Worse than the First
I walked into Blockbuster last night and saw Nora 2 on the wall. There were about 10 copies versus the two or three that were supplied for the first movie. That told me that they thought this one was much better than the original, so I took a chance in the name of supporting black cinema, since I kind of liked Nora's Hair Salon, a little bit. Well I got fooled once again by Blockbuster. Nora's Hair Salon 2 is one of the worst movies I've seen in the past 2 yrs.
Tatayana Ali returns as Liliana, now co-owner of the salon and she's looking pretty hot though she looks like she put on a bit of weight. Still sexy though. She even manages to show a little range.
Stacy Dash is a nice sexy addition but now I realize why she isn't as popular an actress as we all thought she shoud be, though she's red hot. She's a lame actress. Just another looker. She's here playing Simone, the money-hungry, fame-chasing niece of the late Nora, who inherits half the salon. Even worse she gets to be the girlfriend of the slimy Bobby Brown, who's already lame acting gets worse in everything I see him in.
The story is tired and way whack. Nora has died and left the salon to Simone and Lilieana. Lilieana has the salon up and running but Simone wants to sell her half to a high profile company who can get the salon attention from Oprah. Add some lame subplots, love interests that never materialize and songs by wanna-be, no-hit wonders every two minutes there you have it. A crappy 80 minute, BET music video. In fact, it seems like the movie is more interested in showcasing the musical talent of the soundtrack than the story.
Mekhi Pfeiffer is listed as a producer of this film. He even injects himself as a love interest for Lileana toward the end of the movie like some knight in shining armor when her world is falling apart. He should have been worrying more about quality control. Typical broad black comedy, that's being made these days by black christian production companies, so there's no cursing or nudity. More emphasis on loyalty and family, which is good but rehashing those same elements without continuity or originality is getting tired. It's like these hair movies are just copying each other. One more watered down than the next. It's still better than The Salon though but not by much.
The acting is a crime. Sexy latina Christine Carlo and the charming Lucille Soong return but can't pump any life into this with their stereotypical ethnic schticks. The gay characters return but don't even really have a storyline this time other than foolishness. Anytime you see Bobby Brown in a movie, RUN. Actually it's hilarious watching him try to portray himself as a rich playboy in all these movies. I guess he's hoping life will imitate art again for him. They even try to pull an "Eddie Murphy" by making up Brown and Jean Claude La Marre, (who played a down-low barber in the original and has a small role in this movie as a priest) , as two old men who sit outside the salon and make comments. I can't wait to see what Nora 3 will look like. 2/10 stars.
C'mon, people. It's '08. Where are the decent black movies at????