Beauty Shop

Queen Latifah heads an "excellent ensemble" cast in this "warm, funny, empowering" (New York Post) comedy from the producers of Barbershop and the producer of Bringing Down the House! Co-starring Alicia Silverstone, Andie MacDowell, Alfre Woodard, Mena Suvari and Djimon Hounsou - and featuring Kevin Bacon in a hilarious performance - Beauty Shop "will slap a smile on your face and keep it there" (Premiere)! When Jorge (Bacon), the egotistical boss at a posh salon, pushes his star stylist, Gina(Latifah), a hair too far, Gina leaves and opens a beauty shop of her own. Inheriting an opinionated group of stylists, a colorful clientele and a sexy upstairs neighbor, Gina proves that you can't keep a good woman down - and you can't keep a shopful of outrageous women from speaking their minds!

With Queen Latifah holding court over a cast of sassy females, Beauty Shop continues the Barbershop franchise in entertaining style. Reprising her role from Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Latifah plays Gina the big-booty stylist, now on her own (she's a widow) and moving from Chicago to Atlanta, where she gets sick of her flamboyantly bitchy boss (played by... Kevin Bacon?), inherits her two best clients (Andie MacDowell and Mena Suvari) and her popular formula for "hair crack" conditioner, and opens her own styling shop with a $30,000 loan and a rainbow coalition of hairdressers played by Golden Brooks, Sherri Shepherd, Alfre Woodard and Alicia Silverstone. While it lacks the frank, sharply observant racial humor of Barbershop, this easygoing comedy moves along at an agreeable pace, with a supporting cast of beauty-shop customers (and a love interest, played by Djimon Hounsou) who play off Queen Latifah's effortless appeal with energy to spare. Sure it's conventional, and most of the characters are thinly developed, but Beauty Shop is a fun place to visit for 105 hassle-free minutes. --Jeff Shannon