MOVIE REVIEW

Pop star and teen heartthrob Usher stars.

By Kevin Crust, Times Staff Writer

Music isn't the only thing getting mixed up in the desultory movie, "In the Mix." Though its press materials modestly refer to it as a romantic comedy, the film is actually a jumble of genres including mob melodrama, bodyguard romance and interracial love story, none of which is handled in a remotely satisfying manner by director Ron Underwood. The film's tone shifts with all the grace of a car with a balky transmission.

Pop star and teen heartthrob Usher stars as a nightclub DJ named Darrell who saves the life of Frank Pacelli (Chazz Palminteri), a New Jersey mobster for whom Darrell's father once worked as a bartender. When Frank insists that his daughter, Dolly (Emmanuelle Chriqui), a perky law student home on summer break, needs protection, she chooses longtime friend Darrell to be her knight. Romantic complications, eloquently referred to as "jungle fever" by one character, ensue.

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Dolly's preference for taking her coffee black sweetened with brown sugar, and goodfellas explaining to one another the meaning of "phat," are among the groan-inducing stabs at humor the film makes when not recycling Mafia cliches.

The audience would need to nod off to avoid being about 90 minutes ahead of this blatantly predictable film written by Jacqueline Zambrano, from a story by Chanel Capra, Cara Dellaverson and Brian Rubenstein.

"In the Mix," rated PG-13 for sexual content, violence and language. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes. In general release.