Ice Cube hits the big screen again as Calvin, the small time barber shop owner from South Chicago in the third installment of the Barbershop series, “Barbershop: the Next Cut.” In order to stay afloat during tough times, Calvin and the owner of a neighboring Beauty Salon, Angie (Regina Hall), have merged the Barbershop and Beauty Salon into one business, so the all-male and all-female stores are no more.

Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer) and the rest of Calvin’s crew clash with their new female coworkers Draya (Nicki Minaj), Terri (Eve Jihan Jeffers-Cooper), and Loretta (Garcelle Beauvais) throughout the film. While the battle of the sexes rages inside the shop, the rest of Chicago falls victim to rising crime and gang violence, which threaten the shop’s existence.  

“Barbershop: the Next Cut” blends comedy and drama seamlessly by addressing the serious threat of gang violence while breaking it up nicely with repartee between the genders. During the film, the names of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Tamir Rice are mentioned with a certain amount of solemnity. Jabs at Bill Cosby and Obama break up the sulleness of the topic at hand. Later, the script veers into a debate about whether the nation’s first black president has done enough to address issues directly affecting the African American community.

For the most part, the movie feels very natural with that perfect blend of real world humor, and compelling film drama. The movie is grounded in current events, however, a number of scenes feel forced and unnatural. For example, a food truck is brought in to stop a fight between two rival gangs and it just feels forced and implausible contrasting the realism of the rest of the film.

“Barbershop: the Next Cut” is an excellent watch, and with a run time of 112 minutes it’s a fairly quick one too. For fans of the Barbershop series or people looking for a hilarious comedy with more depth and realism, it’s certainly a film worth viewing.