friday release movie review

After 20 Years, “Friday” Is (Still) The Most Important Film Ever Made About The Hood

The stars and the director of this genre-busting sleeper hit — which is returning to theaters for one day to celebrate its 20th anniversary — talk to BuzzFeed News about why it still resonates. “I know you don’t smoke weed. I know this. But I’m gonna get you high today. 'Cuz it’s Friday, you ain’t got no job, and you ain’t got shit to do!”

BuzzFeed News Reporter

The telling moment happened nearly every morning of the 20-day shoot some 20 years ago.

A neighbor — unhappy in spite of the $100 he was paid daily for the inconvenience of an Ice Cube movie being shot on his block — tried to disrupt the process in the most obnoxious of ways. He’d belt out Al Green tunes off-key and loudly every time director F. Gary Gray would call for action. And several times, he’d yell out to anyone within earshot, “This ain’t no real movie anyway. 'Cuz they wouldn’t be shooting it over here.”

He was incorrect, of course — Friday , the stoner comedy with a limited release and an even more limited budget, grossed more than $27 million at the box office, and had a bigger life in video and DVD rentals and purchases in the years since. But his drunken sentiment was dripping with genuineness. And it wasn’t lost on anyone.

Friday is about almost nothing — refreshing, really, after a string of movies set in South Central, Los Angeles, that focused only on strife. But in this movie, Craig (Ice Cube) gets fired on his day off — and made fun of because of it all throughout. And his best friend Smokey (Chris Tucker) is a small-time weed dealer who’d rather smoke it than distribute it. The two encounter a neighborhood filled with some over-the-top characters, and there’s laughter to be found where we hadn’t exactly seen before.

John Witherspoon

“The Crips — they wear the blue, right? — they would come every day and watch us shoot,” actor John Witherspoon, who plays Craig's father in the film, recalls in an interview with BuzzFeed News. “They had bandanas over their faces, but would want us to take pictures with their kids. They were so nice to us.”

A native son was documenting their neighborhood on one of its better, less violent days, and this was noteworthy. Clearly, the pride of the L.A.-based notorious gang was undeniable; they came to set daily, engaged with the actors, and wanted their children to witness the energy building around a film almost no one wanted to make.

Friday , released on April 26, 1995, was a bona fide laugh-out-loud comedy, and was a stark departure from the work Ice Cube had done before. It was a different twist from his acting debut in 1991’s Boyz n the Hood , a film set in South Central, L.A., that was wholly inspired by the music his rap group NWA — Niggaz With Attitude, for the ill-informed — created in the 1980s. (In fact, NWA member Eazy-E’s solo debut was a track called “Boyz-n-the-Hood,” which was co-penned by Ice Cube.) Friday , which has established quite the cult-like following since its release 20 years ago this month, will screen in nearly 400 theaters for one night only: 4/20.

This comedy was Ice Cube’s passion project, so much so that he paid the actors — most everyone remembers it being a payday of $5,000 apiece — out of his own pocket. This was the rapper’s chance to, in a way, mute some of the narrative that he was instrumental in giving the world. Through his music, he told street tales of everyday black and brown people living in one of L.A.’s most violent neighborhoods, and the scene was unpleasant. NWA touched on South Central street life (“Gangsta, Gangsta”), police brutality (“Fuck tha Police”), and censorship (“Express Yourself”) — and their music resonated in urban areas all across the country.

The hood and all of its faults (as presented in dramatic fashion, often with someone beloved dying violently in the end) had been a box office moneymaker: Menace II Society earned nearly $28 million in theaters, and Boyz earned almost $58 million and also was nominated for an Oscar. But in Friday — which Cube co-wrote with his longtime friend DJ Pooh — the hood wasn’t so unnerving. As bleak a place as it could be, there was much humor to be found.

“People thought how we grew up was like growing up in a war zone,” Ice Cube says in an interview with BuzzFeed News. "After movies like Boyz n the Hood , Menace II Society , and South Central came out, everybody thought the way we grew up was the worst thing ever in life. I didn’t see it that way. Of course it was rough, but we had fun with everything. We tried to laugh at things that most people would cry at.”

Cube and his writing partner found ways to create a continuous 91-minute-long joke about two dudes sitting on a porch, taking in their surroundings. In the process, they poked fun at some of the nuances that happen in the hood — the permed-out dope man selling bud from an ice cream truck, a horny, weed-smoking preacher who gets naked with a married woman while her husband’s away, and the hilarious neighborhood crackhead, a natural-born swindler. And all of the incidents — kids knocking over trash cans, ornery neighbors who don’t want you to step on their manicured lawns, and the day the resident bully got his ass beat — actually happened on the block where Cube grew up.

F. Gary Gray

Gray — a noted music video director at the time — had been friends with Cube since the early '90s. Cube knew Gray was itching to do a feature film, and after collaborating on the rapper’s seminal solo video “ Good Day, ” a song that ironically describes in rich detail a day in South Central that goes off without a hitch, he approached the director with his idea of Friday . That 1992 music video, in some ways, was an early seed to Friday itself, playing off the idea of an unremarkable day in a neighborhood that’s so rich in conflict. “Plus nobody I know got killed in South Central, L.A. / Today was a good day,” Cube raps in what’s perhaps his most well-known hit.

“I was a young kid at the time, really looking to break into the business,” Gray says. "Cube described Friday, and that it was a story about where I grew up and where he grew up and how much fun it was — dangerous at the same time — but fun. I thought it was a great idea. We wanted to show a different side.”

From the rapper’s limited film experience at the time — Cube barely had two John Singleton movies ( Boyz and Higher Learning , the latter of which was released a few months before Friday ) under his belt — he was convinced that skirting the traditional Hollywood studio system was the way to go.

“We knew Hollywood had never seen this kind of comedy,” Cube says. "I was like, ‘Yo, I don’t want to [go] in there and have all these people try to explain what this is. I’d rather just go do it.'"

