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88Combines big laughs, a big heart and thoroughly winning characters to become the first big surprise of the fall season.
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80As warm as it is wise, deftly setting off uproarious humor with an underlying seriousness that sneaks up on the viewer, providing an experience that is richer than anticipated.
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80A rousing celebration of the family-run small business, this Ice Cube-topped ensemble comedy, without offering anything especially new or exciting, provides a springboard for high-voltage comic exchanges that double as wisecrack-coated lessons in community relations.
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80Why, in our drum-thumping, ritually trumpeting time, did so little fanfare precede the opening of a movie with so much to recommend it? This is grand entertainment.
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80It's funny as hell, and I am proud to say that as a card-carrying white guy, I got three, or possibly even four, of the 239 jokes.
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75There is a kind of music to their conversations, now a lullaby, now a march, now a requiem, now hip-hop, and they play with one another like members of an orchestra. The movie's so good to listen to, it would even work as an audio book.
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75Entertaining, surprisingly well-written and often rowdily amusing picture. It is predictable in many ways but also full of heart, humor and personality.
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75Best of all, and worth the price of admission, is Cedric the Entertainer.
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75Here, as in the "Friday" movies, the jokes are big and rude and vulgar and very funny.
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75A broad, very funny, unexpectedly graceful comedy of character and community.
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75Comes as a pleasure. It's a comic drama set in a Chicago hair salon where the characters are engaging and the story has a bustling richness.
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75Not everyone is going to appreciate the politics of Barbershop, but you've got to admire it for having a political view at all.
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75A cogent, optimistic and mostly entertaining slice of ghetto life.
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70Much like how its employees and patrons don't want to see the barbershop close, once one has become acquainted with these people and this place, one may not want Barbershop to end.
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70Despite the fact that you can see every plot twist a mile off, director Tim Story keeps the script by Mark Brown, Don D. Scott and Marshall Todd rollicking with a jazzy spontaneity.
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70Ice Cube serves as the film's solid moral center, with a dizzying variety of supporting characters in his orbit. A refreshingly class-conscious comedy-drama that refuses to talk down to its audience, Barbershop tackles serious issues.
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70I've seen better movies recently, but it's been a long time since I've left one feeling the easy, full-bellied happiness this one evoked.
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70Some of the verbal jousts are hot, and a Laurel and Hardy routine involving a stolen ATM is fitfully hilarious, but this reminds me of a pilot for a cable sitcom.
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67Towers head and hairpiece above much of what passes for urban comedy these days.
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67The mixed-up rhythms of the story rescue Barbershop from bland goodness.
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63The film's heart lies in what goes on at Calvin's shop, that haven from the cold, cruel world. Where else can you get philosophy, humor, friendship and a little off the top?
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63A stage-y but likable ensemble piece.
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63Genial but largely predictable ensemble comedy.
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60Inlike many directors with music video backgrounds, Tim Story keeps the flashy cutting to a minimum and lets the story unfold at its own unhurried pace.
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60So often loose and funny that you'd have to be pretty stingy not to get some pleasure from it.
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Doesn't always cut it -- and, somewhat embarrassingly, boom mikes hover on screen so frequently they deserve co-billing -- but it's a likable venture that just misses being a lovable one.
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60Isn't as funny as it should be. Cedric's speech impediment only goes so far -- he's actually funnier in Serving Sara, without having to rely on a big wig to do his acting for him.
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40As hackneyed as they come, but the overall mood is less cynical than affectionate.
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30Good-natured fun when it isn't stale, which is most of the time, this talky comedy set in a Chicago barber shop is a sitcom pilot disguised as a movie.