The Salon

Writer-director Mark Brown, who scripted the two Barbershop movies, tries the same formula with a distaff spin in The Salon, based on the same play that inspired the Queen Latifah vehicle Beauty Shop. So, essentially, this is the fourth time around for the story, and viewers might be forgiven for feeling narrative fatigue. Vivica A. Fox stars as the single-mother who owns a salon in a rundown Baltimore neighborhood where an assortment of colorful workers—the voluble one, the macho ladies' man, the swishy gay guy, the sexpot, and the mousy one stuck with an inconsiderate boyfriend—coif the locks of equally stereotypical customers. And—surprise, surprise!—the city is about to seize the block the shop's located on to build a parking garage! While The Salon is not much worse than the previous pictures, it's certainly no better. Not recommended. (F. Swietek)