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By Dan Leone

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IT'S FRIDAY ( the one after Friday and Next Friday, that is), and cousins Craig (Ice Cube) and Day-Day (Mike Epps) are cozily snoring away in their new Shady Palms apartment. The Christmas tree is lit up, the presents are heaped up, and it's a silent night in the hood, until a drunken, skinny Santa Claus breaks in and snatches all of their gifts and the rent money they had hidden in a speaker. After three inept cops show up to scope out their apartment – and slyly "confiscate" their weed – Craig and Day-Day head out to their first day on the job as strip-mall security guards, needing to somehow get rent money so their nasty landlady doesn't sic her just paroled, horny son Damon (Terry Crews) on them. Like all Fridays (in this series, anyway), this one snowballs into a chaotic hell of a mess, especially when Day-Day gets a little too power hungry in his new position of authority and starts terrorizing shoppers (in one hilarious scene, he accosts a group of caroling church elders, calling the grannies "bitches" and "hos" until the sweet little ladies get their gangbanger grandsons to take care of the situation). Music-video director Marcus Raboy keeps the action moving, though watching characters survive car crashes, beatings, and gunshots kind of makes Friday after Next feel like a Warner Bros. cartoon that's trying a little too hard to get some laughs. (Dina Gachman)