![]() ![]() The rhythmic energy of Ice Cube's dialogue and the easy charisma of his performance make Next Friday thoroughly enjoyable. Sure, some of the characters are stereotypes and many of the jokes are about drugs and scatology-but that's been the basis of humor since Plautus and Molière. It was directed by Steve Carr and stars Ice Cube, Mike Epps, John Witherspoon, Tamala Jones, and Tommy Tiny Lister Jr. It is the first film to be produced by Ice Cube ‘s film production company Cubevision. He writes richly comic characters that speak in virtual arias of bragging, complaining, and scamming. Next Friday is a 2000 American stoner comedy film and the sequel to the 1995 film Friday. Ice Cube doesn't write punch lines-though funny lines abound. It's a rambling, loose movie, but a genuinely entertaining one. It's up to Craig and his cousin Day-Day (Mike Epps) to solve these problems before the day is over. Craig expects the suburbs to be dull, but no sooner has he arrived than conflicts arise: The neighbors are hostile hoods, his cousin's girlfriend is out for blood and child support, and the house is about to be seized because of unpaid taxes. To protect Craig, Craig's father (John Witherspoon) sends his son to stay with his Uncle Elroy (Don "D.C." Curry), who won the lottery and bought a house in Rancho Cucamonga. His nemesis from that film, neighborhood bully Debo (Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr.), has just escaped from county jail and is out to get revenge. Ethan Brown Next Friday Ice Cube wrote and stars as Craig in this sequel to Friday, which he also wrote. Sitting on the stoop of Craig's rundown home, the two hilariously confront a kaleidoscopic array of gangbangers, weed dealers, crack heads, prostitutes, scheming girlfriends, and neighborhood bullies-all of whom, it should be noted, come off as sympathetic even as they are being caricatured, a true achievement in the crass, "booty call" environment of '90s African American comedy. Then unknown Chris Tucker plays Smokey, a marijuana-worshipping homeboy whose love for the green stuff lands him in predicament after predicament. Cube plays Craig, a frustrated teen who endures the ultimate humiliation: getting fired on his day off. ![]() Scripted by rapper Ice Cube, Friday is a no-frills tale of a day in the life of a pair of young blacks in South Central. Friday Friday is the rarest specimen of African American cinema: a 'hood movie refreshingly free of the semiseriousness and moralism of shoot 'em up soaps such as Boyz N the Hood, yet still true to the inner-city experience. ![]()
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