Directed by Tim Story and written by a trio that includes Two Can Play That Game scribe Mark Brown, Barbershop feels a little like Spike Lee lite - "Joe's Bed Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads" minus the street realism, or Do the Right Thing without the conflagrations. Despite my gripes, it's pretty entertaining conventional fun. Eve shows some screen promise in a supporting role, and Sean Patrick Thomas is pretty funny as a self-satisfied college boy who thinks he's got something to prove. It's interesting that some of the film's funniest bits - Eddie's startling one-liners disparaging Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Jesse Jackson - sparked outrage among black leaders who couldn't be bothered to suss that their indignation only proved the points that the film (which could hardly be said to fully endorse Eddie's rants) made about sacred cows.