Spring Break
Friday After: nothing to be thankful for
Jill Michaelree
Film Critic
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Santa Claus is bringing the gift of pre-munchies guffaws this holiday season with Friday After Next, the third installation in the progressively declining Friday series.
This trite resurrection of Craig (Ice Cube), the "little misunderstood man who could," seems to have lost all of the charm and flavor of 1995's Friday.
Craig still can't get his break in a white-dominated weed-hating society. He returns to the ghetto jobless, mysteriously without a woman and recently robbed of his precious pot-leafed miniature evergreen tree.
With his Sancho Panza-like sidekick, Day-Day, Craig snatches a rent-a-cop position at a strip mall to pay the rent.
Their Arab supervisor comes down on "the man" and they are quickly without the luxurious job of hounding the customers of a pimp's clothing store.
In a catastrophic collision that serves as a fund-raising party, Friday After Next screeches to an awkward halt, leaving sober audiences confused but pleased to leave the auditorium early, like a required high school pep-rally gone vastly awry.
Co-writer Ice Cube has really scrapped the bottom of his resin-lined cranium for this one.
He unsuccessfully resorts to overused racial slurs (an over-the-top and smelly Arab donut store owner), kindergarten potty humor and "scandalous hoes" to sell this film.
Sure, it has its moments, like the much-needed (but fairly limited) family scenes.
Furthermore, it's nice to see minority-influenced holiday pictures this season such as Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights.
However, for the most part Friday After Next is a boring depiction of one man's struggle to get whatever he wants.
Director Marcus Raboy, who is new to the series, and Ice Cube turned an urban classic into a short and pointless chunk of coal in the bottom of hopeful fan's stockings.
They have now been demoted to the naughty list for lack of care.
Final say: This is one Friday you won't say TGI for.
D+
Friday After Next New Line Cinema Who will like this film: Those with the smogged-up windows on the way to the cinema.
Who won't like this film: Sober folks and original Friday freaks.