The rapper didn’t think a film that found comedy in shit-talking crackheads and dayside toking would get the Hollywood thumbs-up. Turns out, he was a bit off the mark. New Line Cinema — which released Menace in 1993 and a trio of House Party movies — learned of the project, and wrote a check (it ultimately cost about $3.5 million to make; Cube says they contributed about $1 million and distributed the film).

“They were like, 'We want to make this movie. How much do you all need?'” Cube recalls. “We didn’t have distribution, so we was like, ‘Yo, they’re feeling it, they’re going to let us go do the movie we want to do with no interference, and they’re going to give us the money and they’re going to put it out.’ It was a perfect match for that movie.”

New Line did have some casting suggestions. Though the rapper easily slid into the role of Craig, the still-living-at-home-with-mom-and-dad twentysomething who was fired for (maybe) stealing boxes; the studio couldn’t get behind his writing partner DJ Pooh who was to portray Smokey, saying he wasn’t experienced enough. The studio wanted a stronger name to take on Craig’s carefree best friend, the irresponsible pothead. He’d be the source of comedy for Craig, who didn’t smoke, but was stuck trying to figure out how to navigate a day in his hood.

Pooh ultimately took on a smaller role (the misfortunate Red, who is a target of Tommy “Tiny” Lister’s Deebo, the big bully), and Cube suggested that the studio hire Chris Tucker for the lead role, considering that the comic was such a fan favorite on HBO’s ‘90s stand-up series Def Comedy Jam .

“New Line was like, ‘Who?’" remembers Ice Cube. "And I was like, ‘Y’all just did a movie with him!’ They gave him a small, little part in House Party 3, and they underused him."

The Tucker casting was key: He was a 22-year-old, slim, goofy rule-breaker to Cube’s straight man. In Friday , Tucker debuted his distinct higher-pitched, comedic voice, the same ones that often killed on those Def Comedy Jam stages. Peppered throughout the movie were other comedians who’d graced the HBO stage: Faizon Love, the late Bernie Mac, and Angela Means all took on neighborhood characters who resonated in major ways with audiences. Having those comics on the set of a film being shot by a newbie director (whose previous experience was making music videos) meant that all types of ridiculousness ensued. And for some cast members, marijuana was the great — and paralleling – unifier.

Faizon Love

“Chris and I used to share a car, a Jetta,” Love says in an interview with BuzzFeed News. “We would smoke out in the car in the mornings. Chris was like my little brother. We would always work on scenes together, go to the comedy club ... we were always fucking around. Back then, we smoked weed every day. Gary Gray hated me and Chris because we would talk so much shit. He was like the principal, and we were like the bad kids. Every day, we would get fired. Chris got fired. I got fired.”

But they kept coming back, largely because they were able to bring the right comedic tone to a film that would heavily rely on ad-libbing. Gray says Cube was so open to the changes of the script, of which about 65% was written and about 35% improvised. This worked quite well, considering that the cast was stacked with so many recognizable black stand-up comics.

“Their ability to improvise and contribute creatively made the movie a classic," Gray says. "There’s no Friday without Chris Tucker and Faizon Love and what they contributed. Cube and DJ Pooh did a great job with the script but you can never dream up on your laptop the things that some of these comedians would come up with on the spot.”

Gray says he recently discovered 16 hours of behind-the-scenes footage that has never been seen before, including rehearsal moments where some of the more famous lines were created.

“I found the first moments of ‘Bye Felisha,’ ‘You got knocked the fuck out,’ — all this stuff that happened in our rehearsal out of improv,” Gray says. “That’s the brilliance of the actors. It’s also the brilliance of Cube not being precious with his words — he said the best idea and the funniest idea is the idea. I think with that approach, we led with our hearts and it paid off.”

Love says he helped to round out his hair-curler-wearing drug-dealer character Big Worm — who sold drugs from an ice cream truck — and pulled traits from a guy named Bird from one of the neighborhoods he grew up in. When he auditioned for the role, he showed up with a joint and helped to create one of the film’s more memorable lines — “Playing with my money is like playing with my emotions” — partly from a soul song he’d heard earlier that morning.

“But the ice cream truck?” he adds. "That’s some other shit."

The film had a small release — worldwide it played in only 883 theaters — but grossed $28 million. And the life it’s had in VHS rentals and later DVD sales was so impressive that it spawned off sequels — Next Friday , which earned more than $57 million in 2000 and introduced comic Mike Epps; Friday After Next , which brought in about $33 million; and Friday: The Animated Series, a short-lived cartoon series that aired on MTV 2 in 2007–2008. No one in the cast — save for maybe Cube himself — had much faith that this film would hit the way it has. It was mostly something to do while awaiting the next gig: quick money for a film that featured a ton of comedians. As insular as it was in subject matter, place, and time, the comedy has translated in a major way, and has connected across audiences with fans all over the world.

“You know those people,” says Regina King, who played Cube’s sister, Dana (and who also co-starred in Boyz herself). "You are those people. And I think that as great as Boyz in the Hood was, and Menace II Society was, they only reference a small part of a neighborhood life. “I don’t want to say 'hood.' I want to say 'neighborhood.' Because there’s a difference. When you reference the hood, it sounds like it’s something that people that are not black or Latino don’t experience. People that are white look at that movie and know those characters. They have an Asian Smokey. There is a white Craig. That exists.”

Love says he was shooting another movie in 2001 on location in South Africa when he saw a guy craning his neck to get a good look at him. “We see this guy walking. He has little ratty-ass trousers on and no shoes and a stick. He's beating a satchel. And he looked thirsty ... and I was like, ‘Get him some water.’ And he looked at me, and he pointed, and he said, ‘Big Worm?’ And I said, ‘Oh, fuck no!’ Out of this bush, this no-having-shoes-motherfucker … he ain't got no shoes! Where did he see this movie?"

But that’s how strongly the film has resonated with viewers. Two decades after its initial release, and the pop culture hold is prevalent: Quotes from the movie have filtered into contemporary lexicon.

