Beauty Shop

Beauty Shop tells the story of Gina (Queen Latifah) as she
moves to Atlanta so her daughter 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 previously been
done yet bring something new to what may be an overdone but
entertaining storyline and it is another to retell a story and
not bring anything 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 movie as Barbershop 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, know it
all stylist who is a pain in everyone’s side, Chanel (Golden
Brooks). There’s the novice stylist of a different 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, someone trying to take over the business and the
possibility that the shop may have to close for good and you
have the same movie, same story without any added flare. You
even have the character that hawks their goods at the shop: in
Barbershop it was a man selling bootleg CDs and DVDs and in
Beauty Shop it is a woman selling catfish and monkey bread. The
concept of being original must have never crossed the writer’s
minds.

And once again I say, can we dispense with the gay stylists.
That is a stereotype that can go to the stereotype graveyard
never to be seen or heard of again…ever. Kevin Bacon, an actor I
love does an absolutely horrible and I repeat horrible job
playing Latifah’s gay and fascist boss. We can also dispense
with "metrosexuals" the new overused and unfunny effeminate male
stereotype that is going to appear in every movie where men are
employed in what are typically considered to be women’s jobs. If
so, I say please stop now before you make audiences suffer
anymore then we already have at this new, unnecessary
caricature. There was one of these characters in "Guess Who",
and one of Beauty Shop’s many subplots is trying to figure out
if the only male stylist is gay, straight or a metrosexual which
would be a cross between the two.

For positives, there were some laughs and the opportunity to
see a shirtless Djimon Hounsou was almost worth my money, but
overall Beauty Shop was unoriginal and a bore. Ultimately the
question is -- do you really want to spend your money on
something you’ve already seen before. For me the answer is
simple: No, I don’t.