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SHOT THROUGH THE SHOULDER, AND YOU'RE TO BLAME The R&B heartthrob gets his first starring role. Too bad
In the Mix: Saeed Adyani
Credits
C
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman is a film critic for EW
A genially cruddy B movie can sometimes go places — sort of — that bigger movies won't. Usher, the teen idol who's like a black version of Justin Timberlake's white version of a Michael Jackson knockoff, struts through In the Mix as a chick magnet of a DJ who is forced to play bodyguard to a mobster's daughter (the very hot Emmanuelle Chriqui). While Chazz Palminteri chews the ziti as the mobster, the bodyguard and his charge act on their attraction, and the various anonymous dangers become the film's projection of racial-erotic anxiety. In essence, In the Mix explores the question: Will Usher get offed for sleeping with a white girl? The film gets props for the fact that the two end up in bed in the first place, yet Usher, who has a squinty charm, is forced to display an infinite polite chivalry that would have shamed Sidney Poitier. He also wins over the lady he's protecting by feeding her soul food, which results in the year's single most embarrassing romantic howler: ''Must have been the collard greens that made me lose control!''
Posted Nov 30, 2005
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You Might Also Like
- Cover Story ''The Faculty'' offers screams this Christmas (1998) | Daniel Fierman
- Movie Review The Thin Red Line;Stepmom;A Civil Action;Patch Adams;The Faculty;Hurlyburly;Mighty Joe Young (1998) | Owen Gleiberman, Lisa Schwarzbaum
- Movie News Jamie Foxx, Usher join Beyonce in ''Dreamgirls'' (Dec 15, 2006) | Gary Susman
- Movie News Usher is the Transplant of the Week
- ENTERTAINERS OF THE YEAR 'Sex and the City' women: Entertainer of the year (May 30, 2008) | Missy Schwartz
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