Blame the “ Bye Felisha ” wave on a small but hilarious scene where Craig dismisses Means, the neighborhood beggar with those two words after unsuccessfully asking Tucker to “borrow his car right quick.” The comedic power lies in a bunch of tiny scenes like that one; they live on YouTube, benefit from multiple viewings on cable outlets (while fans live tweet it), and get brought back to life by contemporary reality-TV stars who quote the film and connect it with a younger audience who didn’t get it the first go-round.

“I thought maybe four people would see it,” King says. “It was one of those movies where in between scenes we all sat on the porch and talked shit. Everybody. The director. The props person. The DP. Everybody.”

Anna Maria Horsford

Anna Maria Horsford, who played Craig and Dana’s mom Betty, enjoyed a successful run starring in NBC’s Amen as Thelma Frye, and in the early ‘90s, The WB sitcom The Wayans Bro s. before appearing in the movie. But she said that her role in Friday — a straight-no-chaser but lovable character who wanted her kids to excel in school or at work — is what she’s most recognized for.

“Every other person who I run into says, ‘Excuse me? Are you Craig's mother?’" Horsford says. "It's such an identifiable stamp. There was a middle-class white woman who saw me at the airport, and she said, ‘You look familiar.’ And then she turned around, and … it hit her. It was Friday . I said, ‘Did your children force you, sit you down so you could see it?’ She said, ‘No! I loved it. I watched it on my own.'"

Horsford also points out how, unlike other films that focused on the same types of neighborhoods, this was the first one to feature a traditional nuclear family — a mother and a father in the household. In other films, we'd largely see narratives about single moms in economic strife and a father nowhere to be found, let alone ever married. The image alone was stark by comparison.

A gripping scene in Boyz comes as a single mother curses at her 10-year-old son (the older version of him, ironically played by Cube), saying: “You ain't shit. You just like your daddy. You don't do shit, and you never gonna amount to shit. All you do is eat, sleep, and shit.” Her words stung, and the subtext was obvious. That film in particular made many statements; one poignant one challenged the lack of black fathers' influence on their children by way of Laurence Fishburne’s very involved character.

That relationship between Fishburne’s dad and Cuba Gooding Jr.’s son was important, but it was wrapped in seriousness: STD talks, police abuse, gentrification, and gang violence. There was very little room for fun, nor was there an example of a nuclear family to be found in that very meaningful film. That’s where Friday differs. It’s a comedy and it subtly introduces something that we’ve rarely seen films set in an urban neighborhood.

“It shows a family and a father who cares about his son,” Witherspoon says. "And his daughter. And his wife. I don’t think we saw that in pictures before, A really dominating father? Or a mother running her family? But no, this was a family.”

Todd Boyd, a professor at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts as well as screenwriter and producer of the 1999 coming-of-age drama The Wood , says that Friday didn't just add an element of comedy to depictions of everyday life in black neighborhoods, it spawned a new genre — the hood comedy.

“The film demonstrated that black life was not all drugs, violence, dysfunction, and pathology — yet instead of offering a Cosby Show -like fantasy, Friday put these issues in context, finding humor in the everyday lives of regular black people,” he explains. “Since the 1970s, Hollywood has always looked favorably upon low-budget black films that produce high profit margins at the box office. Friday expanded the representation of the hood into the realm of comedy and achieved box office success at the same time.”

Other hood comedies that followed include: 1996’s satire Don’t Be a Menace While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood , 1998’s The Player’s Club (Cube wrote and directed it), 2001’s How High , and 2002’s Barbershop , the latter of which Cube starred in.

Friday film helped to launch many careers — Gray is now a seasoned feature film director who has credits including The Italian Job , Law Abiding Citizen, and as fate would have it, in the upcoming NWA biopic, Straight Outta Compto n; King has co-starred in many films since (playing next to both Gooding Jr. and Jamie Foxx in their Oscar-winning roles in Jerry Maguire and Ray ), and Cube has created quite the TV and film production enterprise — he co-produced and co-starred in last year’s Ride Along , which grossed nearly $135 million domestically.

“I wish I could tell you that we knew it would have the legs that it’s had,” Gray says. "We just followed our instincts: Is it funny? Is it relevant? Is it real? Is it true? We didn’t know enough to be politically correct — I think that’s part of the charm. We were all just young guys out there looking to laugh. We wanted to inject a little bit of meaning in this entertainment. For some reason, it stood out.”

Friday ultimately was a star-making role for Tucker — he later went on to co-star in a trilogy of Rush Hour films, which came with hefty paydays and grossed more than half a billion dollars domestically — and it’s a key reason why a long-awaited Friday sequel with all of the original actors coming back hasn’t happened yet. Next Friday and Friday After Next fared well but were missing were a lot of original characters that everyone fell in love with, namely Tucker.

“New Line won’t cut the check. So we’re in a holding pattern,” Cube says of the possible new Friday film, which he has written. “I’m depressed about it. Ain’t nobody going to be more pissed off than me. Because it’s ridiculous. It don’t make sense. I’ve got to do it with the company that the movie was released on. So until they come to their senses, we can’t be funny.”

Until then, fans will have to stick to wearing their DVDs out and tweeting favorite lines from the film as if it were released 20 days ago.

“People are still into it like it just came out last week,” says Ice Cube. "It’s a movie that never gets old for a lot of people. A good movie can always be discovered, no matter how old it is or how low the budget is. It’s a great movie, and people will continue to discover it in their own way.”

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Common sense media reviewers.

Ice Cube's drug- and profanity-filled 'hood cult classic.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

There are glimpses of goodness, but in general, th

It could be argued that Craig is something of a po

There's a knockdown, drag-out fist-fight that feel

No nudity or onscreen sex, but characters talk abo

A full-force language assault, right from the firs

Several mentions of "Kool-Aid."

