Cheap Friday (Widescreen Edition) (Video) (Ice Cube, Chris Tucker) (F. Gary Gray) Price

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Customer Reviews of Friday (Widescreen Edition)

Ice Cube stars as Craig a young man who was fired the day before from his job. With nothing to do he and friend Smokey (Chris Tucker) hang out, but Smokey owes local drug dealer Big Worm (Faizon Love) two hundred dollars. The two try to raise the money but find that more difficult than it should be.

First, I should say that my plot description doesn't make "Friday" sound like much. The thing is that the movie is basically about the two main characters hanging out, and yet the story written by Ice Cube and hip-hop producer DJ Pooh (Who also stars as Red) is able to keep the film moving nicely. What's really impressive is that the two characters didn't go out to create the stories action, instead they sat back and waited for things to happen. Though some of these events were fairly serious often they were handled with enough enjoyable humor that it's hard not to laugh.

As a rapper Ice Cube has shown that he has a lot of charisma, and that came through in his Craig character. Here was a character that started off weak in the way he was written, but once he hit his front porch became very likeable. It was Chris Tucker that stole the show though. You want to talk about charisma watch him do simple things like try to stop his car from rolling, or disagree with the local pastor, or even just squat to go to the bathroom. Where the script might have come off as very immature doing these things, because of Tucker's comic talent these were hilarious to watch.

"Friday" was definitely not a perfect movie. A lot of the gags weren't funny, and the characters were annoying at times. Also, it did seem to drag at times proving a few minutes should have been cut. This movie should not have been as good as it is and yet, the script and characters made "Friday" a very good day.

Unemployment + Neighborhood Whackos = Reliable Humor
This film is DAMN funny for two primary reasons: 1) Chris Tucker, a truly natural screen comic, and 2) John Witherspoon, whose presence in ANY movie makes it better. The plot of "Friday": The events of an entire day (Friday, of course) as experienced by the newly-unemployed Craig (Ice Cube), and his buddy Smokey (Tucker) in their urban neighborhood, pivoting around Smokey's involvement as a marijuana "dealer" for Big Worm, the local supplier. But forget story--it's characters that propel things here. And "Friday" revolves around one of the funniest collections of minor and incidental characters ever devised, all enacted with a comic charicature sincerity that most mass-released, "white" comedies (i.e., the endless profusion of "Saturday Night Live" skit-based features) lack. However, it's still Witherspoon--as Craig's dogcatching father--and Tucker's performances that are the core humor factors. The dialogue is definitely aimed at urban sensitivities, and as such, some of the best humor may be lost on older (and, in honesty, white) viewers--which is a shame, because in many cases it's the honest delivery of the dialogue that provides the most laughs. And while not exceptionally crass, there are moments of scatalogical/sexual humor that may offend the more sensitive viewers--not to mention those put off by (accurate) drug humor--but again, it's the honesty of those moments that furnish such an enjoyably (to those attuned) funny take on "everyday" life in the 'hood. The most serious aspect of the film involves Ice Cube portraying the modern, young, black urban "everyman" (essentially, himself) who struggles against the neighborhood adversities (drug dealers, bullies, etc.), only to find climactic redemption in true, old-time fiction fashion--without the overarching gun violence portrayed in such heavies as "Boyz in the Hood." And though the film's binding humor tends to pall a bit towards that climactic resolution, overall it is a genuinely funny film. If you're expecting more than a bevy of situational "bits" thinly strung together by the premise, you'll be disappointed. But I've watched "Friday" countless times by now, and I'll still rely on it as a light-hearted laugh generator (and movie quote provider) in the future. Besides, the soundtrack is KICKIN'.

Best of Three
If you want to laugh your ass off buy this movie. It stars Ice Cube as Greg, and Chris Tucker as Smokey. Chris Tucker makes this movie good with his winny girly voice and always smokin weed. Ice cube delivers a good performance as Greg the guy who gets fired on his day off for stealing boxes and gets high for the first time. There are other great charecters like Debo the tall bully of the hood, Disel the crack head who will doing anything for two dollars, and daddy Gregs bog catching father who has to use the bathroom constantly. Over all this movie is hilarious just like the second and third one.