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# Santa Monica DailyPress PAGE 13 WEEKEND EDITION, APRIL 2-3, 2005 ‘Beauty’ isn’t all that
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/santa-monica-dailypress-page-13-weekend-edition-april-2-3-2005-beauty-isnt-all-that/
- Published: 2005-04-02T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T06:32:27.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Review*

This feminized extension of the “Barbershop” series lacks the biting comedy and underlying gravitas of its male-oriented predecessors, relying instead on unoriginal sex and race zingers delivered by a bunch of walking, talking, blow-d r y e r - w i e l d i n g clichés. It isn’t that “Beauty Shop” is wholly devoid of laughs and entertaining characters, but all in all this spin-off doesn’t spin far enough away from the source material to transcend irksome redundancy. The haircuttery as a chat-vat concept has been used before and — with all due respect to the ladies — Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer and the men of Calvin’s Barbershop worked it better.

Saucy hair stylist extraordinaire Gina Norris (Queen Latifah) was introduced in “Barbershop 2” for the purpose of launching what will invariably become the “Beauty Shop” franchise. It begins in “Hotlanta,” as Georgia’s largest city is referred to throughout by a mysterious radio DJ/tone setter, where Gina has relocated in order to enroll her gifted daughter in a prestigious music school. Gina’s got skills as well, and quickly makes a name for herself at a swank salon owned by a flamboyant tyrant, Jorge, played with esprit de corny by Kevin Bacon. After the inevitable fallout with her boss, Gina scrapes up the dough to buy her own spot and the “You go, girls!” and booty jokes start flying. Her opinionated staff and clientele include Alfre Woodard as an Afro-centric poetry-spouting philosopher, Alicia Silverstone as a blonde country bumpkin destined to tap into her inner-homegirl, and Mena Suvari and Andie MacDowell as Southern socialites who stir the pot first by defecting from Jorge, then by being so darn white. Gina’s love interest is electrician-cum-closet musical genius Joe (Djimon Hounsou), though the coupling fails to generate many sparks.

In the end, these divergent personalities band together for a common cause: to prevent the conniving Jorge from shutting Gina’s shop down and scuttling plans for a sequel. Had the filmmakers’ exhibited similar resolve in fleshing out the narrative and punching the jokes, “Beauty Shop” might have better than it is. As it stands, despite an appealing cast, the movie just doesn’t cut it. (Rated PG-13 on appeal for sexual material, language and brief drug references. Running time: 105 minutes)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 2, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/040205.pdf?ref=smdp.com)