No one is an addict here, and not everyone does dr

Parents need to know that this movie is a drug- and profanity-filled cult classic written by and starring the rapper Ice Cube; it's likely that most teens will have heard of it and will be interested in seeing it. One major character is a comical pot dealer who smokes his own inventory all day; this leads to a…

Positive Messages

There are glimpses of goodness, but in general, the overall behavior of the people in this neighborhood is not so great. Characters gossip about one another and laugh at each other's misfortunes. Characters are drug dealers and shoot guns at one another. (Knives are also pulled.) Characters steal from one another. A bully terrorizes the neighborhood. Some characters smoke pot. Some characters "sleep around." On the plus side, though the bad behavior is played for laughs, it's not celebrated. Some characters with good intentions are rewarded, and some bad characters learn their lessons.

Positive Role Models

It could be argued that Craig is something of a positive role model, even though he uses foul language, loses his job, smokes pot, gossips, ogles women, and spends the day being lazy. He starts the movie as a passive, helpless character, lectured by parents, henpecked by a horrible girlfriend, and losing his job on his day off (!). By the end of the film, he learns to be active, to stand up for himself, and to do it without the aid of the gun he keeps in his room. He even stands up to the neighborhood bully. Moreover, he does not do drugs, and when he tries some pot once in the film, he instantly regrets it.

Violence & Scariness

There's a knockdown, drag-out fist-fight that feels absolutely real; each blow lands with painful impact, and the fight incorporates bricks, boards, and garbage cans. Besides that, there's a shootout sequence that feels more movie-ish. Craig keeps a gun in his room, and there's talk about how much of a "man" it makes him. Knives are pulled. Otherwise, there are threats and plenty of characters treating each other with disrespect.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

No nudity or onscreen sex, but characters talk about sex a great deal. There's some flirting and several women in revealing clothing, notably a woman who is seen watering her front yard (in slow motion) while wearing tiny cut-off shorts and a tank top. Two characters are seen sleeping in bed together, and there's a suggestion of off-screen sex as one character goes inside her house with the intention of seducing her.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

A full-force language assault, right from the first few seconds, including "s--t" and "f--k" and all their permutations, plus the "N" word, "p---y," "t-ts," "ass," "bastard," "hell," "damn," "God," "Goddamn," and "bitch," and that's just in the first 20 minutes. Additionally, there are bathroom jokes, sex jokes, drug jokes, and various other off-color jokes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

No one is an addict here, and not everyone does drugs, but one of the two main characters is a drug dealer and smokes pot throughout the entire movie. In one sequence, he encourages Craig to try it, and Craig quickly regrets it when a girl he likes comes over to his house. There's a reference to angel dust, and a minor character is referred to as a "crackhead." A character's mother sends him out for cigarettes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this movie is a drug- and profanity-filled cult classic written by and starring the rapper Ice Cube ; it's likely that most teens will have heard of it and will be interested in seeing it. One major character is a comical pot dealer who smokes his own inventory all day; this leads to a shootout, but an even more prominent scene is the brutal, climactic fist-fight between Cube and the block's mountain-sized bully. The movie has been accused of misogyny, and not without reason; the women are mostly either sexual objects or objects of scornful humor. It is also filled with sex talk, drug talk, and non-stop profanity, as well as insults of a racial and sexual nature. However, aside from all this, Friday is genuinely interesting in many ways, and is more culturally and historically notable than it may appear. It spawned two sequels and an animated TV series. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (7)
• Kids say (24)

Based on 7 parent reviews

Good movie and very funny, Fine for mature 9-10 year olds

What's the story.

It's Friday in the 'hood. Craig ( Ice Cube ) has just lost his job (on his day off) and now has nothing to do but hang out with his friend, a comical drug dealer named "Smokey" ( Chris Tucker ). As the day passes, they gossip about the kooky neighbors, avoid the block bully Deebo ("Tiny" Lister), and smoke a little pot. Eventually, they must come up with $200 to pay back Smokey's boss, or else face his retribution. Meanwhile, Craig has developed a little crush on Debbie ( Nia Long ) and finds he must stand up to Deebo to protect her honor. Can Craig learn how to be a "man" without resorting to using the gun he has hidden in his room?

Is It Any Good?

Directed by F. Gary Gray ( The Italian Job ), FRIDAY is fairly unique in the history of African-American cinema. Though it depends partly on the usual toilet humor, it does not have the same hyped-up, eager-to-please vibe of most other comedies. It's uncharacteristically laid-back with a refreshing lack of plot mechanics. This, plus the one-day, one-neighborhood setting, allows the characters to flourish in a more organic way. In a way, it's almost on a level with such classics as Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep (1977) and Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989).

That said, the movie also comes with a troublesome air of misogyny; most of the women characters are seen either as sexual objects or objects of scornful humor. It's also not particularly laugh-out-loud funny, as most of the humor is at the expense of other characters. In general, the overall behavior of the people in this neighborhood is not so great, but there are still glimpses of goodness that make it appealing and worthwhile for older teens.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the drugs in the characters' lives. Did Craig learn his lesson after he smoked pot? Should he have given in when he didn't want to? Does Smokey learn any lesson about his drug use?

How did the film's violence make you feel? Was it thrilling, or did it have a harsher effect?

How did you feel about the women in the film? Did any of them seem like strong people, or were they stereotypes ?

Movie Details

• In theaters : April 26, 1995
• On DVD or streaming : March 2, 1999
• Cast : Chris Tucker , Ice Cube , Nia Long
• Director : F. Gary Gray
• Inclusion Information : Black directors, Black actors, Female actors
• Studio : New Line
• Genre : Comedy
• Run time : 91 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : pervasive strong language and drug use, and for a brutal fight
• Last updated : March 5, 2024

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Friday Reviews

• 54   Metascore
• 1 hr 29 mins
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An unemployed young man avoids his father and a bully while trying to help his best friend pay back a debt to a drug dealer.

