Welcome to the 'hood. It's a beautiful Friday in South Central, and Craig (Ice Cube) has just lost his job, and doesn't have anything to do except hang out with his drug dealer friend, appropriately named Smokey (Chris Tucker). Throughout the day, they have hilarious encounters with Craig's family, most notably his father (John Witherspoon), the neighborhood drug czar, complete with curlers in his hair, Big Worm (Faizon Love), the local bully, Deebo (Tiny "Zeus" Lister), and many others.

Along with Billy Madison and Cable Guy, I used to watch this movie almost on a daily basis in college with my friends. This movie has nonstop laughs, and launched the career of Chris Tucker, who wanted too much money to star in the sequels (I did not like Next Friday, and will probably never get to watch the third one). This movie boasts an impressive array of offbeat characters, as each of them is memorable in their own way. My favorite is the local crackhead, Ezal (Anthony Johnson), and his attempts to make a buck. In addition, the soundtrack to this movie is killer, with music from Cypress Hill, Curtis Mayfield, Rick James, Dr. Dre, and Ice Cube.

I can't recommend this movie enough.

Video:
The movie is presented in Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1. The print looks almost flawless; especially considering it was one of New Line's earlier releases (1999).

Audio:
The audio is presented in Dolby 2.0. It would have been fun to have Dolby 5.1, considering how good the soundtrack is, and for the occasional gunshot.

Menus:
The main menu gives you the options of "play feature", "filmographies", chapters", "extra stuff", and languages. Everything is easy to navigate, and the hip-hop beat isn't too shabby (sounds like porno music).

Extras:
There's a bunch of stuff packed into this disc. The first special feature is a thank you from Ice Cube (nice touch). There are also 7 Deleted Scenes. It's a mix of alternate takes, deleted scenes, and an alternate ending shown in rough-cut form (still funny, though). The next special feature is separate Q&As with director, F. Gary Gray, and producer, Patricia Charbonnet. Both provide some neat little tidbits, but I felt they should just have done a full-length commentary instead. Next up are two music videos; "Friday" by Ice Cube, and "Keep Their Heads Ringin'" by Dr. Dre. Both are presented in Dolby 2.0. And lastly are the two theatrical trailers for the movie.