*** out of 5 stars
Nowadays, it seems as if a lot of rappers are releasing new films. Not that it's a new trend; rappers forged their film careers ever since LL Cool J begged his way on the set of "Krush Groove" in 1985. But sandwiched between Eminem's "8 Mile" and Ice Cube's "Friday After Next," which premieres next week, is "Half Past Dead." Now it's Ja Rule's turn to have a go at the silver screen in Don Michael Paul's action flick starring Steven Seagal. How does Ja Rule stack up to his predecessors? Surprisingly, not half bad.
Sascha Petrosevitch (Seagal) is an undercover FBI agent posing as a rough and tough international car thief, desensitized to emotions since the murder of his wife. During one of his assignments, he befriends career criminal Nick Frazier (Ja Rule) in order to get closer to the man who killed her. As it happens, Frazier's "it's a nice night to die" attitude wins Sascha over and they become more like brothers. However, they end up getting arrested after a messy bullet-spraying scene with the FBI, and to maintain his cover, Sascha is sentenced to the newly refurbished, high-tech "New Alcatraz" prison with Frazier. This is where the eye-rolling comes in.
New Alcatraz? This place is an inmate's dream. Except for its constant darkness, this prison is like a four-star hotel. Bored inmates have a Playstation 2 in their cells, artistic inmates express their abilities by painting murals on prison walls and doomed inmates on death row have five different choices on how they will die. And in their last living hour, the prison will meet their last requests before going to the luxurious death of their choice.
It all goes down in the execution chamber when the infamous criminal, Lester, (Bruce Weitz) is sentenced to death for stealing $200 million in gold bricks that was never recovered. His last request is to spend his final hour with Sascha because Sascha's heart stopped for 10 minutes in the emergency room after his shootout with the feds. Lester respects that.
However, intercepting the execution is a group of expertly trained mercenaries called the "49ers," who break into the highly secure prison. Led by 49er One (Morris Chestnut), the crew has come for one thing only - to find out where the missing gold is buried. When Lester refuses to tell them, they begin taking hostages and it's up to Sascha to rally the prisoners to take on the ruthless commando force.
This movie is the quintessential "man's movie." It's filled with nice cars, big, powerful guns, lots of violence, and even a hot, belly-bearing, bad chick. But it's not totally to the movie's disadvantage. There are a few moments of quality comic relief provided by the mini-army of inmates that Sascha and Frazier coordinate, including 300-pound jailbird "Little Joe."
The chemistry between Seagal and Ja Rule is surprisingly good, owed mostly to his witty "rapper-te." But don't expect any Oscar nominations for Ja Rule this time around - he's enjoyable to watch but the rapper is pretty much playing an incarcerated version of himself in the movie. He doesn't need much acting ability to play a thug who likes the ladies and the finer things in life; he's already a rapper.
"Half Past Dead," although cheesy at times, is exciting and will keep your attention for its entire 90 minutes. However, if you are a half past broke college student, you could just wait for the DVD to come out and not miss a thing.
