Christmas Movies: Friday After Next

What do you get when you put Ice Cube, Mike Epps, their crazy circle of family and friends and a kleptomaniacal Santa Claus on screen together? You have the third entry of the Friday movie series, Friday After Next, one of the funniest Christmas movies of the early 2000’s.

So it’s Christmas of 2002 and Ice Cube has released his third film of the year, Friday After Next, which is also the third entry of the Friday stoner/comedy film series. Friday After Next follows series regular protagonist, Craig Jones, portrayed by Ice Cube himself and his goofy cousin Day Day portrayed by comedic hoot Mike Epps and their Christmas Eve adventures. The story starts during the early morning hours of Christmas Eve. Craig and Day Day are asleep in their apartment when a thief dressed as Santa Claus breaks into their home and starts stealing all their Christmas gifts.

Craig is rousted from his sleep by the noise and engages faux Santa in a fight, with absolutely no help from a heavy sleeping Day Day. At first Craig is doing a decent enough job fending off the rogue Santa until Santa takes the former’s Christmas tree and beats the mess out of him with it. Having stolen their Christmas gifts and their rent money, Craig and Day Day must now rely on their new job as security guards that they will be starting later in the morning to make the money back they need to pay their rent.

The day’s events puts them in touch with a lot of colorful characters, including their fathers Willie and Elroy portrayed by John Witherspoon and Don “DC” Curry, respectively, pimp Money Mike and his pupil Donna, portrayed by comedic powerhouse Katt Williams and KD Aubert, respectively and ex con bully Damon, portrayed by Terry Crews. Not too many people will deny that this movie is a rollercoaster of laughs that will have you crying and wetting your pants with laughter. The first big contributing factor that really sells this movie is it’s chaotic chain of events.

There is so much going on in this movie that if you don’t pay close enough attention you’ll forget that you’re watching a movie that only takes place over the course of just one Friday. I remember first watching the trailer for it when it first came out and I thought to myself “this Friday movie must be taking place during two separate fridays. From getting robbed by Santa Claus to being threatened by the neighborhood bully if they don’t pay their rent, comically abusing power as security guards and being chased by a group of thugs while doing their job. This Friday was definitely the most chaotic one that our idiot survivalist Craig Jones had to endure.

This Christmas Carol known as Friday After Next was also a breakout moment for a lot of its supporting stars. This was the movie that gave us one of the greatest comedians of all time: Katt Williams. Before he was one of the most prominent voices of 2024, Katt Williams had everyone dying with laughter as the charismatic little pimp with a big personality, Money Mike. Friday After Next also made a star out of the muscular funny man known as Terry Crews.

Like it’s two predecessors, Friday After Next was an instant hit and definitely a big attraction during the holiday season. I thoroughly remember me and my friends all being obsessed with the comedy in this movie and always being able to recite every single word and joke this movie contained that turned it into a classic. Shout out to the Don mega Ice Cube for giving us one of the greatest Christmas comedies ever.