Barbershop: The Next Cut

Barbershop 3, or Barbershop: The Next Cut, is an pretty good movie. It is fairly well acted. there are some legitimately emotional moments and a few good laughs. I have never seen either of the Barbershop movies, or the spinoff film Beautyshop, but from what I can gather from this one, a large part of the appeal is seeing conversations about real-life current issues affecting the black community play out on the big-screen. In that respect, this movie does very well. The film takes place in Chicago, which has been experiencing a major increase in gang violence, and the film not only addresses this but makes the characters' attempt to respond to this violence the main focus of the film.I bet you wouldn't have guessed that this poster was for a movie about gang violenceThe social issues aspect was the most successful part of the movie. Ice Cube's storyline revolves around his son choosing whether or not to be in a gang and it's actually pretty gripping. I understood Ice Cube's desire to move to safer neighbourhood, even if it meant giving up on his past. Its a complicated issue, and the film did a really good job of giving every viewpoint a voice.Settle down, I'm getting to NickiOf course, social commentary is only half of (what I assume is) the Barbershop formula; the other half is the laughs. Most of the heavy lifting in the comedy department comes from Utkarsh Ambudkar (Mindy Project) and Lamorne Morris (New Girl), both of whom are newcomers to the Barberverse. Nicki Minaj is also in the movie and has a few zingers. I think Nicki has some charisma and while she isn't really playing a character, I would say that also applies to Ice Cube, Common, Eve and Tyga, so at least she isn't the only one. Oh, and if you're wondering whether or not we see Nicki's famous ass featured prominently, rest assured that it is indeed featured prominently. As in, front and centre. As in there is an entire 20 second scene where Common and the audience watch her walk up a flight of stairs. As in she has a twerking scene. (Though we didn't see her face in that scene so I'm not convinced that it wasn't a stunt booty). The movie is pretty shameless, but it does fit her character, who is the bad girl to Margot Bingham's hippie good girl.You do you NIckiIf you watched the previous movies, you're probably shouting at your screens, so filled with rage that you're clawing at your screens trying fruitlessly to somehow harm me for your confusion "But Common is married to Eve in those movies? Why is he checking out Nicki?" followed by a series of bone-chilling howls. Well let me ease your pain dear reader, Common's subplot in this movie is that he feels neglected by Eve and Nicki sees this as an opportunity to seduce him. He rejects her, but due to a wacky misunderstanding, Eve thinks he cheated on her. Then they forgive each other. The End. This was definitely my least favourite part of the movie, especially because Eve and Common are both incredibly unlikable. When Tyga puts in a better performance that you, maybe it's time to hang up acting guys.This movie gives a definitive answer on whether or not its still ok to make fun of white girls: YESIt is a pretty sloppy movie. There were a few scenes where the time of day seemed to be very unclear; at one point, Common drives Nicki home since it is on the way to pick up his daughter. When they leave it is daytime, but when they get to Nicki's place it is dark out and the daughter is not there. So, ok maybe they already picked up the daughter and dropped her off at home. But then, Nicki asks Common how long he has until he has to pick up his daughter! I have no idea. There's another scene where Eve wants Common to have sex with her, but he's worried about waking up the kids. But then he gets up to make sauce. What kind of sauce is he making while the kids are in bed? Maybe the editor had a crush on Common and got distracted whenever he got on screen?Overall it was a decent movie, though the numerous cameos from the previous films (I assume) got a bit tedious for me. Again, this might not be the case if I had seen the other movies, but it still had an effect on my experience.3/5