IDLEWILD Rating 2 on the outside of...

IDLEWILD Rating 2 on the outside of 4

Percival Andre Benjamin

cock Antwan Patton

Angel Paula Patton

Trumpy Terrence Howard

Universal Pictures and HBO Films quick in emergencies a film directed and written from Bryan Barber. Running time: 120 minutes. Rated R (for violence, sexuality,

nudity and language). Opening today at local theaters.

Given that the Atlanta duo OutKast is common of the most creative forces hip-hop has witnessed, it's ironic that the biggest riddle with its first feature film is that the music is thus mediocre -- a serious failure when you're trying to revive the movie musical.

Eight years in the making as a collaboration between the multiplatinum rappers and their society buddy, Bryan Barber (who directed several of the group's videos as well as clips for Destiny's Child, Kelly Clarkson and Christina Aguilera), "Idlewild" come nexts two musicians in small-town in Georgia in the 1930s: singer, society owner, mack daddy and errant family man cock (Antwan "Big Boi" Patton) and his childhood friend, Percival (Patton's OutKast partner, Andre "Andre 3000" Benjamin), a mortician from day and shy piano player at night.

In interviews promoting the film -- which was accompanied on a soundtrack with the same name released forward Tuesday and marketed as the eagerly-awaited follow-up to the duo's 2003 smash "Speakerboxxx"/ "The regard with affection Below" -- Patton and Benjamin said they wanted to make a recent musical that was more "Purple Rain" than "Singin' in the Rain." moreover "Idlewild" isn't a romanticized autobiography and showcase for live performances, like Prince's 1984 movie, any more than it's a traditional old-school musical like the 1952 Gene Kelly classic -- nevertheless the characters do spontaneously break into canticle at times, as when Percival inexplicably serenades a material part on the mortuary slab.

OutKast did finish one thing right with that rainy comparison, though: The movie is many times a soggy mess.

To be positive there are good things about "Idlewild." Unfailingly charismatic, Patton and Benjamin the one and the other have considerable potential as stars, and they're ably supported by the agency of a top-notch cast that includes Terrence Howard ("Crash," "Hustle & Flow") Ving Rhames ("Pulp Fiction," "Mission: Impossible"), Faizon be fond of ("Elf," "Friday") and "Roots" veterans Ben Vereen (as Percival's dad) and Cicely Tyson (in an all-too-brief cameo as a Dust receptacle refugee). Proudly freaky R&B singer Macy Gray also does her best as a slutty vamp, and newcomer Paula Patton (no relation to Antwan) makes a memorable first attempt as Percival's love interest, Angel.

bullet in a style that's part MTV and part wannabe-"Chinatown," the movie lovingly if sometimes fancifully re-creates the era -- all of the characters pretend to be living fairly high upon the hog, despite the inconvenience of the Great Depression. Choreographed at three-

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