Friday - Movie Review
Essay by review • August 24, 2010 • Essay • 1,444 Words (6 Pages) • 2,848 Views
The movie Friday is a comedy, but it also depicts many important social
issues. The story is set in the city of Los Angelos, California, in what
could be called a high class ghetto. The main theme of the movie is about a
young black man who looses his
job and is influenced by his best friend to smoke marijuana. The movie also
shows the relationships of his family and other members of his neighborhood.
With a zany cast of characters and a hilarious script this movie touches on
everything from gang v
lence to the use of drugs, crime, guns, relationships, sex and life in the
ghetto. Because of all these issues, I found this an interesting movie with
a wide variety of topics to address.
Marijuana has been around for a long time. It\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s use is once again becoming
popular. Although it\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s not legal, many people use it socially and for
medicinal purposes. The Hollywood elite smoke it. Musicians such as Dr. Dre
and the Black Crows celebra
it\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s use. Television shows like Saturday Night Live and Kids In the Hall
depict it as harmless fun.
Marijuana fashion has grown into a ten million dollar industry, with the
seven branch marijuana leaf showing up on caps, T-shirts, earrings and
tattoos. Studies show that after a decade of declining drug use, marijuana
use has increased sharply among
gh school students and college students in the last two years (Duschbaun 8).
In the movie Friday, rap star Ice Cube plays the character Craig. Craig has
never smoked marijuana. However, his best friend \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Smokey\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" smokes marijuana
everyday. Craig looses his job, leaving him home all day with nothing to do
to occupy his time. H
just hangs out in the neighborhood with his friends. Smokey tries to
convince Craig to try some marijuana. At first Craig doesn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t want to.
Smokey is persistent. He points out to Craig that he doesn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t have to work
and doesn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t have anything better to
. Craig and Smokey eventually sit on the front porch and get stoned. Peer
pressure is obviously the only reason Craig gives in. Actually he had other
options, but he chose not to use them. Common sense and a simple explanation
would have worked for
aig just fine (How to Say No and Keep Your Friends 23) Everyday we are faced
with choices. It is up to us to decide what\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s right and wrong. Craig
decides to try it and things start to happen that he really doesn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t like.
Craig and Smokey get into some trouble with the neighborhood dealer, Big
Worm. Smokey sells pot for him, but can\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t pay him the money he owes because
he and Craig smoked the pot. Big Worm threatens them and sends a gang of
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"hoods\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" after them with mach
e guns. They just barely escape and are scared shitless. The amount of gang
violence that can be contributed to the use and sale of illegal drugs has
risen dramatically in the past seven years (Gates 67). It\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s no wonder that
this is happening with th
use of marijuana becoming so popular again.
Violence and crime are issues we hear about every day. We can watch any
news broadcast and see the evidence of these increasingly worrisome problems.
In Friday, both of these issues are very apparent. Debone, the neighborhood
thief and \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"bully\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" is co
tantly harassing the people in Craig\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s neighborhood. He breaks into their
homes, steals their possessions, beats people up to take their jewelry and
other items and is just generally a pain in everyones ass. He is the most
violent person in the movie
Craig gets into a fight with him and pulls a gun on Debone. Craig feels
confused and not sure what to do. His father convinces him to give him the
gun. He insists that Craig should fight like a man with his fists. I don\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t
think that was very good a
ice. Debone was twice as big as Craig and probably 100 pounds heavier. They
do fight and surprisingly Craig wins. You would think that most problems can
be solved without violent acts. The reality is that sometimes, under certain
circumstances, that
ust doesn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t
...
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