Still, you can't blame Usher for this bland, resoundingly unfunny movie. Flashing a coy smile and easygoing charm, Usher reveals a charisma that deserves a better shot at silver-screen stardom. As Darrell, a smooth-talking club deejay whose success spinning records is matched only by his success with the ladies, Usher Raymond actually turns out to be a likeable leading man.

If only the movie itself had been half as endearing.

The story kicks off when Darrell is hired by his late father's former employer, Frank (Chazz Palminteri), to spin records at a surprise party for Frank's daughter, Dolly (Emmanuelle Chriqui). But there are complications. Frank is a New Jersey Mafia boss. At the party, Darrell thwarts at attempt on Frank's life. While Frank is grateful, he is more concerned that Dolly, who is back home from law school, not risk going around town by herself. At Dolly's urging, Frank taps Darrell to serve as her bodyguard and escort her to yoga class and lunch with her friends.

If you can't predict all the major plot points within the first 10 minutes, well, congratulations on having come out of that coma. It isn't long before the prerequisite romance brews between Darrell and Dolly, and of course that also means it isn't long before the pugnacious papa finds out.

In the Mix boasts an array of characters so clichéd, they could just as well be on rental from a hundred other movies. Darrell is the smooth-talking black guy who just needs the right woman for him to settle down. His friends from the club, ostensibly non-gangsta types, are still not above a friendly poker game in which they bet guns they happen to be carrying (that's whimsical comedy, all right).

The movie doesn't stop at black stereotypes. Its depiction of Italian-Americans and the Mafia (synonymous in this flick) are cartoonish, while Dolly's uptight boyfriend is a Cappuccino-sipping yuppie. Winning the award for most grating stock character is Frank's son, Frank Jr. (Anthony Fazio), the hapless white kid who tries hard to emulate African-American urban culture. For a picture that ostensibly looks askance at racial and ethnic bigotry, In the Mix gets what little mileage it has from mining silly stereotypes.

This being a relatively harmless flick, however, such shortcuts to character would be more forgivable if the script itself weren't so maddeningly trite. Director Ron Underwood is certainly not a visionary filmmaker, but his movies tend to be as good (City Slickers, Tremors) or as bad (The Adventures of Pluto Nash, anyone?) as the screenplay with which he is saddled. In the Mix isn't painfully bad, but it certainly is painfully unfunny. And that's not a selling point for a romantic comedy.

The DVD

Video:
Well, at least the movie looks good. In its widescreen 2:35:1 aspect ratio, the DVD image transfer is sharp and features vibrant color, doing justice to the slick cinematography of J. Clark Mathis.

Audio:
The audio track is a crisp and clear 5.1 Dolby Digital and a somewhat tinnier 2.0 Dolby surround. Spanish subtitles are available, as well.

Extras:
Interestingly, the DVD's chief extra only serves to highlight In the Mix's mediocrity. The five-minute, 20-second featurette, 25 Days and Not a Minute More, actually focuses on the fact that the movie adhered to a 25-day shooting schedule to accommodate Usher's concert tour. Talk about struggling for something nice to say...

Three deleted scenes are reasonably forgettable.

Rounding out the extras are trailers for Rize, Waiting, Crash, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Cake, Akeelah and the Bee and Madea's Family Reunion.

Final Thoughts:
Maybe it's a matter of low expectations, but In the Mix, while no winner, isn't the miserable dreck that critics depicted it as being upon its initial release. That said, there are probably more enviable compliments than pointing out that something isn't miserable dreck.