Beauty Shop

The laughs come fast and easy in this sharp-tongued, estrogen-laced spin-off from Ice Cube's Barbershop comedies, but the minimal-effort plot keeps getting underfoot. Queen Latifah plays an Atlanta stylist who bails on a bad job at a ritzy downtown salon and buys a fixer-upper beauty shop on the edge of a rough neighborhood, where she inherits a handful of mouthy haircutters with chips on their shoulders…and she hopes for the best. Following the successful Barbershop formula, the movie's strength is its colorful cast of characters for whom no topic--from bikini waxes to Oprah Winfrey--is off-limits for zingers and smart remarks. But sloppy director Bille Woodruff (Honey) has a hard time just rolling with the punches, and keeps interrupting the fun with cumbersome romances and other side stories (Kevin Bacon plays Latifah's Euro-trash former boss who tries to sabotage her new business) that burden rather than enhance the film. In spite of its shortcomings, Beauty Shop does boast an abundance of humorous hoot-and-holler moments that keep the smiles coming consistently from beginning to end. A strong optional purchase. (R. Blackwelder)