In the Mix

In the Mix (Director: Ron Underwood)





















Underwood made the cult favorite Tremors and then the huge hit City Slickers. Since then: Heart and Souls, Speechless, Mighty Joe Young, and Pluto Nash. Written by Jacqueline Zambrano from a story by three people (only God knows why): Chanel Capra, Cara Dellaverson, and Brian Rubenstein.

Usher is from Chattanooga--he's represented Southern pop music well, especially with his megasmash CD Confessions from a couple of years ago. In the acting world, he's always been a bit player--like in The Faculty and She's All That. Obviously, with his emergence as a superstar in pop culture, it was only a matter of time before a tailor-made starring vehicle would emerge.

In this, Usher plays Darrell, a hugely popular DJ who is asked by Frank Jr. (Anthony Fazio), an old friend of a mob family headed by Frank Sr. (Chazz Palminteri) to DJ his sister Dolly's (Emmanuelle Chriqui--one of the hottest new faces of 2005 who also was in Waiting) coming home party. Darrell takes a bullet for Frank Sr. at the party and the Don now wants round-the-clock protection for his daughter, and through the unbelievable sequence of events gets Darrell as a bodyguard. This is where the typical love story begins--she doesn't like him because he's playing babysitter, he attracts a number of hot chicks at all times, and so on...but of course because he's so hot the romance will begin--much to the chagrin of Frank, who considers the romance an insult and puts Darrell in danger of being whacked (being black has something to do with it), and has other problems besides--someone is trying to make a power play in the mob universe and no one knows where it's coming from. If you watch any movies at all, you'll figure that out pretty quick.

Here's where the great number of writers made this way too complex. There's no need for the whole mob subplot--this is a more culturally-diverse Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and I guess the writers didn't want to make it seem like race was the only thing on their minds. Poor Italian Defamation League...Italians are portrayed as mobsters and they're being called racist. More ridiculousness: Frank is portrayed as a "good guy" mobster, then the whole romance thing blows up and he turns into the unreasonable gangster--that is, until all the major plot devices are salted away, then comes the pat ending where everybody in the movie ends up happy.

This is one of those screenplays, you can tell, that came down from a shelf somewhere, once forgotten, dusted off, made to fit the mold of Usher, and was never given any trim. It runs pretty quick, but there's so many stupid complications. Usher is charismatic, Chriqui is hot. That's about all you'll be able to get from this.