The Barbershop takes place on the south side of Chicago. It is about a frustrated owner, Calvin (Ice Cube) as the third generation owner of a busy neighborhood barbershop inherited from his father, who ran it until the day he died.

Calvin has become very restless, unsatisfied and pressed to make loan and tax payments on the place.

He’s somewhat of a dreamer rather than a businessman. He dreams of building a state-of-the-art recording studio in the house he shares with his devoted wife (who will soon give birth to their first child).

He has been squandering the shop’s income on various failed get-rich-quick schemes.

Calvin decides to sell the barbershop to a loan shark for $20,000, then promptly sees the error of his decision and determines to get the place back.

The movie explains his change of heart by revealing the rich human comedy staged in the shop over the course of one typical day.

Beyond Ice Cube, the “gangsta” rapper turned actor plays an unexpectedly gentle soul.

The cast includes rapper Eve Charms as Terri, the tough girl stylist, who’s on the verge on breaking up with her no-good boyfriend.

Troy Garity (Isaac) as the only Caucasian cutter in the shop. His determination to be blacker than thou inspire one of the film’s riffs as the shop intellectual, Sean Patrick Thomas (Jimmy) takes on.

Michael Raly as Ricky, an ex-con working in the shop, has a quiet and sharp humor about him as he tries to stay on the right path.

Anthony Anderson (JD) and Lahmard Tate (Billy), are two clumsy ghetto thieves trying to crack the ATM machine they managed to lift from a local convenient store.

They spend the entire movie trying to pry it open. The most outspoken, irreverent and politically incorrect debater in the group is senior barber, Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer).

He has been with the shop since it opened more than 40 years earlier.

Cedric plays the windy, but wise man to sure perfection. He’s a master of comic timing.

Every time he comes front and center, the movie just lights up. Newcomer Tim Story, who is a music video ace, directed the film.

Anyone looking for a good laugh, I strongly suggest you check this movie out.

For more information about this movie, visit the Web site at www.mgm.com/barbershop.