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 | | 5. Beauty Shop | | | Starring: Queen Latifah Director: Bille Woodruff | | Format: DVD Release Date: 1/6/2009 |  | Beauty Shop - DVD Review By: Sean O'Connell - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 3/27/2009 5:36 PM | |
Television shows spin-off characters all the time – Matt LeBlanc leaves Friends for Joey and Cheers gives way to Frasier. Not so in movies, where producers frequently tease similar spin-offs but rarely make the big-budget steps to actually get these projects off the ground. For every Elektra, for example, there are promised X-Men franchises waiting to be built around Wolverine and Magneto. Bucking the odds, MGM’s Beauty Shop spins off from the successful Barbershop comedies, taking Queen Latifah’s sassy stylist Gina Norris from the second installment and setting her up in a potential franchise all her own.
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 | | 8. Secret Life of Bees | | | Starring: Jennifer Hudson Queen Latifah Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood | | Format: DVD Release Date: 10/20/2009 | | Video Reviews Available: 2 |  | The Secret Life of Bees - DVD Review By: Bill Gibron - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 1/23/2009 7:46 PM | |
Caucasians, apparently, have no soul. Or heart. Or common sense. According to the movies, whenever the majority lacks a moment of personal clarity, they seek solace, advice, and sage-like wisdom from the groups they marginalized for centuries. As a result, some manner of karmic comeuppance is achieved. The latest example of this Bagger Vance-ing of inferred race relations is The Secret Life of Bees. Set in the percolating days of the Civil Rights Movement, this weepy feel-good sampling of you-go-girl saccharine has some real value. But it can't avoid the sugared-sap cliches that have helped to craft this particular motion picture subgenre. read the full review | |
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