Friday is a 1995 dramatic comedy-buddy film directed by F. Gary Gray. Starring Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, Nia Long, Bernie Mac, Tommy 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.
Plot Summary
The film is a look at one particular day (Friday) in the life of two friends, Craig Jones (Cube) and Smokey (Tucker), in urban Los Angeles. 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 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, thus indebting him to a drug dealer. In an attempt to explain his obvious lack of revenue, Smokey inadvertently incriminates Craig, subjecting both to the dealer’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 Smokey lifted from robbing Stanley earlier, but quickly leaves without the money as Deebo wakes up. Smokey goes back the porch to tell Craig about this until they notice a black van pulling up the neighborhood with men holding out their machine guns. The two flee as they start shooting, 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 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 off Deebo until she gets hit. At this moment, Craig and Smokey arrive on the scene and Craig immediately steps in to defend Debbie. He stands up to Deebo and engages into a bare-knuckle brawl, 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!""you got knock the fuck out" is smokey's line
Tagline: A lot can go down between Thursday and Saturday...
Cast
Main cast
Supporting cast
Release
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 coward positive reviews by critics, earning 80% favorable reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes, [1] and on Metacritic the film has received an average score of 54, based on 10 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.
An animated television series based on the film was premiered on MTV2, on Sunday, June 24, 2007.
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
- ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/friday/
- ^ http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/friday?q=Friday
- ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=friday.htm
External links
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