NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

kai ringler first off I bought the movie because I wanted a half decent story and I wanted to laugh,, and well folks,, that just what I got,, nothing more , nothing less.. Queen Latifah does well,, Kevin Bacon,, is kinda out of place in this , but does try his best... I wanted Alicia Silverstone to have more screen time , but we can't all get what we want,, overall I thought that the movie was well thought out,, I wish that people would stop comparing it to Barbershop,, that's guy's for heaven's sake,, this is women,, a totally different ballgame if you ask me,, all of the other actors did a fairly decent job,, it's not gonna win any Oscars anytime soon,,but it's not a pile of crap like some on here tend to think,, I would recommend this to anyone who needs a good laugh.

Brian T. Whitlock (GOWBTW) Not giving up is a way to go. Following your dreams will get you there, ever if the road is very bumpy. In "Beauty Shop" Queen Latifah plays Gina Norris, a single mother and profession hair stylist who lives in Atlanta, Georgia because her daughter is going to a prestigious school of music. She leaves the beauty shop in the city because the owner Jorge(Kevin Bacon) is a credit hog, and a jerk. Not only her, but her other friend Lynn(Alicia Silverstone), a shampooer goes along with the ride. With the help of some family and friends, the shop would be a hit. There were some of the people who kinda had issues with Gina having Lynn working with her. Gina just did away with them "birds", and the others didn't say a thing about it. Because they didn't want to do with them either. In that shop everyone had something to say, and was not shy about. Gina had it all, until vandals wrecked the shop. But that didn't stop her one bit. Common grounds made the business strong, and with Gina running the shop, who can stop her? Not even Jorge could throw a monkey-wrench into the plan. All he was left with is shorter hair. Very good movie, sends a powerful message as well. 3.5 out of 5 stars!

jotix100 Gina, an immensely talented beautician, is stuck in Jorge's shop. Her clients adore her, as she does wonders with their hair and their egos. A beauty shop is the social place where women go, not only to have their hair taken care of, but also is where a lot of drama happens when divas don't have their way.Jorge, the phony man who owns the exclusive Atlanta salon, feels threatened by the talented Gina, who he sees as a threat; he ends up firing her. Gina doesn't take anything sitting down. She envisions having her own place and will not stop until she finds it. When she takes over a salon that has seen better days, she starts putting her input into what she wants the place to be. Some of her old customers follow her.Not everything is easy for Gina. It appears that Jorge is behind the scenes trying to do anything to derail Gina's business. But never fear, Gina is up to the task and she is a formidable foe, so don't mess around with her.This comedy, directed by Bille Woodruff, capitalizes on Queen Latifah's charismatic personality. She is sassy, she has common sense and if anyone can make a place like Gina's work, it's this huge talent that is the main reason for watching the movie. Kevin Bacon also has some hysterical moments as Jorge. He is a riot when he shakes his corn rows when he is in a snit. Alfre Woodard, Andie MacDowell, Mena Suvari, Djimon Hounsou, Alicia Silverstone, and Keisha Knight Pulliam, of the old "Bill Cosby Show" do their best to keep the pace of the comedy going.Ultimately, this is Queen Latifah's show. Enjoy it!

Polaris_DiB Beauty Shop You know, the more I think about it, the more I like Queen Latifah. For the overall uselessness of the movie Bringin' Down da House, that one scene where she transforms into a rich, upper class type public speaker just to show Steve Martin's character that she CAN do it, she just chooses NOT to, definitely shows a side of "black culture" that is much more relatable to-->the fact that (a lot/most/some?) choose that because that's how they WANT to identify themselves, and it's not meant to be confrontational at heart. It's like choosing to be a goth, or a punk, or all of those subcultures almost, conformingly anticonformist, grouping yourself in a similar minded alternative.So now we have this movie, where Queen Latifa plays Gina, a stylist whiz who feels under-appreciated at her job so opens her own shop, and there she shocks and appalls the neighborhood by bringing in white clientele and white employees and letting them all enjoy the scenery. It's actually one of the strongest movies dealing with integration I think I've seen, basically because when everyone gives trouble to the the white girl, and the white girl's getting upset and disturbed by it, Gina just has to say to her, "Hey, think how I felt in a white shop." Indeed.Plus, when dealing with those pesky issues of representation that seems to hover over every mediated creation of "black characters", this one is pretty broad, from the black women who refuse to work with the white woman and leave, to the young "white-speaking" black girl who keeps on getting hit on by the jive-talking twelve-year-old, to the African culture versed man above them who, also, happens to know a thing or two about playing good piano.And of course it would be. From the makers of Barbershop, it has that same more critical look at black culture that loves it, and yet knows what it really is and where people on "both" sides take it too seriously. Barbershop was actually quite a wonderful film, mostly because of it's political incorrectness, but also because of the pale-skinned barber who points out that being black is what he wants, not what he has to be born into, and Cedric the Entertainer doing his "Martin Luther King Jr. was a HO!" bit was just too much.Now if only this film didn't have ... well... Kevin Bacon. I thought that having Kevin Bacon in it would make it amazing, but it really, really didn't. He's just too weird for a too lightly humored film. Instead, I'd like to point out that this movie has Andie McDowell in a fantastic role, so with that cast, it's got to have SOMETHING to it.--PolarisDiB