Friday

B and Cult Movies rating : 4 stars
Year of Release : 1995
Movie Certification : 15
Running Time : 91 mins
Genre : Comedy
Starring : Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, Nia Long
Director : F. Gary Gray

Friday is a character based comedy cult film that is popular among a certain, erm, sub culture since a large part of the plot involves the two main characters getting high. It’s based on two friends, Craig, played by Ice Cube and Smokey, played by Chris Tucker. The duo run into a problem with their local drug dealer and it becomes clear that they must find a way to pay back the $200 that they owe him or suffer the dire consequences.

Most of the film is set on the front deck of Craig’s house as both Craig and Smokey don’t work and decide to spend the day getting high. This leads them to come across strange, but very funny characters. Personally, I think Chris Tucker was at his best at this stage of his career and I can’t help but notice a lot of Smokey in his other roles. Craig seems stressed through a lot of the film for a variety of reasons: no job, an annoying stoned friend (Smokey), a crazy girlfriend and visits from the neighbourhood bastard. Of course, this holds a lot of comedy value for the film. Chris Tucker and Ice Cube work really well together and they seem to work great with the dialogue. Smokey, who is definitely the more irresponsible of the two spends most of his time getting high and hanging around the neighbourhood, something that Craig doesn’t really seem to be used to. The neighbourhood bully ‘Deebo’ played by Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister is certainly a menacing character who has the power to make most of the other characters do what he wants and spends his time doing rounds of the neighbourhood taking what isn’t his.

There are many other funny characters in Friday which keeps the viewer amused throughout. The story itself really doesn’t hold much relevance to the films success and it’s clear that without the characters influence, the film wouldn’t have much of a buzz around it. Friday gathered a cult following and a lot of its fans say it’s the best stoner comedy about.

I really liked Friday. There are some similarities to the Cheech and Chong films i.e. drug use, comedy, character based, but it is different as the characters don’t really move from the one spot apart from when reflecting on past events. These type of films can of course work either way: really boring or really good. Really boring because sometimes there is not enough happening, really good because, well, for various reasons. Although, I did like the film, I can’t help feel that the ‘stoner’ genre has run it’s course and that the newer films just aren’t as funny. Maybe I’m getting a little old for them and these type of films are targeted towards a younger audience. It could be that.