Ice Cube flips the script in 'Friday'

Chris Tucker (left) and Ice Cube plot a hassle-free day in 1995’s “Friday.” (New Line Cinema/MovieStillsDB.com)

"Friday"
Released April 26, 1995
Directed by F. Gary Gray
Where to Watch

While there were several 90s movies depicting life in South Central Los Angeles, the two we remember the most both starred Ice Cube. One day we'll talk about the first, 1992's "Boyz n the Hood," but today, we're focusing on the funny one, 1995's "Friday."

Ice Cube (which, to be honest, I legitimately don't know how to refer to in the second reference using AP Style, and more importantly, I'm not cool) stars as Craig, a young man still living at home with his family who was just fired on his day off. "You have to be a stupid motherfucker," says his best friend Smokey (Chris Tucker) about the firing. Smokey is a weed dealer who likes to partake in the supply a bit too much, which puts him in the crosshairs of Big Worm (Faizon Love), who runs the dealing in the neighborhood. Craig and Smokey decide to spend the day chilling in front of Craig's house, interacting with their various neighbors, until the combination of Big Worm and the street's main heavy, Deebo (Tiny "Zeus" Lister Jr.), put both of them in peril.

Where "Friday" really shines is how rewatchable it is. There are ongoing elements in the story that leads to the movie's climax, but the script also gives us many scenes that don't build. These are short sketches designed to provide us with insight into the characters, their lives, and the community they live in. They're also hilarious. This kind of structure leads to us rewatching it because we can pop into the movie for 20 minutes or so, enjoy a couple of fun scenes, and have a satisfying experience. 

The film was a significant milestone in Ice Cube's career as he begins to soften his image ever so slightly after his rise to fame in the NWA and as a solo rapper. Cube had already made the transition to movies with 1992's "Boyz n the Hood" as Doughboy, a young black man whose circumstances had made him hard, cynical, and prone to violence. It was a persona that was similar to Cube's musical career. But Cube writes Craig in "Friday" as an average twentysomething slacker, perfectly content to spend the day sitting on the lawn, checking out women as they go by, and striving for hassle-free life. Craig does get his hands on a gun, and as the tension builds to his confrontation with Deebo, the weapon returns to the plot. But Craig is a different Ice Cube character than we've seen before, one who can make his own choices independent of our perceptions.

Offering a different perspective on a neighborhood seemingly defined by music, movies, and media coverage of the Los Angeles riots in 1992 was very much the point of "Friday." Ice Cube co-wrote the script with DJ Poon (who plays Red in the movie) and then enlisted one of his frequent music video directors, F. Gary Gray, to helm his first feature film.

"At the time, Ice Cube was the hardest rapper in America, period," said director Gray. "West coast, east coast, it didn't matter. I got this phone call from out of nowhere, and Cube was like, 'We did these music videos; they're cool and all, but what do you think about a movie about two guys in the hood … a day in the life."

"At the time when 'Friday' came out, there were a lot of movies depicting the hood as hardcore; the worst place on Earth," Ice Cube said in the behind-the-scenes featurette, "Friday Straight Up." "So we wanted to do something to show how we felt the hood was growing up."

The tone and mood were right, but the secret weapon to "Friday" turned out to be Tucker, a young comedian who previously performed on the popular Comedy Def Jam cable series. Tucker steals the movie and becomes a breakout star in his own right. Smokey also introduces a relatively new idea to movie comedy: A high-energy, fast-talking stoner.

Audiences loved "Friday," then and now. The movie currently has a 91 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but critics were a little more mixed with 78 percent.

"First-time director F. Gary Gray worked from a script by Ice Cube and DJ Pooh that doesn't obscure such issues as violence and drugs," Richard Harrington wrote in his original review for The Washington Post. "Clearly, though, 'Friday's' creators have chosen to emphasize the bearable lightness of being. 'Friday' is populated with stand-up comedians and sitcom veterans. Chris Tucker is also an experienced comedian, which allows him to carry the film. As for Ice Cube, he's funny precisely because he's not a comedian. In his dramatic roles, Cube's raised eyebrows usually unleashed a fearsome glare and a hint of danger; here, his expressions are more quizzical, amused, or confused. He plays against type, just as the movie itself plays against hype."

"Friday" debuted in second place when released, grossing $6.6 million for the weekend on 865 screens. The movie stuck around for a few weeks with a relatively good audience retention rate. Still, it fell out of the top ten on Memorial Day weekend, just as Hollywood's most hyped pictures of the summer begin opening nearly every week. "Friday" finished its domestic run with a gross of $27.5 million, an excellent return on its $3.5 million budget.

The movie became popular enough to return for several sequels, including "Next Friday" in 2000 and "Friday After Next" in 2002, while one season of a televised animated series aired in 2007. One person who didn't return was Tucker, who was reportedly annoyed he didn't make any money on the first movie. Tucker certainly got paid for his subsequent projects, headlining the 1998 breakout hit, "Rush Hour," alongside Jackie Chan, then earning eight-figure salaries for the sequels.

Ice Cube became a bankable film star as well, headlining the "Friday" sequels as well as other comedies with predominately black casts, such as 2002's "Barbershop." He's played so many of these roles at this point that it might be harder to imagine the hard edge Cube from the NWA unless you grew up during that era.

Since its release, "Friday" has continued to win over new fans and is now regarded as one of the funniest movies of the 90s. It also gave us a new perspective about how people saw South Central (and, by extension, poor urban communities) because it balances being relatable to all audiences while maintaining its black identity. It flipped the script on our perceptions by being unexpectedly funny, too.

And we have Ice Cube to thank for that.

Next Week: "Mean Girls"