`SHOP 2' MANAGES TO STAY SHARP.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

THEY'VE DONE quite a new style change with ``Barbershop 2: Back in Business,'' the sequel to 2002's amiable yet somehow incendiary workplace comedy.

The story has been broadened outside of Calvin's neighborhood haircutting parlor to encompass a wider swath of Chicago South Side life. Judicious flashbacks, focusing on loudmouthed old guy Eddie in his younger days, provide a context of the urban African-American experience over the past 40-some years. Economic politics plays a much bigger role in the new movie, as do personal growth issues for all of the returning characters.

If this sounds rather more ambitious than fun, well, it is. But only slightly. There were more laughs in the first ``Barbershop,'' and braver ones too.

No dissing Rosa Parks here; it's safer targets like R. Kelly and the Mikes you don't want to be like, Tyson and Jackson. Still, there's a good deal of funny, uncensored talk. Considering how much new director Kevin Rodney Sullivan (``How Stella Got Her Groove Back'') effortlessly packs into the picture, that's more than a fair trade.

Fair-trade practices, in fact, are the plot crux of ``Back in Business'' (the script is credited to Don D. Scott, a rewrite man on the first installment). Happily resigned to keeping his father's place a going concern, Calvin (Ice Cube) is initially pleased to see a shiny new mini-mall going up across the street. Finally, the ghetto will be getting some of the first-class services its residents deserve.

But when the mall's anchor store turns out to be a state-of-the-art chain styling emporium - complete with high-tech aquarium and basketball hoop - Calvin and the gang realize that they're in a fight for survival. This affects the boss in amusing ways; he tries to gussy up and make the place more family-friendly, which means attempting to impose an antithetical speech code, among other things.

While the rest of Calvin's barbers recognize the crisis, they're mostly distracted by their own agendas. Tough chick Terri (Eve) is seriously struggling to manage her anger. Token white boy Isaac (Troy Garity), having proven his talent, now must wrestle his ego. Lovelorn African emigre Dinka (Leonard Earl Howze) must work past his longing for the unattainable Terri. And bad-boy Ricky (Michael Ealy) is furtively up to something that just might be something good.

Obnoxiously ambitious Jimmy (Sean Patrick Thomas) has left the shop to work for the glad-handing local alderman (Robert Wisdom), who is in some kind of featherbed with the rival franchise owner (Harry Lennix). Other new characters include Queen Latifah's Gina, who runs the beauty shop next door (and yes, her spinoff movie is in the pipeline); and TV comic Kenan Thompson as Cal's untalented but ambitious cousin-in-law.

They've all got their arcs, but the main focus, quite rightly, is on the boss and Cedric the Entertainer's Eddie. Playing closer to his own age in the flashbacks, Cedric shows in quick, deft flashes how the old curmudgeon earned his right to incorrectly comment - and also how he earned Calvin Sr. and Jr.'s undying loyalty. We also get some silly little snippets of his personal background, and in the present, perceptive peeks through the gaps in his blustery armor.

As for Calvin, even his inevitable Jimmy Stewart moment comes with a stinging, real-world twist. But it never feels too frantic, or heavy for that matter, in the watching.

Constantly engaged and intelligent while generally conscious of retaining the entertaining goods, ``Barbershop 2'' is anything but your business-as-usual sequel.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

BARBERSHOP 2: BACK IN BUSINESS - Three stars

(PG-13: language, violence)

Starring: Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Queen Latifah, Sean Patrick Thomas, Eve, Troy Garity, Michael Ealy, Leonard Earl Howze, Harry Lennix, Kenan Thompson.

Director: Kevin Rodney Sullivan.

Running time: 1 hr. 38 min.

Playing: Wide release.

In a nutshell: The scissors-swingin' gang is back in a less funny but more interesting story that touches on African-American history, inner-city gentrification and everybody's personal growth.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Ice Cube is still cutting heads on Chicago's South Side - but there's new competition in the mini-mall across the street in ``Barbershop 2: Back in Business.''