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Friday (1995 film)

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Friday
Theatrical release poster
Directed byF. Gary Gray
Written byIce Cube
DJ Pooh
StarringIce Cube
Chris Tucker
Nia Long
Faizon Love
Tom Lister, Jr.
Anna Maria Horsford
with Bernie Mac
and John Witherspoon
Narrated byIce Cube
Music byIce Cube
Frank Fitzpatrick (Music Supervisor)
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
April 26, 1995
Running time
91 min.
LanguageEnglish
Budget$3.5 million
Box officeDomestic
$27,467,564
Foreign
$748,354
Worldwide
$28,215,918

Friday is a 1995 dramatic comedy-buddy film directed by F. Gary Gray. Starring Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, Nia Long, Bernie Mac, Tom Lister, Jr. and John Witherspoon, the film revolves around 16 hours in the lives of Craig Jones (Ice Cube) and Smokey (Chris Tucker), who must pay a drug dealer $200 on Friday night by 10:00PM on the dot. The film also marks the first film appearance of Michael Clarke Duncan, but was uncredited at the time.

Plot Summary

The film is a look at one particular day (Friday) in the life of two friends, Craig Jones (Ice Cube) and Smokey (Chris Tucker), in urban Los Angeles. Straight-laced Craig has recently been fired from his job while attempting to collect his wages (he was allegedly caught on camera stealing boxes), although he claims innocence. Exacerbating his dilemma, his parents (John Witherspoon and Anna Maria Horsford) are threatening to evict him from the family home unless he quickly finds new employment. Meanwhile, Craig has been eyeing comely, pretty neighbor Debbie (Nia Long), but his insanely jealous, ghetto-fabulous girlfriend Joi (Paula Jai Parker) is a formidable obstacle (ironically, an unidentified man was seen in Joi's bed in the beginning of the film, while she was arguing with Craig on the phone).

Throughout the day, friends and local neighborhood characters pass through: the harmless but always-scheming crack head and petty thief Ezal (Anthony Johnson); the unkempt, perpetually crack head and mooching Felicia; lascivious Pastor Clever (Bernie Mac), who has a brief fling with sultry parishioner Ms. Parker (Kathleen Bradley), before being unexpectedly interrupted by her infuriated, diminutive husband (Tony Cox); package delivery driver Red (DJ Pooh), whose stolen bicycle, chain necklace and black eye are courtesy of the hulking bully Deebo (Tommy Lister, Jr.); and Shana (Terri J. Vaughn), friend of sister Dana (Regina King). Much earlier, Debbie hooks Smokey up with a blind date (Yvette Wilson) over the phone who claims she bears a resemblance to Janet Jackson.

The film's subplot focuses on Smokey who has been depleting (smoking) a brokered consignment of indo, which he was supposed to be selling for Big Worm. In an attempt to explain his obvious lack of revenue, Smokey inadvertently incriminates Craig, subjecting both to Big Worm's wrath. The dealer, Big Worm (Faizon Love), has had enough of Smokey "playing with his emotions" and warns him to show a substantial profit no later than 10:00 that evening, or he and Craig will be killed. Later on, the two plan how they are going to get Big Worm's money. By then Smokey's blind date Rita (Yvette Wilson) arrives. Smokey approaches her car with confidence until he finds out that she "lied" about her image. Instead of resembling Janet Jackson, she is portly and practically bald. Smokey heads to Debbie's house to complain about the date and notices Deebo's (Red's) bike on the lawn. He sneaks in the bedroom and there he finds Deebo sound asleep with Felicia beside him. He tries to steal the rest of money he and Deebo lifted from robbing Stanley earlier, but quickly leaves without the money as Deebo wakes up thanks to Ezal making noise as he tried to sneack inside the bedroom too. Smokey goes back to Craig's house to tell Craig about this. Craig agreed that they return to Debbie and Felicia's house to steal the money from Deebo but they see Deebo riding down the street on a Beach Cruiser. Lil' Chris, scares them from behind and rides off on his bicycle taunting Craig and Smokey. Craig and Smokey chase after Lil' Chris and Smokey beats him with his belt because Lil' Chris has been knocking over everyone in the neighborhood's trash cans every week. After they let Lil' Chris go they rejoice and then they notice a black car driving slowly down the street and they begin to hide behind a tree. They settle back into Craig's room for a about an hour, trying to get in touch with Big Worm. They decide to go back outside to prove they are not scared. Once outside, they notice a black van parked outside in the middle of the street with the headlights off. The two flee as the men in the truck start shooting at them with submachine guns, ultimately landing in the back of a pick up truck where they remain safe.

