FRIDAY [1995]
Directed by F. Gary Gray
USA / Color / English
Rated R; 92 min

Hard-core rapper Ice Cube, after appearing in such hard-hitting films as Boyz ‘N the Hood and Higher Learning, played his first comic role in this picture he co-wrote with frequent musical collaborator DJ Pooh. Craig (Ice Cube) manages to get fired on his day off (though he claims it’s through no fault of his own) and spends the day hanging out with his buddy Smokey (Chris Tucker) and trying to avoid his father (John Witherspoon), who wants him to find another job immediately. Smokey (whose name might have something to do with his tremendous fondness for marijuana) has even more serious problems; he was given $200 worth of weed to sell by Big Worm (Faizon Love), but he ended up smoking it instead, and if he can’t come up with the money by the end of the day, he’ll be in a world of hurt (and will put Craig in the same place just for being his friend). And Deebo (Tom “Tiny” Lister, Jr.), a gargantuan bully who roams the neighborhood on his bicycle, has it in for Craig, while Craig tries his best just to stay out of his way. As one would expect, Friday features a strong hip-hop soundtrack, featuring tracks by such artists as Dr. Dre, Cypress Hill, Mack 10, and Funkdoobiest, as well as old-school R&B selections from The Isley Brothers, Roger, and Rose Royce.- allrovi.com

• The neighborhood where the film takes place is the same street where the film’s director, F. Gary Gray, grew up in South Central, Los Angeles. Principal houses that were used for filming were houses of old friends of the director. The scene where Deebo punches Red into the air is the house that F. Gary Gray grew up in.
• In the flashback scene where Smokey is in the car with Hector and his friend, a man can be seen sitting on a block wall in the background. The man was a resident of the neighborhood who wanted to be difficult towards the production staff, knowing they couldn’t tell him what to do on his own property. He remained in the shot despite offers from the staff which included compensation or a walk-on role in the film.
• Mr. Jones, a dogcatcher by trade, watches Man’s Best Friend, a movie about a genetically engineered dog that becomes homicidal.
• The clothes that Ice Cube wears in the first scene of this movie are exactly the same as the ones that his character wore in the final scene of Boyz n the Hood.
• The license plate on Smokey’s car is “FCK IT”.
• Director F. Gary Gray has a brief cameo in the film:  The man mopping the floor in the store.

Felix Gary Gray (born July 17, 1969) is an American music video and film director. Gray was born in New York City. He was raised in South Central Los Angeles and Highland Park, Illinois. For a short time in the 1990s he worked at Bally Total Fitness as a trainer. He studied film and television at Los Angeles City College but dropped out to pursue his film-making. At first he worked as a cameraman for Fox Television, CNN and E!. This experience helped him find work as a music video director.

Gray has directed more than 30 music videos for musical artists such as Ice Cube, Queen Latifah, TLC, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, and Mary J. Blige, and won several awards for his video work. For Coolio’s “Fantastic Voyage”, he received the 1995 Billboard Music Video Award for Best Rap Video. For TLC’s “Waterfalls”, he received the MTV Music Video Award for Video of the Year, as well as an NAACP Image Award. He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1998 for directing “How Come, How Long”, Stevie Wonder and Babyface’s video.

He made the transition into motion pictures in 1995 with his first film, the surprising hit Friday (with rapper-producer friend Ice Cube), firmly establishing himself in the feature world. He next directed the 1996 heist picture Set It Off (with Jada Pinkett Smith) and then The Negotiator (1998), whose $50 million budget was the highest ever given to an African-American director. Starring Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey and nominee Samuel L. Jackson, the drama earned Gray both Best Film and Best Director awards at the 1998 Acapulco Film Festival. Perhaps Gray’s best known film is The Italian Job, featuring an all-star cast including Academy Award winner Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, and Mark Wahlberg. Gray designed car and boat chases through downtown Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Venice, Italy. The film grossed over $100 million domestically and won Best Director award at the 2004 American Black Film Festival.Gray’s features also include the action-drama A Man Apart (2003) starring Vin Diesel and the crime comedy Be Cool (2005), based on the novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard. His new film, Law Abiding Citizen, starring Academy Award-winner Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler, was released on October 16, 2009.