Beauty Shop
by:
-->
Beauty Shop, clone of Barbershop?
Beauty Shop tells the story of Gina (Queen Latifah) as she moves to Atlanta so her daughter can go to an exclusive music school. She finds a job as a stylist at a high end salon but after a confrontation with her boss leaves and opens her own beauty shop.
Beauty Shop doesn’t quite rise to the occasion as it repackages and regurgitates characters, themes and plots that we have seen before. It is one thing to tell a story that has previously been done yet bring something new to what may be an overdone but entertaining storyline and it is another to retell a story and not bring anything new to the table at all. Beauty Shop falls into the latter category and suffers greatly for it.
The main problem with Beauty Shop is that it is Barber Shop with women. From the plot twists to the characters inside the shop, it is the exact same movie as Barbershop except with Queen Latifah at the helm instead of Ice Cube. There is the funny, familial and penny pinching boss, Gina (Queen Latifah). There is the misguided, yet full of potential stylist in training, Darnelle (Keshia Knight-Pulliman).
There’s the arrogant, know it all stylist who is a pain in everyone’s side, Chanel (Golden Brooks). There’s the novice stylist of a different race that can’t get any business, Lynn (Alicia Silverstone) and finally there’s the opposite sex stylist who is the only one of his kind in the salon, James (Bryce Wilson). Add to that the money problems, someone trying to take over the business and the possibility that the shop may have to close for good and you have the same movie, same story without any added flare.
You even have the character that hawks their goods at the shop: in Barbershop it was a man selling bootleg CDs and DVDs and in Beauty Shop it is a woman selling catfish and monkey bread. The concept of being original must have never crossed the writer’s minds.
And once again I say, can we dispense with the gay stylists. That is a stereotype that can go to the stereotype graveyard never to be seen or heard of again…ever. Kevin Bacon, an actor I love does an absolutely horrible and I repeat horrible job playing Latifah’s gay and fascist boss. We can also dispense with "metrosexuals" the new overused and unfunny effeminate male stereotype that is going to appear in every movie where men are employed in what are typically considered to be women’s jobs.
If so, I say please stop now before you make audiences suffer anymore then we already have at this new, unnecessary caricature. There was one of these characters in "Guess Who", and one of Beauty Shop’s many subplots is trying to figure out if the only male stylist is gay, straight or a metrosexual which would be a cross between the two.
For positives, there were some laughs and the opportunity to see a shirtless Djimon Hounsou was almost worth my money, but overall Beauty Shop was unoriginal and a bore. Ultimately the question is -- do you really want to spend your money on something you’ve already seen before. For me the answer is simple: No, I don’t.
About the Author
Tamika Johnson is a freelance writer and owner of PrologueReviews.com. To read more reviews by Tamika or to have your book, music or film reviewed visit http://www.prologuereviews.com
Tamika Johnson
Beauty Shop doesn’t quite rise to the occasion as it repackages and regurgitates characters, themes and plots that we have seen before. It is one thing to tell a story that has previously been done yet bring something new to what may be an overdone but entertaining storyline and it is another to retell a story and not bring anything new to the table at all. Beauty Shop falls into the latter category and suffers greatly for it.
The main problem with Beauty Shop is that it is Barber Shop with women. From the plot twists to the characters inside the shop, it is the exact same movie as Barbershop except with Queen Latifah at the helm instead of Ice Cube. There is the funny, familial and penny pinching boss, Gina (Queen Latifah). There is the misguided, yet full of potential stylist in training, Darnelle (Keshia Knight-Pulliman).
There’s the arrogant, know it all stylist who is a pain in everyone’s side, Chanel (Golden Brooks). There’s the novice stylist of a different race that can’t get any business, Lynn (Alicia Silverstone) and finally there’s the opposite sex stylist who is the only one of his kind in the salon, James (Bryce Wilson). Add to that the money problems, someone trying to take over the business and the possibility that the shop may have to close for good and you have the same movie, same story without any added flare.
You even have the character that hawks their goods at the shop: in Barbershop it was a man selling bootleg CDs and DVDs and in Beauty Shop it is a woman selling catfish and monkey bread. The concept of being original must have never crossed the writer’s minds.