A star vehicle for rapper Ice Cube (who also cowrote and coproduced), FRIDAY is a lighthearted, comedic presentation of the realities chronicled in dramas like BOYZ N THE HOOD. Though funny, FRIDAY can't sustain its humorous tone to the end because it has to confront those same realities. It's Friday, and Craig Jones (Ice Cube), who's just lost his job, has nowhere to go but his front stoop. From this vantage point, Jones and his pot-smoking friend "Smokey" (Chris Tucker) observe the comings and goings of the peculiar people in this particular 'hood. They include a dwarf on the outs with his sexy wife, an irritating beggar, a snooty neighbor, a not-so-righteous reverend, Jones's jealous girlfriend, Smokey's better left unseen blind date, and Jones's dog-obsessed father (a hilarious John Witherspoon). Not even a couple of run-ins with Deebo (Tiny "Zeus" Lister Jr.), a hulking thug who takes whatever he wants, can ruin their day. That is, until "Big Worm" (Faizon Love), the neighborhood drug dealer and ice cream vendor, comes by to collect the $200 Smokey owes him. He gives Smokey and Jones the rest of the day to come up with the money, and when they don't, they're targeted in a drive-by shooting. They survive, but Deebo lays hands on Debbie (Nia Long), a sweet girl Jones has a crush on, prompting Jones to go after him with a gun. Jones' father advises him to fight Deebo "like a man" — with his fists, and Jones topples the Goliath and receives the promise of romance from Debbie. It's just a typical summer day on a residential street: Kids are playing, lawns are being watered, there's a lot going on but not much happening. And that's exactly the point — co-scriptwriters Ice Cube, DJ Pooh, and director F. Gary Gray find as much humor in well-observed detail as in the oddities of the film's world. There are slapstick gags, bathroom humor (both figuratively and literally), a lot of jokes about hairstyles and sight gags based on ridiculous juxtapositions, like the huge Deebo riding a little bike. All the inaction is set to a terrific, evocative soundtrack that mixes 1960s soul and Motown classics, Rose Royce's "I Wanna Get Next to You" from CAR WASH, rap from Cypress Hill and Cube, and Dr. Dre's hit "Keep Their Heads Ringin'." (Profanity, violence, substance abuse.)

New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 

It’s not always easy to find out which movies are hitting theaters each week, especially after the Hollywood strikes led to many release date changes. With the WGA and actors strikes resolved and summer blockbusters starting to roll in, April is filled with both big budget flicks and new indie releases.

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After a group of criminals kidnap the ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, they retreat to an isolated mansion, unaware that they're locked inside with no normal little girl. After a group of criminals kidnap the ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, they retreat to an isolated mansion, unaware that they're locked inside with no normal little girl. After a group of criminals kidnap the ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, they retreat to an isolated mansion, unaware that they're locked inside with no normal little girl.

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The Cast of 'Abigail' Test Their Vampire IQ

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• Goofs Frank gets impaled just above his knee with a wooden stake. Once the stake is removed and the leg bandaged, he walks with only a minor limp and even outright runs at points, when his leg would be incapable of supporting his weight at all.

Abigail : [from trailer] What can I say? I like playing with my food.

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Friday Night Plan Reviews

At almost two hours long, the film could have done with some trimming, especially scenes involving overlong pranks that aren't as funny or interesting as they think.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 25, 2023

By putting Babil to the same test, the world may lose out on another great, easy, natural actor. We've already lost Irrfan, why must we lose Babil too?

Full Review | Sep 14, 2023

Genial but utterly generic “get-to-the-big-party” teen comedy, a slow-footed Indian version of a universal formula that was never limited to just Hollywood

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Sep 13, 2023

...so coy and inoffensive...

Full Review | Sep 11, 2023

The film sustains a steady pace throughout. The soundtrack by Rahul Pais and Nariman Khambata, featuring songs like ‘Pandora Ka Dabba,’ ‘Mazey Mein,’ and ‘Bahaane,’ seamlessly melds with the narrative, enhancing the viewing experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 11, 2023

At 1 hour 43 minutes, the film might not appear lengthy but it struggles to keep you invested for most parts.

A good looking movie is not enough to make a film successful. Friday Night Plan lacked the punch.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 11, 2023

I wouldn’t have thought the same a decade ago, but maybe a frothy vanilla shake on a breezy afternoon is what they call a “guilty pleasure”. Or maybe it’s the perfect hangover cure after a night of binge-watching decadence.

While the film is a perfectly fine timepass, it lacks any sort of spark to make it rise above or stand out from other teen coming-of-age stories.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2023

'Friday Night Plan' is slight but sweet while it lasts.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 8, 2023

Insubstantial as it might be as a coming-of-age drama, Friday Night Plan works in parts because the two male leads get into the swing of things without much ado.

Friday Night Plan's sweet-natured heart and sanitised humour are happier focusing on the inherent niceness teenagers are capable of.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 3, 2023

In more ways than one, the film is about fitting in. It is about rites of passage and youth. Hindi films generally have a way of going about the transition by imbuing the age with unlikeability.

Full Review | Sep 2, 2023

Friday Night Plan is a touching teen comedy exploring the complicated relationship between siblings. There are some genuinely hilarious moments and several emotional scenes.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 1, 2023

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This weekend, Telugu movie lovers have hardly any exciting entertainment options at cinemas. With all the summer biggies being postponed, the makers of several small-budget movies, including Love Me, Sasivadane, and Prathinidhi 2, hurriedly planned their movies’ release this weekend. However, even these movies have now been postponed to May.

While Love Me is now slated for a May 25th release, Sasivadane and Prathinidhi 2 are yet to get a release date. And the main reason behind the postponement of the weekend releases is a lack of buzz. The entire country is currently gripped by the elections and IPL fever, and it’s not going to get subside at least until May last week. The makers of the above-mentioned movies will now have enough time to promote their movies and give them a proper release next month end.

The Telugu-dubbed versions of Tamil star Vishal’s Rathnam (April 26) and Tamannaah and Raashi Khanna’s Aranmanai 4 (May 3) are the only two prominent movies that will be hitting theaters before the direct Telugu movies line-up for their release in the last week of May.

