Friday After Next

If you’re like me and work from home while taking care of your kid, you start to hate Fridays. There’s no such thing as the weekend to look forward in this house, Saturday and Sunday are just two more days of doom, despair and no sleep until the whole Godforsaken week cycles back to Monday and it starts all over again. I can go for weeks thinking every day is a Tuesday, stuck in a rut in the shitty end of an even shittier week that passes in a blur of nappies, screaming and impossible to meet deadlines.

Even though in its own way it perpetuates the classic TGIF myth, it’s still good to see that the inhabitants of the Friday world at least have a shittier time than I in the hours leading up to the weekend. So far they’ve spent their Fridays being chased, hounded, threatened, broke, high, abused and shot at. I know the feeling, and that’s before I make it out of the bedroom in the morning. Don’t even get me started about f*cking lunchtime…

Craig (Ice Cube, playing the straightman as usual) and DayDay (the eternally confused and upset looking Mike Epps) return for the third installment of the growing popular Friday comedy franchise.

The only thing changed since last Friday (and the Friday before that) is that the two unemployed lunkheads now share an apartment somewhere in the ‘hood, and their family now own a BBQ joint at the local mall, having blown all their lottery winnings. It’s early Christmas Eve morning and the boys wake to find a ghetto Santa ripping them off, making off with their CDs and rent money. Adding to their misery, the landlord reminds them the rent is due today - no ifs, no buts - and if they don’t pay up then her son Damon (Terry Crews), who’s fresh out of prison, is going to introduce Craig and DayDay to the joys of a meat enema.

Lucky break then that today they start their new jobs as security guards at the local shopping mall. “Keep your eyes open, do your rounds and if you see anything suspicious blow your whistle.� These aren’t hard instructions to follow, but with DayDay getting on his delusional highchair about the authority he now wields ‘everyone’s a suspect’ and the lads are soon in more trouble than they can handle. Keep their jobs, stay alive, get the rent money and throw a party for Christmas blowout for family and friends is all they need to do before the day is over. Piece of piss, it’s the movies, remember?

It also looks like just another Friday film. Nothing much has changed in the formula, with many faces returning to reprise their roles, the antagonist being the same musclebound meathead type from the first film just with a different name (I actually thought it was Deebo for a mo), and some problem deemed inane to normal humans yet insurmountable to our heroes to be wrapped up in a super-quick flowing 80 minutes. The laugh level is about on par with its forerunners (perhaps a miniscule fraction down), more focused around the idiosyncrasies of the cast rather than the situations they fall into. That said, you could argue that the series hasn’t evolved much, but then again why should it? This isn’t the Police Academy series, which started out bad and went to shit by the end of the first films first reel. Friday... is much more likable, the characters being the key with the cast of standup comics bringing a distinctive style to their roles and across each movie, playing a big part to create the illusion that old friends are back again.

With any luck they’ll keep up the laughs and be back again next Friday, and the one after that.

For some reason, maybe because the film, a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, two commentary tracks, the additional DTS mix and a spare 2.0 track are all squeezed onto one layer, the 1.85:1 16:9 enhanced picture isn’t fantastic. It’s a little grainy, the blacks are flat and featureless, and it shows the effects of being squeezed a little hard with frequently visible mosquito noise. For such a recent film to make it to release, couldn’t things have been just a little better, or did the volume of bonus features (nearly filling the other layer) force a compromise? Casual viewing won’t result in being so critical on the picture, because it looks colourful and smooth, but the lack of fine detail is glaringly obvious on most screen sizes.

Read the back of the cover sleeve and you’ll think that there's just the usual Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 track to pick from. That would be fine in itself, a 5.1 mix usually being suitable for all needs. So if you put the disc in and discover that there’s also a 5.1 DTS track you’ll be even happier right? Then start smiling, ‘cause that’s what you get. Dolby Digital and DTS, and somebody forgot to tell the designer to whack the logo on the artwork. With either selected (forget the stereo mix, that’s for luddites) this is another thumping and humming mix, full of big bass and loud effects. Dialogue is clear, natural, sometimes a little murky but more due to the actors delivery than any fault, and the third act sees a good use of the surrounds to bring the party in their apartment to life with plenty of crowd noise popping up behind you.

