Friday After Next

Craig Jones (Ice Cube) and his South Central family have squandered their lottery fortune and are back in the ghetto in this third and comparatively funniest installment of the popular franchise. Still too raunchy for my taste, the series has nonetheless evolved into a formula that finally produces some huge laughs amid all the expletives, sexual references, dope smoking, bowel movements, mayhem and slapstick escapades. After a drunken Santa Claus steals Craig and his cousin Day-Day’s (Mike Epps) Christmas stash and rent money, the two slackers take a job as strip-mall security guards and eventually cross paths with the thieving Saint Nick. John Witherspoon returns as the gastronomically challenged Mr. Jones, and newcomer Katt Williams makes his first appearance as Money Mike, owner of the local Pimp & Ho fashion store. The film is directed by Marcus Raboy.