Barbershop 2: Back in Business

If "Barbershop" was Ice Cube's "It's a Wonderful Life," the sequel is his "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

The 2002 original cast Ice Cube as a successor to James Stewart and Frank Capra's George Bailey, a malcontent quietly seething over the confines of the family business until circumstance teaches him the richness of his life.

The equally warmhearted follow-up "Barbershop 2: Back in Business" puts Ice Cube in the footsteps of Stewart and Capra's Jefferson Smith, a naive idealist battling corrupt business and political forces in the name of communal decency.

The sequel does not feel like a rush job knocked off to turn a quick buck. "Barbershop 2" maintains the original's mix of sweetness and urban attitude while incorporating dramatic undertones that nicely complement the broad comedy.

Now content with his role as a mid-sized fish on a small street on Chicago's South Side, Ice Cube's Calvin cheerily referees the spats and squabbles among his haircutting crew.

Irreverent elder barber Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer) continues to play the iconoclast, railing with unabashed political incorrectness and babbling about such nonsense as his "lactose intoleration."

Sean Patrick Thomas's know-it-all Jimmy has graduated from cutting hair to working for a local alderman (Robert Wisdom) who is in collusion with a businessman (Harry Lennix) opening a "Nappy Cutz" hairstyling franchise across the street from Calvin's place.

Faced with competition that could put his shop out of business and corporate gentrification that threatens to obliterate his neighborhood's soul, Calvin must choose between championing the locals or cashing in on the boom times.

Director Kevin Rodney Sullivan and writer Don D. Scott maintain the rapid pace and snappy dialogue of the original "Barbershop." The affectionately quarrelsome camaraderie of Calvin's barbershop denizens is undermined somewhat by the addition of Queen Latifah as Gina, the owner of a salon next door.

Latifah makes her forceful presence felt in one of the movie's funniest sequences, Gina's duel of ridicule against Eddie. But the movie's cutaways to Gina's gossipy salon disrupt the main action, serving only as a clumsy setup for Queen Latifah's upcoming spinoff, "Beauty Shop."

"Barbershop 2: Back in Business" is rated PG-13 for strong profanity, crude sexual material (slang and innuendo) and brief drug references. Running time: 98 minutes.