Back in 1995, amidst the peak of hardcore from-the-hood gangster movies, rapper Ice Cube and comedian Chris Tucker helped usher in a new franchise in the form of "Friday," a from-the-hood comedy. The film performed moderately at the box office ($27 million), but really picked up steam as an underground hit on video. When a sequel was finally released in 2000, "Next Friday" opened to a $21 million weekend, almost matching it's predecessors total in just one weekend, and going on to make a respectable $57 million by the end of it's run. Hoping to laugh all the way to the bank yet again, Ice Cube and Mike Epps return as Craig and his cousin Day-Day in "Friday After Next."

In this installment, which could have been easily been called "The Friday before Christmas," Craig and Day-Day are hired as security guards for a small Compton strip mall. However, the night before they are to start work, they are robbed in their apartment by a drunken Santa (think Ol' Dirty Bastard in a Santa suit) who takes all of their presents, along with the rent money. So, hoping to scrape enough money so they won't be evicted, they head to work the next day (Friday, of course), to deal with the police, their family, and the store owners of the strip mall. With stores such as "Toys in the Hood," "Holy Moly’s Doughnuts," and "Pimps and Ho's Fashions," these aren't your suburb strip mall stores, and neither are the clientele.

Of course, the humor of the "Friday" stories revolves around these absurdly overblown characters and clientele, including Craig & Day-Day themselves. As the manager of "Pimps and Ho's," Money Mike (Katt Williams) is yet another hilarious addition to the lineup as a vertically challenged pimp fashion storeowner. His overblown fashions are matched only by his overblown ego. Another new character is the apartment manager's son Damon, who was just released from prison (and who replaces "Tiny" Lister's character Deebo). Damon is a muscle-headed bully who only thinks with one head (and it's not the one above his shoulders). Even the police are poked fun at, as a Caucasian and African-American duo are aptly named A. Hole and B. Dick (I’ll let you decide which is which).

Of the returning characters, Day-Day is his usual wanting-to-be-a-player self, trying to be a tough-guy and smooth with the ladies, yet failing miserably at both. Craig's Dad (John Witherspoon) is back with his stammering quips and bathroom-clearing gas attacks. In all this, only Craig comes across again as being the smooth criminal in charge, getting the ladies and saving the day. Yes, he has his down times, but he always seems level headed, and knows the right thing to do in every situation. Of course, Ice Cube writes the part for himself, so you can't blame him for getting the pretty girls.

Unfortunately, the ending comes way too soon, and it isn't very neatly summed up. Clocking in at just 85 minutes, it's a rather quick ride, but thankfully there aren't any slow periods and the action and humor are almost non-stop. However, as long as moviegoers continue to buy tickets, Ice Cube and D.J. Pooh should be able to crank out the scripts for future installments, even if they are short. In each sequel so far, and "Friday After Next" is no exception, the characters have stayed funny and their dialogue fresh, so only their locale has changed. If you liked the first two “Fridays”, the third is sure to please.