Half Past Dead (2002)

THE FAT AND THE FURIOUS Seagal and Ja Rule get a bad rap in ''Half Past''

No, the title Half Past Dead doesn't refer to Steven Seagal's career, but judging by his latest DOA shoot-'em-up, it may as well. After artificially extending his cinematic life span by teaming up with rapper DMX in ''Exit Wounds,'' Seagal costars with two hip-hoppers, Ja Rule and Kurupt, as inmates at the new Alcatraz, a high-tech prison that comes under siege from a gang of thieves led by Morris Chestnut (''The Brothers''). It's no use: At this point, the bloated action figure couldn't restore his street cred if he joined the Wu-Tang Clan. When Seagal's undercover FBI agent Sascha Petrosevitch waddles into the big house wearing a do-rag and a billowing blue jumpsuit, it's the funniest jailhouse-flick scene since Gene Wilder's white-boy strut in ''Stir Crazy.'' To paraphrase Richard Pryor: That's right -- he bad.