Next Friday Reviews

Vulgar, stupid and un-PC as it may be, this sequel to 1995's surprise hit FRIDAY is also sporadically funny. It's been four years since that frantic, dope-addled Friday when Craig (Ice Cube) beat up neighborhood thug Debo (Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr.). Now Debo and his buddy Tyrone (Sticky Fingaz) have busted out of jail and are on their way back to settle up. Craig's dad (John Witherspoon) packs him off to stay with Uncle Elroy (Don "DC" Curry) until things blow over; Elroy won the lottery and moved on up to a deluxe crib in Rancho Cucamonga with his hapless son Day-Day (Mike Epps) and foxy lady Suga (Kym E. Whitley). But wouldn't you know that Craig finds the suburbs are just as jumping as South Central Los Angeles? Before you know it, he's pissed off the half-wit cholos next door by chatting up their sexy sister (Lisa Rodriguez), and he's smack in the middle of Day-Day's troubles with crazy D'wana (Tamala Jones) and her very scary sister Baby D (Lady of Rage). And to top it all off, unless Elroy can come up with $3,700 in back taxes by tomorrow, his beloved house is going to be sold at auction. That about covers the story; it's just an excuse to string together a loosely connected series of comic sketches of varying quality, heavy on the drug jokes, fat jokes and sex jokes. Craig, Day-Day and his white-boy buddy Roach (Justin Pierce) get high on the job at Pinky's Record Store, and the volatile boss (Clifton Powell) just happens to stop by. The cholos next door sic their dog on Day-Day and Craig. Roach feeds the dog a hash brownie. It's not Noel Coward, but there's something about a tripping bull terrier...