Rotten
Turn It Up is a hip-hop downer that makes the high-risk high-life of contempo gangstas seem glumly routine.
Robert Koehler, Variety
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Turn It Up
Overview
Trying to bootstrap his way out of Brooklyn's mean streets is Diamond, a rap musician. With his long-time pal Gage acting as his manager, he's trying to lay down a demo tape with cut-rate studio time. To pay the bills, he and Gage run drugs for "Mr. B." Inside a week, Diamond's beloved mother dies suddenly, his father appears after an absence of 12 years and wants a relationship, and his girlfriend Kia tells him she's pregnant, asking him if he's ready to be a father. Gage steals $100,000 in a multiple-felony robbery so that Diamond can record a full album, not knowing it's Mr. B's money he's taken. B wants his money, Diamond wants his music, Tia wants an answer.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
10%
Tomatometer
Rotten
Surprisingly, for a movie about music, the sound is lousy. Some of the songs sound distorted because they have so much bass. In other moments, the dialogue is so low, it's hard to understand what the characters are saying.
Christy Lemire, Associated Press
Fresh
It has action and violence, to be sure, but it may prove considerably more serious and uncompromising than its audience expected.
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Rotten
The film uses every standard urban drama story line in the book.
Vicky Edwards, Chicago Tribune
Rotten
Eventually Turn It Up deteriorates into a gory shoot-'em-up gangster movie with a quick-fix ending that leaves many threads dangling. It could have been something more.
Stephen Holden, New York Times
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