Barbershop is a 2002 American comedy drama film directed by Tim Story and written by Mark Brown, Don D. Scott and Marshall Todd, from a story by Brown. The film was produced by George Tillman Jr., Robert Teitel and Brown, and stars Ice Cube, Anthony Anderson, Sean Patrick Thomas, Eve, Troy Garity, Michael Ealy, Leonard Earl Howze, Keith David and Cedric the Entertainer. The film revolves around the social life in a barbershop on the South Side of Chicago. It is the first installment in the Barbershop series.

Plot

On a cold winter day in Chicago, Calvin Palmer Jr. (Ice Cube) decides he has had enough of trying to keep open the barbershop his father handed down to him. He cannot borrow, revenues are falling, and he seems more interested in get-rich-quick schemes to bring in easy money. Without telling his employees or the customers, he sells the barbershop to a greedy loan shark, Lester Wallace (Keith David), who secretly plans to turn it into a strip club.