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Movie Monday: Friday’s Upcoming Movie Releases for 2/2/2024

January 29, 2024 americajr ENTERTAINMENT , Friday's Upcoming Movie Releases , New Movie Reviews 0

Look for the following movies to hit the box office on Friday, February 2, 2024:

“Argylle” Action, Thriller. Rated PG-13. 2 hours, 19 minutes.

-Sofia Boutella, Henry Cavill, Dua Lipa, Bryce Dallas Howard; director: Matthew Vaughn.

“How to Have Sex” Drama. Not rated. 1 hour, 31 minutes.

-Anna Antoniades, Mia McKenna-Bruce, Lara Peake, Enva Lewis; director: Molly Manning Walker.

“The Promised Land” Biography, Drama, History. Rated R. 2 hours, 7 minutes.

-Mads Mikkelsen, Amanda Collin, Gustav Lindh, Kristine Kujath Thorp; director: Nikolaj Arcel.

“Disco Boy” Drama. Not rated. 1 hour, 32 minutes.

-Morr Ndiaye, Wahab Oladiti, Salem Kisita, Mutamba Kalonji; director: Giacomo Abbruzzese.

“Jungle Bunch: Operation Meltdown” Not rated. 1 hour, 29 minutes.

-Wyatt Bowen, Holly Gauthier-Frankel, Arthur Holden; directors: Laurent Bru, Yannick Moulin, Benoit Somville.

“The Epidemic” (releases 1/31) Action, Adventure, Crime. Not rated. 1 hour, 35 minutes.

-Eric Roberts, Chris Owen, FelissaRose, Kurt Angle; directors: Nigel Hartwell, Manton Harding.

The following movies opened last weekend and are still playing in theaters:

“Miller’s Girl”  Comedy, Drama. Rated R. 1 hour, 33 minutes.

-Martin Freeman, Jenna Ortega, Bashir Salahuddin, Gideon Adlon; director: Jade Hailey Bartlett.

“Sometimes I Think About Dying”  Comedy, Drama, Romance. Rated PG-13. 1 hour, 31 minutes.

-Daisy Ridley, Dave Merheje, Parvesh China, Marcia DeBonis; director: Rachel Lambert.

“American Star”  Thriller. Rated R.

-Ian McShane, Thomas Kretschmann, Nora Arnezeder, Adam Nagaitis; director: Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego.

“Fighter”  (releases 1/25) Action, Adventure, Thriller. Not rated. 2 hours, 46 minutes.

-Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, Anil Kapoor, Karan Singh Grover; director: Siddharta Anand.

“Teacher’s Pet”  (releases 1/25) Animation, Thriller.

-Debra Jo Rupp, Shaun Fleming, Gary Baseman, Jennifer Hamburg; directors: Alana Avallone, Gary Baseman.

Weekend Box Office: “The Beekeeper” took the box office crown with $7.4 million in ticket sales followed by “Mean Girls” in second with $7.3 million and “Wonka” rounds out the top three with $5.9 million.

Sources: IMDB.com; BoxOfficeMojo.com

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Album review

On ‘The Tortured Poets Department,’ Taylor Swift Could Use an Editor

Over 16 songs (and a second LP), the pop superstar litigates her recent romances. But the themes, and familiar sonic backdrops, generate diminishing returns.

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By Lindsay Zoladz

If there has been a common thread — an invisible string, if you will — connecting the last few years of Taylor Swift’s output, it has been abundance.

Nearly 20 years into her career, Swift, 34, is more popular and prolific than ever, sating her ravenous fan base and expanding her cultural domination with a near-constant stream of music — five new albums plus four rerecorded ones since 2019 alone. Her last LP, “Midnights” from 2022, rolled out in multiple editions, each with its own extra songs and collectible covers. Her record-breaking Eras Tour is a three-and-a-half-hour marathon featuring 40-plus songs, including the revised 10-minute version of her lost-innocence ballad “All Too Well.” In this imperial era of her long reign, Swift has operated under the guiding principle that more is more.

What Swift reveals on her sprawling and often self-indulgent 11th LP, “The Tortured Poets Department,” is that this stretch of productivity and commercial success was also a tumultuous time for her, emotionally. “I can read your mind: ‘She’s having the time of her life,’” Swift sings on “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” a percolating track that evokes the glitter and adoration of the Eras Tour but admits, “All the pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting ‘more.’” And yet, that’s exactly what she continues to provide, announcing two hours after the release of “Poets” that — surprise! — there was a second “volume” of the album, “The Anthology,” featuring 15 additional, though largely superfluous, tracks.

Gone are the character studies and fictionalized narratives of Swift’s 2020 folk-pop albums “Folklore” and “Evermore.” The feverish “Tortured Poets Department” is a full-throated return to her specialty: autobiographical and sometimes spiteful tales of heartbreak, full of detailed, referential lyrics that her fans will delight in decoding.

Swift doesn’t name names, but she drops plenty of boldfaced clues about exiting a long-term cross-cultural relationship that has grown cold (the wrenching “So Long, London”), briefly taking up with a tattooed bad boy who raises the hackles of the more judgmental people in her life (the wild-eyed “But Daddy I Love Him”) and starting fresh with someone who makes her sing in — ahem — football metaphors (the weightless “The Alchemy”). The subject of the most headline-grabbing track on “The Anthology,” a fellow member of the Tortured Billionaires Club whom Swift reimagines as a high school bully, is right there in the title’s odd capitalization: “thanK you aIMee.”

