BY LARRY CARROLL | As far as underrated comedies from the Nineties are concerned, Ice Cube's Friday is near the top of the list, probably right between Groundhog Day and Flirting With Disaster. You'd have a hard time finding anyone who saw Friday during its disappointing theatrical run, but it would be just as hard tracking down someone who has caught it on video or cable and not enjoyed it. The movie, which was basically about two guys sitting on a porch, got a second life when it developed a cult following that spread the word to others. By the time a sequel came out five years later, that fan base gave the mediocre Next Friday a sixty million dollar box-office run.

Now, as we await the upcoming Friday After Next, Cube returns to form with Barbershop. A warm-hearted gut buster, anyone who is a fan of those films will not want to miss this one. Like the Friday movies, the story takes place in one day and the premise is so simple that it sounds boring: Ice Cube owns a shop where people get their hair cut and hang out. But, like the original Friday, this movie is overflowing with outrageous characters that will make you smile. Just watching them interact with each other is worth the price of admission.

Cube is Calvin Palmer, a guy with big dreams and get-rich quick schemes who lives on the south side of Chicago with his pregnant wife. Calvin inherited a struggling barbershop from his father and has tried his best to run it, but he views the business as a burden and is thinking about cashing out. The only thing holding him back is that the shop is a kind of meeting place for the community - it seems to always be packed with people sitting around, reading, playing checkers, and even getting haircuts every now and then. It also acts as a place of business for the barbers who rent space there, many of whom were friends with Calvin's dad.

This motley crew of stylists includes Leonard Earl Howze (in his film debut) as Dinka, a Nigerian with a fondness for poetry; Michael Ealy (Kissing Jessica Stein) as the ex-con Ricky, who may or may not be trying to go straight; Troy Garity (Bandits) as Isaac, a white homeboy who can't get anyone to sit in his chair; Grammy-winning singer Eve as the hot-tempered Terri; Sean Patrick Thomas (Save the Last Dance) as the intellectual elitist Jimmy; and Cedric the Entertainer (Serving Sara) as Eddie, the oldest of the group, a guy who remembers when cutting hair was an art form.

Screenwriters often remark that if they put good characters on the page it's as if they're talking to each other and it's all just being transcribed. That seems to be the case here as writers Mark Brown, Don Scott and Marshall Todd (from a story by Brown) have built their script around people with real, inherent conflicts in their friendships. As the film progresses and you learn more about these characters (that Dinka has a crush on Terri, or that Jimmy isn't as smart as he thinks he is), the material does seem to just write itself. Nobody can know for sure how much dialogue was improvised, but however it was done, the result is a smooth and natural tone that's very pleasant to the ear.

Barbershop does hit some speed bumps when it falls back on the secondary plot, an ATM theft by a couple of bumbling crooks (Anthony Anderson and Lahmard Tate) who load the machine onto a truck and take off with it. Anderson and Tate, as the bossy JD and clutzy Billy, are amusing actors but their cartoonishness makes you wish the movie would hurry up and get back to the barbershop. Their scenes aren't terrible; the recurring gag of them trying to make an enormous man let them pass by on the stairs is very good, and so are some of their attempts to open up the impenetrable money machine. It's just that the rest of the movie is so true-to-life that it highlights the preposterousness of them wheeling the machine around on a dolly in broad daylight or setting a hotel room on fire and walking away from it.

The real, hard-earned laughs are back at the barbershop. While Isaac accuses Jimmy of being less black than he is, or Terri screams at the whole bunch of them for drinking her apple juice out of the employee refrigerator, the jokes come rapid-fire. It's the type of movie where you try to cut your laughter short, because you're afraid you won't be able to hear the next joke.

Ice Cube is the perfect center to all this craziness. Let's be honest, Cube is not the most talented actor in the world. He has two very powerful weapons, however: sincerity and intimidation. Neither one of these can be faked except by the most talented of actors, but Cube's got them down, and the role of Calvin is perfectly constructed to play off these natural abilities. When Calvin tells the merchant of a local convenience store that it's important his business stays in the neighborhood, you believe that he cares. On the flip side, when Calvin tells a peddler that he's going to break his foot off in the guy's ass if he doesn't get out of the barbershop, you believe that he actually will. When Cube is cast in the right role (Three Kings, Boyz N the Hood, even Anaconda) he can be effective, and that is the case here.

But the best performance is by Cedric the Entertainer. His Eddie is the funniest character in the movie, and it is jarringly original when he starts badmouthing all the great black leaders, from Rosa Parks to Jesse Jackson. Knowing Eddie as you come to do over the course of the film, you get the feeling he makes these statements for impact - he likes to stir up debate and might not really believe what he's saying - but it still makes for some intelligent and very funny material. Cedric is not only a great comedian but also a fine actor, successfully crafting a character much older than himself while being endearing enough to pluck a few heartstrings when he needs to.

Keith David (Novocaine) also triumphs as Lester, the type of guy who shakes your hand and then sends you running to wash it as soon as he leaves the room. Decked out in pimp threads that would make Ron O'Neal blush, David uses his slimy smile and creepy eyes to great effect. Like Ice Cube, he's got the funny/scary thing down pat. David has small roles in many films regularly, yet doesn't get nearly enough recognition. Here we are reminded once again that he's a valuable commodity in this business.

This is a character-driven comedy, and so it is a necessity that the character-actors all fight with each other for our attention; if the characters are stereotypical, or the actors indifferent in their portrayals, then the lack of action scenes or plot twists can make things very boring very quickly. This ensemble cast rises to the occasion, and at times you have to strain to keep track of a conversation because another is playing over it. This is a good thing, because if you're doing that it means you care enough to want to hear what they are saying. It also leaves you wanting to see the movie a second time, and then maybe buy the DVD and turn on the subtitles. Sadly, the film does run out of steam near the end, when everything gets tied up in a neat little ending that actually reminded me of the end of Demi Moore's Striptease - stupid, easy and unrealistic. It's consistent with the goofiness of the ATM subplot, but it doesn't keep with the intelligence of the majority of the film.

But then we return back to the barbershop, and you can hear everybody screaming at each other again, and it's like going home to your crazy family for Christmas. Yeah, they're all nuts, but they sure are fun to be around.

Barbershop is a rare movie, and similar in some regards to the recent My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Although the films may not seem anything alike on the surface, they both have huge casts of zany characters who seem real enough to live next door. They may be about a certain ethnic segment of society, but the laughs can be appreciated by anyone, regardless of nationality. They're funny, they're lovable, and you'll want to revisit them after you've left the theater. Don't make the same mistake you did with Friday - catch Barbershop while it's in the theaters.

GRADE: B+