And once again I say, can we dispense with the gay stylists. That is a stereotype that can go to the stereotype graveyard never to be seen or heard of again…ever. Kevin Bacon, an actor I love does an absolutely horrible and I repeat horrible job playing Latifah’s gay and fascist boss. We can also dispense with "metrosexuals" the new overused and unfunny effeminate male stereotype that is going to appear in every movie where men are employed in what are typically considered to be women’s jobs.
If so, I say please stop now before you make audiences suffer anymore then we already have at this new, unnecessary caricature. There was one of these characters in "Guess Who", and one of Beauty Shop’s many subplots is trying to figure out if the only male stylist is gay, straight or a metrosexual which would be a cross between the two.
For positives, there were some laughs and the opportunity to see a shirtless Djimon Hounsou was almost worth my money, but overall Beauty Shop was unoriginal and a bore. Ultimately the question is -- do you really want to spend your money on something you’ve already seen before. For me the answer is simple: No, I don’t.
About the Author
Tamika Johnson is a freelance writer and owner of PrologueReviews.com. To read more reviews by Tamika or to have your book, music or film reviewed visit http://www.prologuereviews.com
Tamika Johnson
Beauty News
| Beauty shop - Google Blog Search |
| What Bill's Been Doin': Beauty Shop (2005) And they must've shown the movie Beauty Shop nine or ten times in the past two weeks. I first saw the flick a couple of years ago on a bus returning home from a day in New York City; I was half paying attention and half listening to my ... |
| Laura Bowers - Shop Talk Tuesday with Barry Summy! Today we have Barry Summy joining us in the beauty shop! (Don't you just love her name?) Barry is a Class of 2k8 member and the author of I SO DON'T DO MYSTERIES, a humorous tween mystery published by Delacorte Press/Random House that ... |
| To go to beauty school, do I need to take visual arts in ... Lastly, see if you can't get a job of some sort in a local beauty shop. You won't be doing hair, but you will gain exposure to the environment and the business, and it'll give you a reference, and it'll look good on a resume. Good luck! ... |
| Second City Style Fashion Blog - Style, Luxury, Beauty & Shopping ... Join Richie Rich, “Stylista” Contestants, and others at Gen Art’s SHOP NYC. Shop the newest looks from the hottest emerging designers are at your disposal, for up to 70% off, while enjoying an open bar, complimentary beauty products, ... |
| Designer Jeans - Shop Right, Buy Happy | Beauty - Fashion - Jewelry For reasons that escape this writer, young women still wear low-rise jeans. Rather than flatter and show off their figure, they choose to hide themselves in. |
| Divp-Proj.org » Blog Archive » Beauty Shop Beauty Shop tells the story of Gina (Queen Latifah) as she moves to Atlanta so her daughter can go to an exclusive music school. She finds a job as a stylist at a high end salon but after a confrontation with her boss leaves and opens ... |
| Valdosta Daily Times - Focus On: Joyce’s Barber and Beauty Shop Focus On: Joyce’s Barber and Beauty Shop By La-Keasha M. Brown The Valdosta Daily Times. LAKE PARK — Offering curls, cuts, and color is a barber and beauty salon that recently hit the city of Lake Park like a ton of bricks. ... |
| Second City Style Fashion Blog - Style, Luxury, Beauty & Shopping ... You are invited to Shop, Sip, Savor, and Sample! Small Business is the backbone of the economy - Celebrate female entrepreneurs! Meet special guest Gretta Monahan from Bravo's Tim Gunn: Guide to Style shares her secrets to success! |
| British beauty shop Space NK opens today - South Coast Plaza blog ... Bloomingdale's has a new partnership with Nicky Kinnaird's apothecary. |
| Food Diary of PickyEater....: A Gem in an ancient beauty No mistake, if you come across a shop named Wang Zhao Jun, do not mistaken it for a beauty parlor or a cosmetics dealer as it is neither but a famous eatery serving purely fish with carbohydrates. ... |
| RSS integration by RSSinclude |