Everyone in the neighborhood emerge from their homes as they hear the gunshots. Debbie confronts Deebo for giving her sister, Felicia, a black eye. Deebo told her that she was trying to steal money from his pants (in fact it was Smokey) and warns her to go home. She continues to tell Deebo off until he slaps her. At this moment, Craig and Smokey arrive on the scene and Craig immediately steps in to defend Debbie. He stands up to Deebo, even threatening Deebo with a gun he acquired before the movie begins. Craig is convinced by his father to hand over the gun to him, then he immediately engages into a bare-knuckle brawl with Deebo, which Craig wins. Debbie tends to Craig, while Smokey steals money from the unconscious Deebo. Red gets his chain and bicycle back, and even punches Deebo while he was trying to wake back up. In the finale, Craig has seemingly overcome all of the day's tribulations (save for finding employment). He and Debbie seem to hook up in the end, leading Craig to break up with his girlfriend on the phone. Later, Smokey has a talk with Big Worm over the phone regarding the shooting. Big Worm said he had to warn Smokey about his money because it's all about the "principles" of handling business. Smokey says he got the $200 that he owes Big Worm and that he should deal weed himself next time as he is going to rehab. After hanging up, Smokey looks up, lights up a joint and ends the film by shouting, "I was just bullshittin'! And you know this, man!".

Tagline: A lot can go down between Thursday and Saturday...

Cast

Main cast

Main article: List of characters in the Friday series

Supporting cast

Release

File:Deebo.jpg
Tom Lister, Jr., as the iconic neighborhood thug Deebo.

Friday was released on April 26, 1995 in the United States, June 30, 1995 in the United Kingdom and October 5, 1995 in Australia.

It was released on DVD on March 2, 1999 and on Blu-ray on September 8, 2009 with a new director's cut. The single disc DVD contains a theatrical trailer, a featurette on the movie and cast and crew interviews.

Reception

The movie garnered mostly positive reviews by critics, earning 79% favorable reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes, [1] and on Metacritic the film has received an average score of 74, based on 52 reviews. [2]

Box office

Friday grossed $6,589,341 on its opening weekend debuting at #2 in the box office in 865 theaters, averaging $7,617 per theater. The film has grossed $27,467,564 in North America and $748,354 in the Foreign box office with a total of $28,215,918 worldwide. [3]

Awards

MTV Movie Awards 1996

  • Nominee, Best Breakthrough Performance, Chris Tucker
  • Nominee, Best Comedic Performance, Chris Tucker
  • Nominee, Best On-Screen Duo, Ice Cube and Chris Tucker

Sequels

The film has spawned two sequels, Next Friday and Friday After Next. The sequels were successful at the box office but a failure with critics.

Another sequel, tentatively titled Last Friday, was rumored to be in the works in 2007. The film was to star all of the original cast from the previous Friday films. However, no news on production was ever confirmed.

An animated television series based on the film was premiered on MTV2, on Sunday, June 24, 2007.

Soundtrack

Main article: Friday (soundtrack)

The Friday soundtrack consists mainly of Hip Hop music and features artists such as Ice Cube, Dr.Dre, Cypress Hill, Scarface, and Rick James.

References

  1. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/friday/
  2. ^ http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/friday?q=Friday
  3. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=friday.htm
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