In this third installment of the Friday series, Cube and Epps have certainly had more than enough time to perfect their humorous chemistry for their comedic partnership gels more so than ever. Finally out of their parents’ homes, Craig (Cube) and Day-Day (Epps) now share an apartment at the Shady Palms complex in South Central Los Angeles.
Their day begins at 3am with an unexpected visit from a thieving ‘ghetto’ Santa who not only swipes their Christmas gifts but takes their rent money as well. Now they’ve only got one day–Friday–to get paid, get evicted…or worse. Desperate for cash the duo are forced to take seasonal security jobs at a rundown strip mall where their squabbling dads (John Witherspoon and Don “D.C.” Curry) own the Bros. Bar-B-Q restaurant which is next to the fly-infested Holy Moly’s Donut shop and a pimp store run by the undersized pimp called Money Mike (Katt Williams) and his number one ho, Donna (K.D. Aubert). Armed with nothing but their ‘Top-Flight’ second-hand uniforms and a whistle, the pair cause havoc in the mall as Day-Day’s renegade rent-a-cop tactics put the pair’s jobs and lives in jeopardy. It all finally devolves into a Christmas Eve party where Craig tries to hook up with Donna and the thieving Santa (comedian Rickey Smiley) gets caught and beat down with a Christmas tree.
Not much of a story line, this movie does very well on periodic laughs, many of them in passing, as when the camera crosses Craig and Day-Day’s apartment to reveal a cannabis plant decorated like a Christmas tree. Cube unleashes a crazy collection of exaggerated clichés into the mix — strutting pimps in ’70s flashback costumes, a jabbering Middle-Eastern mall owner plus a pumped-up ex-con looking for a new boyfriend and expertly strings them together at a frantic pace to ensure comedic fireworks. Bets are already being laid for a fourth installment though Cube is staying mum and says it all boils down to the actors’ pay demands.