At times, the album is a return to form. Its first two songs are potent reminders of how viscerally Swift can summon the flushed delirium of a doomed romance. The opener, “Fortnight,” a pulsing, synth-frosted duet with Post Malone, is chilly and controlled until lines like “I love you, it’s ruining my life” inspire the song to thaw and glow. Even better is the chatty, radiant title track , on which Swift’s voice glides across smooth keyboard arpeggios, self-deprecatingly comparing herself and her lover to more daring poets before concluding, “This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel, we’re modern idiots.” Many Swift songs get lost in dense thickets of their own vocabulary, but here the goofy particularity of the lyrics — chocolate bars, first-name nods to friends, a reference to the pop songwriter Charlie Puth ?! — is strangely humanizing.

Taylor Swift’s New Album Reviewed

For all its sprawl, though, “The Tortured Poets Department” is a curiously insular album, often cradled in the familiar, amniotic throb of Jack Antonoff’s production. ( Aaron Dessner of the National, who lends a more muted and organic sensibility to Swift’s sound, produced and helped write five tracks on the first album, and the majority of “The Anthology.”) Antonoff and Swift have been working together since he contributed to her blockbuster album “1989” from 2014, and he has become her most consistent collaborator. There is a sonic uniformity to much of “The Tortured Poets Department,” however — gauzy backdrops, gently thumping synths, drum machine rhythms that lock Swift into a clipped, chirping staccato — that suggests their partnership has become too comfortable and risks growing stale.

As the album goes on, Swift’s lyricism starts to feel unrestrained, imprecise and unnecessarily verbose. Breathless lines overflow and lead their melodies down circuitous paths. As they did on “Midnights,” internal rhymes multiply like recitations of dictionary pages: “Camera flashes, welcome bashes, get the matches, toss the ashes off the ledge,” she intones in a bouncy cadence on “Fresh Out the Slammer,” one of several songs that lean too heavily on rote prison metaphors. Narcotic imagery is another inspiration for some of Swift’s most trite and head-scratching writing: “Florida,” apparently, “is one hell of a drug.” If you say so!

That song , though, is one of the album’s best — a thunderous collaboration with the pop sorceress Florence Welch, who blows in like a gust of fresh air and allows Swift to harness a more theatrical and dynamic aesthetic. “Guilty as Sin?,” another lovely entry, is the rare Antonoff production that frames Swift’s voice not in rigid electronics but in a ’90s soft-rock atmosphere. On these tracks in particular, crisp Swiftian images emerge: an imagined lover’s “messy top-lip kiss,” 30-something friends who “all smell like weed or little babies.”

It would not be a Swift album without an overheated and disproportionately scaled revenge song, and there is a doozy here called “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?,” which bristles with indignation over a grand, booming palette. Given the enormous cultural power that Swift wields, and the fact that she has played dexterously with humor and irony elsewhere in her catalog, it’s surprising she doesn’t deliver this one with a (needed) wink.

Plenty of great artists are driven by feelings of being underestimated, and have had to find new targets for their ire once they become too successful to convincingly claim underdog status. Beyoncé, who has reached a similar moment in her career, has opted to look outward. On her recently released “Cowboy Carter,” she takes aim at the racist traditionalists lingering in the music industry and the idea of genre as a means of confinement or limitation.

Swift’s new project remains fixed on her internal world. The villains of “The Tortured Poets Department” are a few less famous exes and, on the unexpectedly venomous “But Daddy I Love Him,” the “wine moms” and “Sarahs and Hannahs in their Sunday best” who cluck their tongues at our narrator’s dating decisions. (Some might speculate that these are actually shots at her own fans.) “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” is probably the most satisfyingly vicious breakup song Swift has written since “All Too Well,” but it is predicated on a power imbalance that goes unquestioned. Is a clash between the smallest man and the biggest woman in the world a fair fight?

That’s a knotty question Swift might have been more keen to untangle on “Midnights,” an uneven LP that nonetheless found Swift asking deeper and more challenging questions about gender, power and adult womanhood than she does here. It is to the detriment of “The Tortured Poets Department” that a certain starry-eyed fascination with fairy tales has crept back into Swift’s lyricism. It is almost singularly focused on the salvation of romantic love; I tried to keep a tally of how many songs yearningly reference wedding rings and ran out of fingers. By the end, this perspective makes the album feel a bit hermetic, lacking the depth and taut structure of her best work.

Swift has been promoting this poetry-themed album with hand-typed lyrics, sponsored library installations and even an epilogue written in verse. A palpable love of language and a fascination with the ways words lock together in rhyme certainly courses through Swift’s writing. But poetry is not a marketing strategy or even an aesthetic — it’s a whole way of looking at the world and its language, turning them both upside down in search of new meanings and possibilities. It is also an art form in which, quite often and counter to the governing principle of Swift’s current empire, less is more.

Sylvia Plath once called poetry “a tyrannical discipline,” because the poet must “go so far and so fast in such a small space; you’ve got to burn away all the peripherals.” Great poets know how to condense, or at least how to edit. The sharpest moments of “The Tortured Poets Department” would be even more piercing in the absence of excess, but instead the clutter lingers, while Swift holds an unlit match.

Taylor Swift “The Tortured Poets Department” (Republic)

Inside the World of Taylor Swift

A Triumph at the Grammys: Taylor Swift made history  by winning her fourth album of the year at the 2024 edition of the awards, an event that saw women take many of the top awards .

‘The T ortured Poets Department’: Poets reacted to Swift’s new album name , weighing in on the pertinent question: What do the tortured poets think ?  

In the Public Eye: The budding romance between Swift and the football player Travis Kelce created a monocultural vortex that reached its apex  at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. Ahead of kickoff, we revisited some key moments in their relationship .

Politics (Taylor’s Version): After months of anticipation, Swift made her first foray into the 2024 election for Super Tuesday with a bipartisan message on Instagram . The singer, who some believe has enough influence  to affect the result of the election , has yet to endorse a presidential candidate.

Conspiracy Theories: In recent months, conspiracy theories about Swift and her relationship with Kelce have proliferated , largely driven by supporters of former President Donald Trump . The pop star's fans are shaking them off .

From 'Anyone But You' to 'Rebel Moon 2,' here are 15 movies you need to stream right now

They say April showers bring May flowers. This month also unloads a deluge of movies to watch at home.

