On this day in comedy on September 13, 2002, Barbershop was released by Metro Goldwyn-Meyer
The title says it all. For 102 minutes you’ll laugh at the daily antics that go on in a Black barbershop. It could be any shop. This one just happens to be in Chicago. Instead of your barber and his crew this “staff” consists of Ice Cube and Cedric the Entertainer. Cube inherited the shop from his father and Cedric is the old man of the shop. Since business isn’t popping off fast enough for Cube (who has a child on the way and bills standing in the way), he sells the barbershop to a local gangster (Keith David). Not long after, Cube reconsiders that move while trying to figure out how to tell the other barbers and then realizing how much the shop is a major part of their lives and that of the community. So he attempts to buy the shop back only to discover gangster up prices. The figure to buy it back is double now. After a series of mishaps and illegalities, Cube get the barbershop back and the criminals go to jail.
Directed by Tim Story and produced by George Tillman, Jr., Robert Teitel and Mark Brown, Barbershop co-starred Anthony Anderson, Sean Patrick Thomas, Lahmard Tate, Deray Davis, Troy Garity, Jazmin Lewis and introduced Eve and Michael Ealy. Jalen Rose had a cameo as Jalen Rose and on a budget of $12 million Barbershop grossed $77, 063,924, with this original version spawning 2 sequels, a spin-off (Beauty Shop) and a television series (starring Omar Gooding in the Ice Cube role).
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
Check out this clip:
