sherri Shepard), as well as a hunky ex-con named James (Byron Wilson).
It's not long before Gina's having problems with her electricity, but Joe (Djimon Hounsou), comes to the rescue. He's a sexy and hunky electrician who just happens to be living upstairs; he's also a talented musician who encourages Vanessa and also serves as a romantic interest for Gina.
Much to Jorge's chagrin, Gina begins to attract some regular customers from her old job, most notably Terri (Andie MacDowell), a jittery, neurotic society wife with marital issues, and Joanne (Mena Suvari), a pretentious blonde who has just had some new breast implants.
Most of the drama comes from the typical struggles Gina faces as she renovates the shop. She has difficulties with employees and also has cash problems as she tries to make ends meet. All of this is fine, and might be enough material for several stand-alone comedy sketches, but it all amounts to a series of scenes instead of a cohesive story with a clear plot, climax and resolution. It also doesn't take much intelligence to figure out who is trying to sabotage her shop and why.
There are a lot of lines such as "you go girl" complete with the obligatory "sister" and "booty" references, some of which work and some of which don't. Golden Brooks as Chanel and Sherri Shepherd as Ida have most of the funny one-liners and they certainly bring some wackiness and attitude to the shop, but a lot of the humor falls flat, particularly Woodard's character who is reduced to randomly and intermittently reciting poetry.
Beauty Shop is one of those films that have a cast of thousands with each character seemingly jostling for attention and screen time. Some hog the limelight more than others, with the uninhibited Silverstone, Woodard, Underwood, and Shephard, for example, getting the lions share of the attention, but in the end, it all looks as though Queen Latifa has phoned the film in, merely inviting a bunch of her friends over for lunch and a good gossip. Mike Leonard August 05.