January 13–20, 2000

movie shorts

Next Friday

recommended

It’s not long before you feel like you’ve picked right up where you left off at the end of F. Gary Gray’s Friday, the 1995 sleeper hit starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker as South Central homeboys. Though Tucker’s Smokey is gone (sent to "rehab"), Cube’s supremely good-natured Craig is once again being menaced by neighborhood bully Debo (Tiny Lister), just escaped from prison. Craig’s daddy (John Witherspoon) sends him to stay in the "safe" suburbs, with his lottery-winner uncle (Don "DC" Curry) and cousin Day-Day (Mike Epps). Of course, Craig finds he must fend off all kinds of trouble, including his uncle’s unpaid taxes (he’s about to lose his fancy home), a trio of Latino brothers all named Joker, his uncle’s randy girlfriend (Kym E. Whitley), Day-Day’s angry exes (Tamala Jones and Lady of Rage), and Day-Day’s crazy gun-wielding video-store boss (Sticky Fingaz). Cube remains irresistibly charismatic, and his screenplay, directed by video maker Steve Carr (Jay-Z’s "Hard Knock Life" and "Can I Get A…"), is full of outrageous situations and doo-doo jokes, not unlike those in Austin Powers or There’s Something About Mary. It’s a silly, predictable and entertaining movie, populated by stereotypes but quite aware of what they mean and how they work.

—Cindy Fuchs