If you take a look at the list of movies and TV shows that are released in the United States, and the ones that are successful, you will find that comedy dominates the list. People love to laugh, and as the world becomes more and more troublesome, with global warming, terrorism, and crime on the rise, there is a growing need for movies that distract people from these problems. Or help them deal with these issues in a way that doesn’t make them cry out in despair.
As the country has a large African American population, the number of movies serving them is also quite high. While there are some dramatic and romantic movies in this space, a large number of them are comedy movies. And the actors who star in these movies are very popular and iconic figures in their own right. Think of Eddie Murphy, who was fantastic in the Nutty Professor movies, Norbit, and the Beverly Hills Cop series. There’s Queen Latifah, who is almost equally popular for her comedic style and pacing. She has been in the Ice Age movies, as the voice of Ellie, has her own talk show, and was also part of the Barber Shop franchise (the second movie titled Barbershop 2: Back in Business).
Barber Shop has been a hugely popular series for its star, Ice Cube, who has many other comedic hits under his belt. It is located in a barber shop on the south side of Chicago. The first film featured Calvin (Ice Cube), who inherits a barbershop from his father, a cornerstone of life in America. You discover the true value of your inheritance only after selling it, as you realize that it is a place for people in the community to come together.
The second Barber Shop movie adopted the same premise and setting, and some of the same characters, and tackled a new set of challenges. In this movie, the antagonists were urban developers trying to wipe out all the family stores for a branded world. Queen Latifah joined Ice Cube for this film, although Anthony Anderson (who was recently seen on the hit TV series Blackish), who was in the first, was left out.
He returns in the comedy film Barber Shop: The Next Cut, reprising his role as JD. This one also has Nicki Minaj. The story is about the rise in violence and crime in the barbershop neighborhood. Calvin and the rest of the crew decide to tackle him in their own way.
Will this be the last movie in the series? That’s hard to say, since the previous movie had been released a decade before this one. Even if a sequel isn’t on the cards, a remake may appear a decade later.