Christian Contemporary music has maybe only had a few major stars over time (Amy Grant, Stryper to name a few) but the biggest one is Carman, a singer from Oklahoma. He's been praising god with his musical talent since the 80s and had a huge following up through until the 2000s. On top of being a musician, He has also tried his hand and storytelling a few times, and R.I.O.T. is one of those times.
Carman plays Vic Rizzo, an inner city Chicago police officer who is trying to raise 2 kids without a wife (How many times are we going to have that single parent thing going?) And after a close call involving a gangbanger, Vic wants to escape the inner city to raise his kids in a much more peaceful community without gangs. But as Vic learns over time, You can run from your problems, but you can't hide.
Throughout the movie, Carman's music videos off the 1995 album "R.I.O.T." (Which stands for Righteous Invasion of Truth.) are interspersed at different moments, which tie into moments of the movie. For example, When Vic is discussing fear with his son, the music video for "No monsters" a song about the said topic, plays. and at the end, the music video for the song "Amen" plays.
So there are some negatives to this movie. For one, Carman's acting is razzie worthy but not the worst by all means. The gangbangers in the movie were pretty good actors but being that it's a family film, they cannot be as "bad" as they want to be. So swear words and other vulgar language that is commonly used isn't there. So you don't get that "American History X" or "Scarface" feel. You kind of get that Disney movie feel, which might turn off the target audience.
But the biggest negative (at least for me) is the music videos interspersed into the film. it's like a commercial break and it totally throws off the story's pace. you get to a good point and then carman starts singing while Vic's in limbo. And unfortunately, a 1996 release means VHS only, so unless you like fast-forwarding films, skipping the music videos is kind of tough. If the music videos were at the end of the tape, then that would be OK. I'm not saying the music videos suck (To be honest, carman made some of the most memorable music videos in CCM history) I'm just saying i'd rather watch the story all the way through.
Bottom line, it's not that bad of a movie for what it's worth, and if you happen to stumble upon a copy, it's worthwhile to see once. if it got a DVD release, at least then you could skip through the music videos.