Friday After Next has a whole swag of extras split across a dual layered DVD, with the film, a subtitle track and two commentaries sitting on one layer and all the others sitting pretty on their own layer.

Audio Commentary Director Marcus Raboy, Producer Matt Alvarez and Jack of all Trades Ice Cube
Cube sounds like he’s recorded his comments separately from the others. Focused more on the details initially, it loosens up its tone a little towards the end, but is still a bit of a dry listen.

Audio Commentary Various Cast members
Much more fun is had in this comm. They’ve obviously seen the film (and its predecessors) a time or two, pointing out favourite moments and lines and having a good laugh together. Having watched the film a few times myself now, this commentary actually made me enjoy the film more as it highlighted little things that I’d missed each time through it.

Fact Track
Enabled, this plays a subtitle stream with a wide selection of trivia about anything to do with the film, from the music and artists, to the weed legislation passed in the U.S. It’s not implemented with much thought to the presentation though.

Featurette: Microphone Fiend – From Stage to Screen
With so many characters drawn from the world of standup comedy, it’s good to see a feature on the comics themselves, with comments from the owners of clubs where many of them (and other bigger stars) started.

Featurette: It Was a Good Day – Behind the Friday Franchise
Reminiscence with current and past cast and crew on the series so far and hopes for potential future films, with the popularity of the series surprising many of them.

Featurette: Ghetto Fabulous – Costume Design
While Kat Williams (Money Mike in the film) shows us how to ‘pimp up’ for those of us more pimpically challenged individuals, costume designer Dana Campbell discusses the look she created for the various characters in the film.

Featurette: The Pork Report
The BBQ meat in the film is so good it makes you wanna slap yo’ mama. Watch this and you’ll wanna slap yo’ mama too, then head out the door to find someone who sells BBQ meat. I can’t tell you how hungry this featurette made me. They’ve traveled the country seeking the secrets of the perfect BBQ. Had to love Abdullah the Butcher, a behemoth who looks like his head had been attacked by a meat cleaver and probably enjoyed one ton too many of his BBQ meat. We do learn that the secret is either in the wood used in the BBQ or the sauce.

Featurette: Hump Day – Production Doco
Everyone gets their say about how much fun the film was, how talented everyone was, blah blah blah... zzzzzzzzzzzzzz, except for one comment by Cube where he tells us that “I like them to stick to the script, but none of them sons of bitches listens to what I got to say�. Tell it like it is, Cube. One day, I’d like to see a documentary that has nothing but this kind of comment in it. I want to see actors slagging each other off, and bagging the talentless director as a dictatorial psychopath with short dick syndrome. I think I’ll be waiting for a looooong time though.

Featurette: Holiday in the Hood – Production Design Doco
It’s unlikely that you’ll ever find something which suits your story perfectly, so Marcus Raboy (director) and Colin De Rouin (art director) discuss finding suitable real world locations and changing them to create the locations in the film.

Deleted Scenes
Access to eight deleted scenes and one alternate ending, all playable with or without commentary. Fave is the flashback to how Craig and Dayday lost their last job at a nursing home. The alt ending is too typically Christmassy and less entertaining than the one used

Teaser and Theatrical Trailer

Music Video
Another video like you’d see on any music video show, typically misogynistic with booty-shaking women and bling bling and expensive cars with rappers in matching white football tops making them look gay rather than cool. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Featurette: Making of the Music Video
Just in case you wanted to see what it’s like when they shoot a stupid video for shit rappers, clap your peepers on this baloney.

Easter Eggs
You know the drill, check out the Easter Egg section to access these.

Another good Friday for Cube and Epps, stacked with extra goodies and a DTS mix which goes unmentioned on the sleeve. If you liked the previous trips to their world, you can safely pick this up and have a snort. Picture quality could have been better, but most people will find it acceptable.

I don't know how much box office cha-ching this made Cube and Co, but I'll bet that we'll see another Friday soon enough.