Turn It Up

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=80 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="04000500dvldtc.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>Reel Movie Critic.com</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Reel Movie Critic.com"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id1905.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Taste of Others"><U>The Taste of Others</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1906.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Time and Tide"><U>Time and Tide</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1904.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tomcats"><U>Tomcats</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1902.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Too Much Sleep"><U>Too Much Sleep</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1898.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Time Code"><U>Time Code</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1900.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Time Regained"><U>Time Regained</U></A>   |   <B>Turn It Up</B>   |   <A HREF="id1897.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="U571"><U>U-571</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1903.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Two Family House"><U>Two Family House</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id1899.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="When Brenden Met Trudy"><U>When Brenden Met Trudy</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="041d2c00dvldtc.png"> <div> <B>Home Page for</B></div> <div> <B>      </B><A HREF="http://newbookdiscounts.com/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://newbookdiscounts.com/"><U><B>Books</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>           </B><A HREF="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelforless/id364.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelfor"><U><B>Travel</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>                </B><A HREF="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/"><U><B>Movies</B></U></A></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>                   </B><A HREF="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelforless/id361.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/travelfor"><U><B>Great Web Sites</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=400 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> Turn It Up</div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="495" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 145 WIDTH="489"><div> <IMG SRC="13405d8b0.png" border=0 width="93" height="139" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000059HA6/reelmoviecriticc">DVD..used $13.00...new $21.49...</A>  </div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="579" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="575"><div> <B>Turn It Up</B> *** (R)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="575"><div> Reviewed By George O. Singleton</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="549" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 WIDTH="545"><div> Turn It Up…& Turn Your Life Around</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="580" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ROWS" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="269"><div> Diamond: Pras</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="304"><div> Gage: Ja-Rule</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="269"><div> Kia: Tamala Jones</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> Diamonds father: Vondie Curtis-Hall</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="269"><div> Director: Robert Adetuyi</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="304"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="304" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B>30 Second Bottom Line</B>: An aspiring hip-hop artist and his gangster friend, while  trying to make an album, run into trouble when they cross a local mob boss.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Story Line:</B> Diamond (Pras) aspires to make it big in show business with a new rap album. He is low on funds and convinces a local record producer to give him a bargain rate on studio time. He hangs with his buddy Gage (Ja-Rule), who has a bad I'll kick your butt attitude, when he is in control, yet is a wimp when in the company of someone with more power than he has.</div> <bR> <div> Diamond's girlfriend  Kia (Tamala Jones) becomes pregnant. She wants to know that he will be there for her. With his single-minded focus on making an album, he tells her that he cannot. When Gage steals $100,000 to finance the album, he makes two people happy and one person very unhappy. Diamond and the studio executive are pleased, as now the production costs can be paid. However, the money Gage stole was in the hands of a third party, soon to be delivered to Mr. P, the mob boss. Mr. P puts two and two together and concludes that the money Gage has been spending is his. Gage and Mr. P are both thugs, but Mr. P has a small army to back up his threats.</div> <bR> <div> Gage plans to have his cake and eat it too, by skimming dope from Mr. P to generate enough cash to pay him back, and maintain control of Diamond's album. Mr. P however, wants his money <I>now</I> and he wants control of Diamond's album. </div> <bR> <div> Diamond's album starts out as the "multi-shout", no music to speak of, hip-hop that lots of folks like, as evidenced by record sales and the cars I see rocking at stop lights and being  driven by blacks, whites, Asians, and Latinos. Diamond and his father (Vondie Curtis-Hall) have a strained relationship because of the music business. Diamond's father spent his time on the road trying to make it big in the music business at the expense of his family. He now has religion and wants to help his son. First he tells him his recording needs some "real music" as the guys talked about in <I>The Original Kings of Comedy. </I>Diamond takes the advice and makes a better product. His dad also confides that he made a mistake by not putting his family first. This enlightenment helps Diamond do the right thing with his lady. However, he still wants to make his album and help Gage with "one last drug deal".</div> <bR> <div> Lots of things are set in motion in this fast paced film for an exciting climax.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Tell Me More About It</B>:<I> Turn It Up</I> is neither a mainstream nor an art house film. It is targeted toward the hip-hop culture of all races. There is considerable anger, violence and profanity. To non-hip-hoppers it's a satire, in a manner similar to <I>American Psycho. </I>It makes you look at all the things that can go wrong if your values are out of whack. Bad things happen to bad people as well as the innocent. You might survive, but do you like the low odds? </div> <bR> <div> For the hip-hop crowd, the language is "street" all the way. Thugs are thugs even in their fancy clubs, oversize SUV's and $1,000 suits. Considerable technical expertise is used in the production of the film with respect to location and lighting. It allows the raw action to have extra impact, which <I>Shaft </I>was aiming for. In some ways <I>Turn It Up </I>is a modern day <I>Menace To Society.</I></div> <bR> <div> The value of <I>Turn It Up </I>may be that it entertains and enlightens the portion of the hip-hop culture that is inclined toward drugs and not taking care of one's family. There are consequences to one's actions and some lifestyles have a longer life expectancy than others. If director Robert Adetuyi can save one life with this film, my hat is off to him. </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="591" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div> R (violence; drug use; language)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div> George O. Singleton © 2000</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div> <A HREF="mailto:Reelmoviec@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:Reelmoviec@aol.com"><U><U>George@reelmoviecritic.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> Mini Filmography </div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="579" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="286"><div> Pras: Mystery Men </div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="286"><div> Ja-Rule: Debut Film</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Vondie Curtis-Hall: Eve's Bayou</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="286"><div> Robert Adetuyi: Debut Film</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>  <a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=9jVMwncE8Ds&offerid=21282.10000004&type=4&subid=0"><IMG alt="Banner 10000004" border=0 src="http://merchant.linksynergy.com/fs/banners/1832_10000004.gif"></a><IMG border=0 width=1 height=1 src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=9jVMwncE8Ds&bids=21282.10000004&type=4&subid=0">  </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>