Barber Shop: The Next Cut (2016), PG-13, ★★★

The Barber Shop crew is back.

I had to watch the first two movies again to get to know the characters again because it was such a blur. The first one was solid and funny and really paints the portrait of a friendly community amongst the barber shop crew and I thought it was well-done. The second one was sort of a disappointment because it had too much going on and it felt there were three different movies going on and it seemed to try hard to overlap every single character in one tight focus. With this movie, even though it has the same problem as the second movie, it retains more of the humor and has a heartfelt message as to what is going on in the barber-shop in the present time and around the community. This was a big surprise.

Calvin (Ice Cube) expresses his love for Chicago and the place where he has been running the barbershop business to support his family. Unfortunately, there has been gang violence and criminal activities surrounding the barbershop community and Calvin's neighborhood. Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer) even gets scared as he made a comment about somebody's saggy pants but when someone starts pounding at the door hard, it was just a delivery man bringing Eddie some breakfast.

The barbershop is now merged and is owned by Calvin and Angie (Regina Hall), which prompts them and the barbershop to make more money. On the women's side, there are new recruits: Bree (Margot Bingham) and Draya (Nicki Minaj). On the men's side, there are Jerrod (Lamorne Morris), Raja (Utkarsh Ambudkar) and Rashad (Common), who is Terri's new husband (Eve). Rashad's son, Kenny (Diallo Thompson) has been hanging with Calvin's son, Jalen (Michael Rainey, Jr.) and trying to maybe in a gang.

Here's the girl's side.

The movie has too many characters and too many stories going on to overlap with many situations. However, more stories and characters worked better than others. Again, I liked their discussions that are set in the present ranging from female appearances, racism towards black people mixed with politics, gang violence and maybe an affair between two people. At times, when it comes to certain characters and material, it tends to be more episodic as some sort of television show as to waiting to see what comes next later in the movie but again, some of the stories are better than others.

Ice Cube feels right at home with this next movie as he feels comfortable with his character and with other people. Cedric The Entertainer again delivers some jokes that are funny even when some of his jokes do not work. Common and Eve have chemistry as their story resolves some issues regarding a certain affair. Nicki Minaj is not as tiresome as her character in The Other Woman as she plays a pivotal role in one story. Regina Hall is not in this movie as much and I don't know why Anthony Anderson is needed again in his role. However, the best character-actor performances belong to the younger generation as their stories were more interesting.

This is a sincerely honest movie about the love of Chicago. All in all, it is what it is: a love note to the city of Chicago and it is touching and thought-provoking as it mixes politics, relatable topics and characters' stories quite well even though it gets a bit too much sometimes. However, I am recommending the movie solely because of how much the characters are more involving with the audience and with each other and how likable they are as to why we are interested in them. It is a breath of fresh air seeing the impact of how the present day is affecting the characters in the barbershop dramatically than comically.

***