Feel the Noise

Old story, new beat: That sums up Feel the Noise, an acceptable if resolutely average low-budget drama set in the New York/Puerto Rican musical melting pot known as reggaeton.

It’s the subtexts -- about minority kinship and Hispanic self-actualization -- that resound. If only its fable (and leading man) didn’t keep getting in the way.

No one will mistake director Alejandro Chomski's Feel the Noise for great drama. But there's an undeniable sweetness to the characters, the performers are highly appealing, and the music sizzles.

Painfully cliched. The music is throbbing and the leads are cute, but there's nothing here viewers haven't seen before.

It’s hard to fault a screenwriter for cramming every idea he’s ever had about anything into his first movie for fear there won’t be a second.

Inane uplift tale for teens.

Reggaeton has officially come of age: The burgeoning subgenre now has a terrible, opportunistic exploitation movie to call its own.