_Turn_It_Up_ (R) no stars (out of ****)
Another day, another urban drama starring rappers with acting aspirations. The latest entry, _Turn_It_Up_, offers nothing that hasn't been seen nor heard before--lots of gunplay, beatings, drug and alcohol abuse, all to a hip-hop soundtrack. But it is distinctive in a most dubious sense--this is perhaps the worst film of its kind to see a theatrical release.
Mind you, this isn't the worst rapper-starring urban drama ever made; it doesn't quite reach the depths plumbed by the direct-to-video projects produced by and featuring Ice-T. But _Turn_It_Up_ is pretty awful in its own respect. Scripter-director Robert Adetuyi put in very little thought to the plot, which plays into the common perception that the rap music business is dirty and violence-riddled. Diamond (Pras, late of the Fugees) wants to break into said industry, but the studio time for cutting his demo is also cutting deep into what little money he earns doing menial jobs for a local drug lord named Mr. B. (Jason Statham). When the already steep price for the recording sessions goes up, Diamond's hotheaded best friend and partner Gage (Ja Rule) comes up with a seemingly foolproof--and, of course, illegal--funding plan. Needless to say, the plan doesn't go off without a hitch or two.
To say that _Turn_It_Up_ doesn't go off without a hitch or two is an understatement. Beyond the tired, predictable plot--and the equally dull subplots, such as Diamond's fed-up girlfriend (Tamala Jones) and the sudden surfacing of Diamond's long-absent father (Vondie Curtis-Hall, way beneath his league here)--there's some truly abysmal dialogue (Diamond's raps are invariably described as "hot") and acting to match. Jones and Curtis-Hall emerge with their dignity intact, but that's partly a side effect of having fairly little screen time and mostly because they actually have some acting ability. That cannot be said of everyone else. The two rap stars leading the cast are no acting finds; Pras is stiff, and Ja Rule subscribes to the adage, "if you can't act, overact." As bad as they are, they are outdone by the weak work of Statham and the laughably atrocious John Ralston, who plays record label bigwig Mr. White.
But what really does in _Turn_It_Up_ is what's under the terrible execution--or, rather, what isn't there. The script doesn't offer any reason why we should really care about any of these characters and what happens to them, nor do these characters exhibit any qualities that would consistently engage our interest. For all the mayhem that fills the screen in _Turn_It_Up_--and there is a lot of it, both visual and sonic--the film is still a crushing bore.
Michael Dequina twotrey@juno.com | jordan_host@sportsmail.com | mrbrown@iname.com Mr. Brown's Movie Site: http://www.moviereportsite.com CinemaReview Magazine: http://www.CinemaReview.com on ICQ: #25289934 | on AOL Instant Messenger: MrBrown23
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews