The Virginian-Pilot
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, September 29, 1994           TAG: 9409290092
SECTION: DAILY BREAK              PAGE: E6   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   70 lines

``JASON'S LYRIC'': WE'VE SEEN IT DONE BETTER BEFORE

DESPITE THE efforts of an energetic and varied cast, ``Jason's Lyric'' is an opportunity missed. It promised to be a rare movie effort to depict an African-American love story, set among the working class. Instead, it is the same old 'hood angst with the gang spouting endless profanity and hatred on all sides. We've seen this film before, and done better.

The ads proclaim that ``Love is Courage'' and suggest that Jason and Lyric could overcome everything, including their dead-end jobs, if only they could paw each other regularly in the meadow. Instead of centering on their love story, though, the film becomes obsessed with Jason's bad brother, Joshua.

Joshua is just out of jail and already he's hanging with the wrong crowd, making quick money by drug trafficking. Lyric, who is a spirited type, isn't going to put up with her man hanging with lowlifes, including his brother. She encourages Jason to get on the bus with her and simply ride away, but he must remain true to his family, and to brother Joshua.

If only the film had centered on Jason and Lyric, it might have been an intimate and compelling drama of a troubled relationship. Instead, characters are left undeveloped and only the simplest psychology is employed. When one character is strung up and his bare stomach threatened with a chainsaw, it is quickly evident that first-time director Doug McHenry is more interested in selling tickets than in spreading love and good cheer. This is no surprise, since this is the same man who produced ``New Jack City,'' a film which glorified a drug dealer.

The cast works hard and produces the skeleton of what might have been interesting characters. Allen Payne, as Jason, has a chance to become a matinee idol on the level of Denzel Washington. Jada Pinkett, as Lyric, doesn't even come on screen until 20 minutes into the film. They have not one, but two, rolls in the flowers with nude scenes that almost prompted the Motion Picture Association to give this the dreaded NC-17 rating. The audience gets no hint that Jason and Lyric know each other beyond physical sex.

The film's best performance is contributed by the gap-toothed Bokeem Woodbine as Joshua, a character he makes both dangerous and poignant. The film's best scene, and one of the few with any feeling, is one in which he prepares a nice dinner for his mother, only to have her throw the pork chops in his face, proclaiming, ``I won't eat food bought with drug money.'' His pain and disappointment suggest that there is a drama here, if only the director and writers had developed it.

Set in Houston rather than the usual New York or L.A. misery, the film does little to establish a different sense of place. The repeated imagery is to show the skyline of the city off in the distance, as if it were a mystic Emerald City, unattainable to these characters.

I'd like to see this same cast in a responsible, developed remake of this same movie. The possibilities and the acting talent are there. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

MOVIE REVIEW

``Jason's Lyric''

Cast: Allen Payne, Jada Pinkett, Forest Whitaker, Bokeem

Woodbine, Suzanne Douglas, Treach, Eddie Griffin

Director: Doug McHenry

Screenplay: Bobby Smith Jr.

Music: Afrika and Matt Noble

MPAA rating: R (every four-letter word known to Western

civilization, plus a few you probably haven't heard yet, nudity,

close to an NC-17 rating)

Mal's rating: Two stars

Locations: Janaf and Main Gate in Norfolk, Lynnhaven 8 in

Virginia Beach, Movies 10 and Greenbrier in Chesapeake

by CNB