Touches You

A Masterpiece!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Star-studded African-American comedy set around a day in the life of a barbershop owner who is losing his shop due to money problems. The banter in the 'shop is fun and entertaining but generally racial in nature and so dated, or at least a little tired. I used to love this film, about fifteen years ago, but it doesn't bear repeat viewing now. The Indian and West African characters are rather stereotyped for humour, which doesn't really wash to UK audiences now. Ice Cube plays everything straight but everyone else is comedic, and it seems like everyone had fun filming. Cedric the Entertainer is brilliantly funny, when is he not? and Eve is a nice counterbalance to all the blokes in the shop. Anthony Anderson is the main comedic turn as a bumbling and accident prone crook - before his Law and Order days - but there are lots of other familiar faces such as Sean Patrick Thomas, Michael Ealy, Keith David, Jason George and Deon Cole. A giggle in places but not laugh out loud funny, but it used to be. Perhaps you have to be in the right mood.

It was so well-acclaimed by critics, and it was supposed to be an accurate description of black culture and how life was like in an inner-city barbershop, and I was excited to finally find it and see it.Basically, the whole thing was confusing and chaotic. We see two burglars smash into a store and pull out its safe with a truck, then somebody trying to make a hit record to get rich after other such schemes had failed (shades of The Honeymooners), the barbershop opening, a man cheating on his girl, all in rapid-fire succession so that we have trouble figuring out who is who and what exactly is going on. After 20 minutes, my mother and I bailed; the whole thing was so slapdash and confusing we gave up trying to follow it.It could have been a contender, but it was so rushed and clumsy it turned out to be a complete misfire.

"Barbershop" reminds me of a film made long ago--"Carwash". The big difference is that "Barbershop" doesn't have the same very broad humor and, at times, has some interesting philosophical statements to make...along with the humor.The film is about a barbershop in Chicago's South Side. If you aren't familiar with the area, it's a mostly Black neighborhood and this is a chance for a much wider audience to see this part of town. Few films are usually set here--as it lacks the glamor of places like L.A. and New York. So, it's nice to see it featured here.The plot is pretty thin and it's mostly there to provide a backdrop for all the excellent characters in the film. This is not a complaint--it's just the style of the movie. Ice Cube runs the shop that was given to him after his father's death. It's been in the family for many years, but he just can't make a go of it. Yet, despite not making much money, it is a very important place in the neighborhood--a gathering place for folks to talk and renew friendships. When, out of desperation, he decides to sell the place, he doesn't know what to tell his customers...let alone his many employees.The very large ensemble cast is quite good. They represent many different types within the community, such as the young man aspiring to get a college degree and leave, the white guy who seems to want to be black, the elder statesman among the barbers (Cederic the Entertainer), a sweet African man, and many others. At first, I found most of them to be rather one-dimensional, but over time they all revealed a greater depth than I thought possible in the movie--and I grew to like them and care for them. My favorite of them was Cederic, as he had so many funny, and occasionally insightful, lines. Interestingly, Cederic's tirade about Rosa Parks was actually correct in that quite a few others had done what she did on the bus. In 1854, Elizabeth Jennings Graham refused to give up her seat on a New York street-car and several others followed over the next century. But, fortunately, he was not the only one I really liked in the film--each had a chance to shine. Michael Ealy was also a standout--an excellent actor and and excellent character.So is this film for everyone? Well, I wouldn't recommend it for kids or my mother-in-law, as the language is earthy (but real). But aside from this, it's an excellent film--whether you are black, white or green! As for me, I'm a middle-aged white guy, and although I am not in the target demographic category by any stretch, I really had a nice time watching the film. Good acting, great characters and exceptional writing make this a good bet. I just can't see why its current rating on IMDb is so low...it should be higher.

Not every movie can be entirely original. But it's annoying to see obvious rip-offs from other movies combined with a lack of talent for story-telling (or in this case scene-telling). Obvious references which are simply taken and copied only with much lesser intelligence are: Coming to America, Big Lebowski, Do The Right Thing, Carwash, etc. For instance the car smashing scene: It isn't even done well, the guy takes forever to notice that his car is being smashed, then he runs out on the street and there isn't a single funny line. The scene is straight out of Big Lebowski (a movie I didn't like and found less original than almost everyone else but at least there was some craft involved in the making of that particular movie). And this happens all the time: people talk and do the most obvious things. No twists, no clever dialogue, just a shallow and flat deliverance. It sometimes even feels as if there was no script at all. People seem to have a general idea of a scene then just went along to see if anything (funny) would happen. It's all good and fine to try to capture alleged everyday life but this requires a skill. The "jokes" throughout the movie have Police Academy quality. i.e. they are primitive, slap-sticky and have been seen a million times. Fat guys are just fat and that is supposedly funny enough. For them to quote and make fun of Rosa Parks, MLK has absolutely no reason or twist or whatever. At one point in the movie guys talk about being entitled to reparation payments like Jews for the Holocaust. It's mystifying what all these touchy subjects that appear out of nowhere in the movie are supposed to be doing for a film that seems to want to be a light-hearted snap-shot of some inner city neighbourhood.It seems someone just wanted to cram every possible subject into a setting without rounding if off in any way thinking you can just loosely tie together scenes and ideas (from others), then mix in a few controversial subjects and voilà: Here's your masterpiece. Well: it didn't work.