Notorious (R) **

By Rene Rodriguez, The Miami Herald

''I'm gonna need some Pepsi. And some more weed. And some females!'' So demands rapper Christopher Wallace (aka The Notorious B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls) when asked to come up with a radio-friendly, mainstream-courting single by his producer -- a brash, flashy young man named Sean ''Puffy'' Combs (Derek Luke).

There is a touch of the surreal in watching them -- along with Tupac Shakur (Anthony Mackie) and Lil' Kim (Naturi Naighton) and Faith Evans (Antonique Smith) and several others -- sing and perform and love and fight their way through Notorious, director George Tillman Jr.'s energetic, uneven biopic of the iconic 400-pound singer from Brooklyn. Watching the film isn't like watching the Johnny Cash or Ray Charles story: This stuff feels like it happened yesterday. Either that, or you're getting older.

In quick, zippy vignettes that often raise more questions than they answer, Notorious condenses the unlikely superstar's life into a couple of hours: His childhood in Brooklyn (played as a boy by Christopher Jordan Wallace, the real-life son of the late Wallace), where he was raised by his doting Jamaican mother (Angela Bassett); his teenage years, when he began selling crack on the street, became a father and served a stint in prison.

And then came the music. Played as an adolescent through adulthood by Jamal Woolard, who doesn't really look like Wallace but channels his slow, easy laugh and deep charisma, Wallace is as intriguing onstage in Notorious as he is juggling the various women in his life or dealing with the growing rivalry with West Coast rapper Shakur, a rivalry that would ultimately cost both men their lives.

Notorious excels at showcasing Wallace's music and his magnetism as a performer: It fares less well at giving that music a proper context. We never see, for example, what drove the seemingly happy and easygoing rapper to write some of his darker songs, nor do we get a grasp of what made his music different enough to turn his first record into a blockbuster hit.

Certain characters (such as his mother) drift in and out of the picture, and the three main romantic relationships in the story between Wallace and his women all feel like soap-opera antics -- albeit the raunchiest soap opera you've ever seen.

Director Tillman (Men of Honor) relies too heavily on tired montages of magazine cover shoots and popping flashbulbs: Notorious cries out for a little less bling and a little more substance. The movie's most effective element is its depiction of the tight bond between Wallace and Combs, played to uncanny perfection by Luke, right down to Puffy's perpetual dancing jigs.

But by film's end, when Tillman uses real-life video footage of the singer's funeral procession, the decision feels a bit exploitative, because the picture hasn't earned the right. Notorious obviously loves its protagonist, but the movie can't get past its own starstruck awe.

Cast: Jamal Woolard, Derek Luke, Angela Bassett, Anthony Mackie, Antonique Smith, Naturi Naughton, Christopher Jordan Wallace

Director: George Tillman Jr.

Screenwriters: Reggie Rock Bythewood, Cheo Hodari Coker

Producers: Voletta Wallace, Wayne Barrow, Mark Pitts

A Fox Searchlight Pictures release. Running time: 123 minutes. Vulgar language, violence, nudity, sexual situations, drug use, adult themes. Playing at area theaters.

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