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Grade: C+

Verdict: An urban thriller too busy firing bullets to examine its own interesting dramatic premise.

Details: Starring Pras, Ja Rule, Vondie Curtis-Hall. Rated R for strong violence and language and for some drug content. One hour and 23 minutes.

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Review: Based on "Ghetto Supastar," both the CD and young-adult novel by hip-hop star Pras (aka the Fugees' Prakerzel Michel), "Turn It Up" is a flashy, loud urban thriller that wants to critique the guns-and-bullets world of thug life, while at the same time reveling in its perks (jewelry, sharp clothes, accommodating women). It's a cautionary tale that isn't quite sure what it wants to caution the audience about.

Pras stars as Diamond, an aspiring musician who's struggling with best pal Gage (fellow rapper Ja Rule) to cut his first CD. They finance the enterprise as couriers for a drug lord (Jason Statham of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels"), so when they're not cutting tracks, they're often dodging bullets.

Like the documentary "Backstage," "Turn It Up" takes for granted that guys like Diamond and Gage have only two options to get ahead: moving dope or bustin' rhymes. Diamond's mother and his girlfriend (Patricia Velasquez) voice some skepticism, but in a movie that views its female characters as little more than scenery, their opinion doesn't carry much weight.

The most compelling figure is Vondie Curtis-Hall's turn as Diamond's estranged father, himself a musician who introduces his son to the pleasures of music that's not entirely synthesized. The actor has such charisma, he practially obliterates Pras in their scenes together.

Pras comes across less an actor than a presence. His character can seem maddeningly passive, especially as Gage comes up with bigger (and dumber) risks to finance their time in the recording studio. In his feature debut, director Robert Adetuyi (who also scripted) never quite finds a coherent tone, any more than the script ever gets its moral bearings. He offers flashy shootout scenes, and a Tarantino-lite interlude of threatened torture with a deli meat slicer. But a few too many dialogue scenes, often between Pras and Velasquez, play flat and airless.

The movie occasionally loses its grip on characters and plot. Curtis-Hall is virtually dropped from the movie's last reel, and his character never quite achieves the importance he seems to deserve. It's in keeping with the movie's flip-flop values that when one of the main characters gets shot, we never see whether he survives or dies. Instead, the final moments are spent glorifying the very person whose rash actions caused all the problems in the first place.

"Turn It Up" has moments of power and a sense of off-the-streets urgency, but its strengths are too often squandered on cheap theatrics. The movie raises interesting issues, such as empowerment through music, and how hip-hop has become the magic carpet out of the ghetto (in the way of sports). But as soon as an idea worth pursuing pops up, the plot shoots it down in a literal hail of bullets.

— Steve Murray, Cox News Service