While the original Friday had some style and some real belly laughs, the sequel turns out to be a predictably hollow affair. It's almost literally a movie version of "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air". It has a few good spots, but it doesn't come close to matching the fun of the original.
Generally, I won't judge movies based on their sequels. Being sequels, they're almost always automatically inferior, though. So when people rag on a sequel, it's probably because it was a lazy, rushed and sloppy affair, conceived solely due to the following sentence:
"Wow, Friday only cost like $3 million to make and after video, it made about $125 million!"
With that kind of shallow motivation, it's a wonder any sequels at all are any good.
Next Friday makes the pretense of continuing a story line, although it's a weak one at best: Deebo (the villain who was knocked out in the first film) has escaped from jail and is now searching for his adversary. So Craig decides to "pack up and go live with his uncle who lives in the suburbs because he hit the lottery." Yeah, OK.
The rest of the plot is just Craig hanging with his cousin, his uncle, and the three nasty Latino boys across the street, their pretty sister, and some other random people. Throw in a few marijuana scenes to appease those who embraced the original, and add more doody jokes to detract from the fact that "Screamin'" Chris Tucker passed on the sequel. Then throw in a "Holy MOLEY, we need a large amount of money by tomorrow morning!" subplot and we're all set: Number one at the box office.
All the lame Hollywood politics than conspired to get this made could be forgiven if the movie were funny. Well, it is, in maybe three or four spots. Ice Cube chooses to employ his "stand back and watch everything happen" method of acting in the Friday movies. His character is a likable one, mainly because he's just quiet and unrealistically docile.
A few of the supporting cast step up and add some humorous touches: Mike Epps is pretty funny as Chris' mumbling and nervous cousin, Day-Day. Sticky Fingaz (great name) is also pretty funny as Uncle Tyrone, even though he's doing an obvious impression of Bernie Mac.
As far as technical merits and directing and all that, please. It's a comedy about pot smoking, standing around, and stereotypes. Don't look too deep.
All in all, it may be worth seeing for fans of the first one, but don't expect it to be better. It's got a handful of quality gags, quite a few lame ones, and some that are just sad. (Hey, seemingly all fat people are always funny and so is DOG POOP!)
Set two years after the events in FRIDAY NEXT FRIDAY follows a day in the life of protagonist Craig Ice Cube who must flee Los Angeles after neighborh...More at Family Video
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