In The Mix parents guide

In The Mix Parent Guide

Overall C

Grammy Award-winning R&B singer Usher stars in this celebrity vehicle as a DJ with dreams of owning his own recording studio one day. In the meantime he takes a job with a mob boss (Chazz Palminteri), as a bodyguard for his beautiful daughter Dolly (Emmanuelle Chriqui).

Release date November 22, 2005

Violence C
Sexual Content B-
Profanity C-
Substance Use A-

Why is In The Mix rated PG-13? The MPAA rated In The Mix PG-13 or sexual content, violence and language.

Run Time: 95 minutes

Parent Movie Review

In the Mix stars a man known as “Usher,” a highly popular Grammy Award-winning R&B singer, who also happens to have a few past credits in film and TV. During a promotional interview, the musician was asked how and why he got involved in this production. His answer, which included the word “demographic” close to a half-dozen times, left me convinced this movie was concentrating on the celebrity, and little else.

Carefully crafted to sell the man to his fans, the screenplay puts Usher in the role of Darrell, a hard working DJ with dreams of owning his own recording studio and label one day. To make sure we know he’s the nicest and hottest guy imaginable, he’s surrounded by a bevy of babes fawning over his every move. Of course he usually brushes off all this female attention because he’s just too busy, but on the one occasion he does bring someone home to his apartment, the little girl down the hall interrupts the action. Does that make him angry? Not at all—he’s the sweet and sensitive kind.

He’s also heroic. We learn that after he agrees to play discs at the birthday party of his old friend Dolly (Emmanuelle Chriqui), the daughter of a Mafia don named Frank (Chazz Palminteri). Spinning a mix of Sinatra and hip-hop on his turntables, Darrell looks up just in time to see a passing vehicle with a gun pointing toward the family restaurant. When he jumps in to save her father, the bullet goes into his own shoulder instead.

In gratitude, Frank rewards the budding musician with room and board at the family mansion. These new accommodations allow Darrell and Dolly to rekindle their relationship, which (are we surprised?) blossoms into a burning romance before the end of the film. Before we get there though, there are the usual obstacles to overcome. The young woman already has a law student boyfriend and the handsome beau senses her father may not picture him as the perfect future son-in-law. As well, Dolly requests Darrell act as her bodyguard, providing plenty of opportunities for danger.

With all that careful orchestration, why does the final product still seem so out of tune? Oddly, it’s not the usual suspect. Although Usher’s performance is a little weak (as is often the case with a music star turned actor), Chriqui does an admirable job with what she was given to work with and lights up the screen with her beauty. And Palminteri, whose Italian heritage has left him playing mob roles for most of his life, walks through this part like he’s done it a dozen times—and he has.

The real culprit is the script, which bubbles over with stereotypes of African-Americans and Italians. (In case you’re confused, the Italians are the ones eating pasta leftovers from their Sub-Zero refrigerators, while the black guys are found in the dingy fried chicken restaurant.) Focusing far too heavily on those all-important demographics, the marketing team that engineered this work of “art” tries to cover all the bases. It’s a comedy, a romance, and a crime drama, and it never aspires to any complexity. In order to enjoy the film’s humor, you have to be convinced mob bosses are really nice guys with happy families, who simply have an unpleasant job to do.

Somewhere In The Mix there is a message about love and harmony between brothers of different races. However, by the time they get around to that lesson, the cultural depictions and glamorization of crime are already set in cement.

Starring Usher Raymond, Chazz Palminteri. Running time: 95 minutes. Theatrical release November 22, 2005. Updated

In The Mix
Rating & Content Info

Why is In The Mix rated PG-13? In The Mix is rated PG-13 by the MPAA or sexual content, violence and language.

This film may appear as a light-hearted romantic comedy, but does contain some serious issues such as conflicts that result in gunshots and injured people. One secondary character is presumably killed. Mafia members frequently threaten people, including repeatedly dunking a person under water and later throwing him from a moving car. Sexually, one scene depicts a couple removing the man’s shirt and unbuttoning the woman’s, and another leaves the audience questioning if a romancing pair has sex during the night. A girl’s buttocks are seen at a dance club, and another female’s breasts are nearly exposed in a shower. Profanities, although relatively infrequent, do use a sexual expletive, once clearly and twice more when it is somewhat difficult to understand.

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In The Mix Parents' Guide

How many movies can you recall where Mafia characters are played for laughs? Why do you think these characters have been so popular? How does this humorous portrayal affect your view of organized crime?

When you see stereotypical characters in a movie, try reversing the roles—in this case, a wealthy African-American family that has a poor Italian boy wanting to marry their daughter. Is this difficult to imagine? Why?

Home Video

The most recent home video release of In The Mix movie is March 20, 2006. Here are some details…

DVD Release Date: 21 March 2006
Lions Gate Home Entertainment throws into the mix of this DVD release some trailers, a few deleted scenes and a featurette called 25 Days and Not a Minute More. The audio track is available in English (Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0), with subtitles in Spanish.

Related home video titles:

Other singers have crossed over into films such as The Fighting Temptations (Beyonc0xE9 Knowles) and Mickey (Harry Connick Jr.).