Next Friday (2000): Dir: Steve Carr / Cast: Ice Cube, Mike Epps, John Witherspoon, Tommy "Tiny" Lister, Tamala Jones: Brainless mess with absolutely no reason for existing. Sequel to Friday with Ice Cube writing and narrating the film. He was responsible for Tommy "Tiny" Lister landing in prison but after an escape, Cube is sent to live with his Uncle Elroy. Cube's cousin works at Pinky's Record Store where he hides out on his pregnant girlfriend. Next door live drug dealers with a nasty pit bull. There is a subplot involving taxes and saving the property etc. Witless and predictable with uninspiring directing by Steve Carr. Ice Cube plays the humourless lead, which works against the mood of the film. It is as if Cube arrived on the wrong set. Mike Epps plays Cube's best friend who is a complete idiot. John Witherspoon plays Cube's less than friendly father. Perhaps the worst element is an embarrassing appearance by Lister who breaks out of prison and seeks revenge on Cube. Perhaps he should seek out the producers of this film. Tamala Jones plays Epps's pregnant ex-girlfriend although being part of this film gives her something else to be angry about. The conclusion presents theft and drugs as fun as oppose to the endless trouble brought to those who dabbled in it. Nothing of value in this film that prides itself on being stupid. This film should be tossed in a campfire for a marshmallow roast. Score: 1 / 10

"Next Friday" isn't half as funny as "Friday." The long awaited sequel to the 1995 cult classic hip-hop comedy lacks the hilarity of the ground-breaking original. Sadly, the best character is gone missing. Early in "Next Friday," Craig Jones informs us that Smokey has checked into rehab. Never again do we hear another word about the memorable Chris Tucker character. Nobody in "Next Friday" either replaces or matches the live-wire comic energy that Tucker infused into the pot-headed player he impersonated so vividly. The Pillsbury Homeboy of Rap—Ice Cube—John Witherspoon, and Tommy 'Tiny' Lister Jr., reprise their roles, but Nia Long and Regina King are missing, too. Ultimately, with Chris around to cut up, "Next Friday" seems just plain 'Tuckered out.' "Next Friday" carries on where its lowbrow predecessor faded out, so some surprising narrative continuity distinguishes this farce. If you missed "Friday," Craig (Ice Cube) beat the Goliath of the ghetto, Deebo (Tommy 'Tiny' Lister Jr.) to a pulp after the bully had run roughshod over the neighborhood. Now, Deebo is chillin' in jail, but he vows to get payback. Anxiously, Mr. Jones (John Witherspoon) takes his out-of-work slacker son to live with his lotto-winning brother Elroy (Don 'D.C.' Curry). Elroy resides in the suburbs, far away from South Central Los Angeles. No sooner has he relocated his son than Deebo escapes. Tagging along with Deebo on the wrong end of an ankle shackle is another reluctant inmate, Tyrone (Sticky Fingaz) who slows our towering villain down, especially when Deebo steals a bike.Deebo forces Tyrone to phone Craig's father and warn him that Craig is in trouble. Smuggling themselves in the back of Mr. Jones' animal control track (a clever metaphor for Deebo) Deebo and Tyrone ride out to the posh Rancho Cucuamonga where Uncle Elroy lives. Meanwhile, Craig finds life just as chaotic with his nouveau riche relatives. He dodges Elroy's oversexed wife Suga (Kym E. Whitley) and hangs out with his cousin Day-Day (Mike Epps of "All About The Benjamins"). Day-Day drives a new BMW and works in a record shop. Craig discovers a voluptuous Hispanic honey, Karla (Lisa Rodriguez), who lives at the house next door but tangles with her three Latino gangster brothers when he tries to steal their drug money to pay the unpaid property taxes on Uncle Elroy's crib."Next Friday" is just as rude, crude, and lewd as "Friday." Mr. Jones still has drafty bowel movement moments and has dog-do smeared across his back during most of the movie. Unfortunately, producer Ice Cube and freshman director Steve Carr screw up "Next Friday." They squander too many good characters. First, Deebo spends too much time out of sight in the dog pound truck. Lister almost but doesn't quite compensate for Tucker's absence. Second, Craig gets nowhere with Karla, and she drops out of sight inexplicably after the cops have arrested her brothers. Third, everything in "Next Friday" is a predictable retread of "Friday," but on a grander scale with less inspiration and no gun control messages.

I saw Next Friday a day after I've seen it's prequel: Friday. It seems like only yesterday...Well, frankly speaking, it was yesterday when I've seen the next Friday movie.I didn't think a lot of it, I always thought Friday was one of the so-so movies ever, except it's grand sequel "Friday after next". When I watched Next Friday yesterday, I thought it was pretty good... for a So-So movie hehe... Of course not as good as Friday and Friday After Next but I got a good laugh out of it, and now I think of it a so-so highly. Of course Smokey should have been there too but, anyways, at least there's Day Day but it shows a character from a different perception and Day Day is a funny guy but Smokey is one of the best characters in any movie. They need to bring Smokey back. All in all grade: Next Friday is good too and is definitely worth seeing...Just don't forget yo weeds!

Friday took place in the ghetto, in Next Friday Ice Cube's character now lives in a wealthy neighbourhood. This means from the start that the basic formula is different, and the absence of any familiar character except Ice Cube, who was one of the weaker characters the original means that it's a film with a tenuous connection to the first. In essence Next Friday is almost a completely different film from Friday. It is still passable, it carries enough energy for the viewer to not become bored, but the original seems highly original and inventive in comparison. It seems to be capitalising on the success of the first rather than creating a true sequel.