Netflix, Amazon's Prime Video, Peacock, Max, Apple TV+, Paramount+ and others have a spring fiesta of streaming options for film lovers of all tastes, from breezy romantic comedies to bone-chilling horror. There are recent theatrical releases, like an acclaimed Oscar-nominated Holocaust drama and one of the most Disney-fied Disney movies ever , but also original flicks such as Zack Snyder's latest sci-fi epic and a Sundance Film Festival documentary about politically savvy teen girls.

Here are 15 notable new movies you can stream right now:

'Anyone But You'

Like a young Tom Hanks with eight-pack abs, new king of the rom-com Glen Powell stars with Sydney Sweeney in this cheeky revamp of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" as two attractive folks who hate each other but pretend they're together to make their exes jealous at a destination wedding.

Where to watch: Netflix .

'Anyone But You': Glen Powell admits Sydney Sweeney affair rumors 'worked wonderfully'

In director Matthew Vaughn's madcap adventure , Bryce Dallas Howard plays a best-selling novelist who discovers that the fictional exploits of her secret-agent character (Henry Cavill) are coming uncannily close to things happening in real life, leading her to partner up with a shaggy actual spy (Sam Rockwell).

Where to watch: Apple TV+ .

'Bob Marley: One Love'

So good as Malcolm X in "One Night in Miami," Kingsley Ben-Adir notches another biopic highlight as reggae superstar Bob Marley . He's effective at capturing the musician even if the movie meanders with a narrative set during the 1970s, as Marley tries to use his songs to bring together a politically divided Jamaica.

Where to watch: Paramount+.

'You don't mess with Bob': How Kingsley Ben-Adir channeled Bob Marley for 'One Love' movie

'Drive-Away Dolls'

Margaret Qualley  and Geraldine Viswanathan co-star in director Ethan Coen's gonzo crime comedy as lesbian pals needing a change of pace who wind up behind the wheel of a rental car with a mysterious briefcase in the trunk. What unfurls is a noir-spattered road trip full of sex toys, decapitated heads and dimwitted goons.

Where to watch: Peacock .

'Drive-Away Dolls' review: Talented cast steers a crime comedy with sex toys and absurdity

'Girls State'

Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss' compelling follow-up to 2020's " Boys State " centers on teenage Missouri girls placed in competing political parties who create a mock state government. Abortion is a hot-button issue in the proceedings, which include a competitive gubernatorial race and an investigation into Girls State itself.

Where to watch: Apple TV+.

'The Greatest Hits'

The car accident that killed her boyfriend (David Corenswet) left Harriet (Lucy Boynton) with head trauma and the ability to time-travel to a past moment with him when she hears certain songs. But obsessively searching for the right tune to save him in the past might cost her a new chance at romance in the present of this intriguing but overly earnest drama.

Where to watch: Hulu .

'Late Night With the Devil'

David Dastmalchian has a hell of a role in this retro horror flick, starring as a 1970s late-night TV host in desperate need of ratings. For a Halloween special, he brings on a girl supposedly possessed by a demon in a gambit that brings in eyeballs but spirals supernaturally out of control for everyone involved.

Where to watch: Shudder , AMC+ .

'Lisa Frankenstein'

A horror rom-com about reanimated undead love and body-robbing shenanigans, "Lisa" is a playful and bloody teen-movie reimagining of the "Frankenstein" mythos . Kathryn Newton plays a 1980s goth girl and Cole Sprouse is a Victorian corpse resurrected amid lively characters and clever, sardonic dialogue.

'Frankenstein' forever: 'Lisa Frankenstein,' Oscar fave 'Poor Things' reclaim Mary Shelley's feminist mythos

'Migration'

In the animated comedy, Mack (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani) is the overprotective dad of a duck family who reluctantly agrees to a Jamaican getaway with his wife (Elizabeth Banks) and kids. However, they get sidetracked and wind up in New York City, where they meet a streetwise pigeon (Awkwafina) and a vicious chef.

Rudy Mancuso co-writes, directs and stars in this delightfully clever romantic comedy as a creative New Jersey man with synesthesia, experiencing melodies and rhythms around him in extraordinary fashion. It exacerbates problems with an ex (Francesca Reale) yet fascinates a new love interest (Camila Mendes).

Where to watch: Prime Video .

'Rebel Moon − Part Two: The Scargiver'

Do you live for slow-motion scenes of people harvesting grain? Then director Zack Snyder has the sci-fi sequel for you. The first "Rebel Moon" was derivative and the second one is just dull, with ex-warrior Kora (Sofia Boutella) leading a band of underdogs and farmers against the invading army of the villainous Imperium.

'The Stranger'

So, yeah, Quibi turned out to be pretty much a streaming disaster. Still, the content was pretty good and is now finding new homes as real movies, not a piecemeal experiment: Director Veena Sud's thriller ratchets up the suspense with Maika Monroe playing a rideshare driver and Dane DeHaan as the creepiest passenger ever.

'Talk to Me'

The best horror movie of last year was this haunting Australian indie chiller that introduced a new top-tier scream queen, Sophie Wilde, and a memorable scary-movie artifact: a mysterious embalmed hand that teens use to livestream freaky possessions that, of course, go terrifyingly awry.

Where to watch: Paramount+ .

A tune-filled, big-hearted storybook fantasy that's chock-full of Disney references. The animated musical features Ariana DeBose as an idealistic youngster who runs afoul of her kingdom's narcissistic ruler (Chris Pine) and befriends an energetic star to help rescue her people's wishes.

Where to watch: Disney+ .

'The Zone of Interest'

Director Jonathan Glazer 's best picture nominee centers on a German family going about their daily business. This banality, though, happens next door to Auschwitz, where gunshots, screams and the industrial sounds of ovens are the unnerving soundtrack that the characters ignore but you simply can't in this disturbing yet essential Holocaust drama.

Where to watch: Max .