Friday After Next

After writing and starring in the funny homeboys-and-hemp comedies Friday and Next Friday, rapper-actor Ice Cube isn't quite out of ripe screwball ideas, but Friday After Next spreads them pretty thin. Cube and Mike Epps reprise their roles as slapstick cousins Craig and Day-Day, who are now roommates and desperate for rent money after a "ghetto Santa" breaks into their apartment at Christmastime, swiping presents and cash. The guys take seasonal security jobs at a dilapidated strip mall where their grumpy, squabbling dads (John Witherspoon and Don "D.C." Curry) run a barbecue joint. Craig romances a drop-dead gorgeous salesgirl (K.D. Aubert) at the strip mall's new clothing outlet, Pimps & Hos, while thick-wit Day-Day thinks he's suddenly a supercop, rousting church-lady carolers for loitering, but running away from gangbangers after rubbing them the wrong way. There are some good laughs to be had, but that's about the extent of the plot, and with the exception of Cube's credible Everyman performance, the cast of characters are nothing but embarrassingly low-brow, one-note clichés. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: DVD extras include the Infinifilm viewing option (with popup links to features); filmmaker commentary by director Marcus Raboy, producer Matt Alvarez and writer-producer-costar Ice Cube; actor commentary by Katt Williams, Anna Maria Horsford, Terry Crews and K.D. Aubert; six featurettes: “Hump Day,” (17 min.) on production, “Microphone Fiend: From Stage to Screen” (13 min.) on going from standup comedy to TV and film, “It Was a Good Day” (10 min.) on the cult-like status of the trilogy, “The Pork Report” (10 min.) on BBQ details, “Holiday in the Hood” (9 min.) on production and set design, and “Ghetto Fabulous” (7 min.) on character costume design; a trivia “Fact Track” (subtitled history and facts); nine deleted scenes with optional filmmaker commentary; a seven-minute gag reel; the music video “It's the Holidaze” by Westside Connection; and trailers. Bottom line: whole lotta extras for a disappointing film.] (R. Blackwelder)