5.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Gina is a hairstylist who opens up a beauty shop full of employees and customers more interested in speaking their minds than getting a cut.
Starring: Queen Latifah, Alicia Silverstone, Andie MacDowell, Alfre Woodard, Mena SuvariComedy | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: LPCM 2.0
French: Dolby Digital 2.0
English, French, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Do beauty parlors provide the same community aspect for African American women that they seem to for African American men in both Barbershop and Barbershop 2: Back in Business? The answer would seem to be both yes and no based on Beauty Shop, a kinda sorta spinoff that features Queen Latifah reprising what amounted to a glorified cameo as hairstylist Gina in the second Barbershop film. Perhaps because the emphasis this time around involves Gina being a concerned single mother along with what is the underlying staple of the first three Barbershop films, namely a threat to the hero or heroine’s business, there’s at least as much of a focus on an individual as there is on any kind of “pop up” community that may accrue at a business establishment. Kind of interestingly, and refreshingly non provocatively, the villain this time around is a Caucasian, a guy supposedly named Jorge Christophe (an almost unrecognizable Kevin Bacon), but Beauty Shop perhaps is as guilty of suffering from what I termed “The Perils of Pauline Syndrome” in our Barbershop 2: Back in Business Blu-ray review with a cartoonish threat that is arguably even less believable than the contrived obstacles in the two earlier Barbershop films.
Beauty Shop is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual's MVD Marquee Collection imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This transfer is generally bright and decently detailed, with an overall accurate looking accounting of what is at times a surprisingly burnished looking palette. There are a number of sequences that feature deep browns in settings like recital halls, and commendably shadow detail is above average during most of these scenes. The more candy colored moments pop with some vividness, and close-ups offer some excellent fine detail on everything from outfit fabrics to actual wisps of hair. While this was shot on film, the grain field is a bit variable in this presentation, sometimes seeming to come and go, though never completely disappearing. The grain field perhaps understandably tends to be most visible against brighter backgrounds, but even here can be a bit "iffy" at times. The entire transfer tends to be just a tad soft looking at times, something that tends to add a kind of artificial patina to a story that already struggles with feeling "real" all of the time.
Beauty Shop's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track takes advantage of the fact that his film, like its two predecessors, is stuffed to its virtual gills with a ton of source cues, many of which offer boisterous low ends that are reproduced faithfully and which also allow for a nice spread of instruments and vocals to the surround channels. Again as with some of the prior Barbershop outings, the crowded confines of Gina's shop allow for a nice spacious if sometimes kind of noisy accounting of things with various characters speaking over each other simultaneously. Quieter dialogue moments sound fine as well, and the entire track offers appealing fidelity and no problems with regard to damage or distortion.
In some ways Beauty Shop is even more contrived than either Barbershop or Barbershop 2: Back in Business, especially with regard to the threat posed by arch villain (?) Jorge. But kind of interestingly that doesn't tend to really materially affect either the comedy or (especially) the heart of this story, which is at least as much about Gina's trials and tribulations as a hard working single mother as it about kind of preposterous plots to bring her down. The film is filled with a lot of very enjoyable turns by a large and colorful supporting cast, but it's Queen Latifah's rather formidable charisma that really carries this effort. Technical merits are generally solid (especially audio) for those considering a purchase. Recommended.
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Paramount Presents #32
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