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Beauty InformationBeauty Shop
by:
Tamika Johnson
Beauty Shop tells the story of Gina (Queen Latifah) as she moves to Atlanta so her female offspring
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 antecedently
been done yet bring thing
new to what may be an overdone but amusive plot
and it is another to retell a story and not bring thing
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 flick as Store
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, cognize it all stylist who is a pain in everyone’s side, Chanel (Golden Brooks). There’s the novice stylist of a several 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, being trying to take over the business and the possibility that the shop may have to close for nice and you have the same movie, same story without any additional flare. You even as have the character that hawks their goods at the shop: in Store
it was a man commerce bootleg CDs and DVDs and in Beauty Shop it is a woman commerce catfish and monkey bread. The construct of being innovational must have ne'er
crossed the writer’s minds.
And once once much I say, can we dispense with the gay stylists. That is a stereotype that can go to the stereotype burial ground ne'er
to be seen or detected
of again…ever. Kevin Bacon, an actor I love makes an dead alarming and I repeat alarming job playing Latifah’s gay and fascist boss. We can as well dispense with "metrosexuals" the new overused and unhumorous
effeminate male stereotype that is going to appear in every flick wherever
men are employed in what are typically considered to be women’s jobs. If so, I say please finish now before you do audiences suffer any longer
then we already have at this new, extra caricature. There was one of these characters in "Guess Who", and one of Beauty Shop’s many a subplots is trying to numbers out if the only male stylist is gay, straight or a metrosexual which would-be be a cross between the two.
For positives, there were several laughs and the possibility to see a shirtless Djimon Hounsou was all but worth my money, but overall Beauty Shop was bromidic and a bore. Ultimately the question is -- do you actually want to spend your money on thing
you’ve already seen before. For me the answer is simple: No, I don’t.
Just about the Author
Tamika Johnson is a freelance writer and owner of PrologueReviews.com. To see much reviews by Tamika or to have your book, music or film reviewed visit http://www.prologuereviews.com
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