Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'Friday After Next'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

I’ve always been extremely fascinated with how audiences eventually fall out of love with iconic film franchises. Not the act of walking away from the franchise mind you, but what exactly happened within the saga itself to turn audiences off. Sometimes it seems to happen simply because the quality of the storytelling and the filmmaking becomes so sub-par that audiences are left with no choice but to walk away because it’s obvious that the powers that be no longer care about producing a quality tale.
 
Other times, it seems to be related to franchise fatigue because the series has put forth too many sequels and it’s the same old thing over and over again. But sometimes, a franchise appears to lose its fans due to the fact that it betrays its core values and the subsequent stories that comes from said betrayal just don’t provide the audience with anything that helped for them to fall in love with the series in the first place and one such film that managed to pull of that kind of feat, is the final entry in the Friday trilogy, Friday After Next.
 
Because let’s be honest, when you talk about the Friday saga with people, the first two films are always looked fondly upon, but the third movie, well that seems to elicit a mixed bag of emotions and while I enjoy the movie, I’ve always been curious as to what exactly turned people away from this film and after watching it once again for the sake of this review, it finally hit me. This particular entry in the saga, outright plays it safe. The first two films provided us with fresh and original ideas that took risks with the comedy, but here…well this story feels like a buddy comedy flick and features familiar territory through and through, and that can definitely serve as a turn off when the other movies offer so much more. 
 
However, like I said, I’m a fan of this one because it’s actually filled with some genuinely hilarious moments and it continues the franchise’s proud tradition of giving us a magnificent quote to use time and time again because the ‘slap yo’ mama’ line is pure gold. As an added bonus, the comedy here is downright manic, and it allows for Mike Epps to shine through and through since he plays Day-Day, and a few other characters with a zest and zeal that we didn’t see in Next Friday and I was actually quite appreciative of the fact that Craig continues his subtle growth in this film, since the character is at an apex of maturity in this tale.
 
But, despite my love of the film, it simply didn’t resonate with audiences because of the fact that it tried to be a more traditional comedy and that’s a shame because this film really does have some good laughs to offer, and sadly its box office failure more or less signaled the end of the saga for the foreseeable future. But, I have heard rumors and discussions about a potential fourth and final film, and honestly, I hope it gets made. Because this saga deserves a strong and proper sendoff and really, when all is said and done, if you skipped this one because you heard it was nothing special, give it a chance. I think you’ll find it is better than advertised. 

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