Imagine being bored out of your mind while sitting on a bus or train listening to random strangers talk about absolutely nothing. Or walking past a group of people having mindless chit chat. Now imagine you're not watching a movie and instead picture every character on screen as some annoying, clueless person you know in real life. And there you have it: For starters, the performances are so amateurish that one might think this was the first time any of them had ever been on the big screen. There is also no real acting going on here. It seems as if the actors are simply saying their lines without any real emotion. The story begins with Rob,(Omarion) a young aspiring rapper who lives in Harlem with his mother Tanya.(Kellita Smith). After getting into trouble with local thugs, his mother sends him to Puerto Rico to live with his estranged father Roberto, a musician played by Giancarlo Esposito. Rob meets his brother named Javi (Victor Rasuk)and the two quickly bond over their love of music. Javi introduces Rob to raggaeton, a mixture of hip hop, reggae and Spanish beats and they soon decide to create a demo. Rob meets the lovely CC (Zulay Henao)an aspiring dancer and the two quickly take a liking to each other. Pretty soon, Rob, javi and CC head to New York to pursue their dreams but they quickly realize that the price of fame can be costly.
One of the things that makes this film so bad is the horrible acting and dialogue. Unfortunately, these actors just don't have anything good to work with here. I often wondered whether Chomski was trying to capture the essence of urban street life. Although not a bad idea, this concept would've been great with stronger dialogue and better character development. The majority of the film is very similar to other films of its kind which makes the plot seem very bland and formulaic. I could not understand why veteran, seasoned actors such as Kellita Smith, Giancarlo Esposito and Malik Yoba would agree to star in an atrocity of a film. What a complete waste of good talent !!! Victor Rasuk ("Raising Victor Vargas", "Lords of Dogtown" has done better acting than this and unfortunately Zulay Henao ("Fighting") barely acts and comes across as just another pretty face with a great body.
Last but not least,, Chomski's terrible sense of direction doesn''t help either. Watching "The Mayor" (Yoba) frantically run from the cops as Rob helps him get away is dreadful to watch. Not to mention Rob going against ex crew/gang members after returning to New York. Horrendous !!! Chomski makes an attempt to wrap the film up neatly with ending it at the Puerto Rican Day parade. JLO whose also the producer of the film makes an appearance.
