NOT `THICKER,' JUST TRANSPARENT.

Byline: Terry Lawson Knight Ridder Newspapers

Further evidence that rap stars are making too much money is found in ``Thicker Than Water,'' which opened Wednesday, in which Mack 10 and Fat Joe follow the Master P-Ice Cube master plan: first rhyming, then filming, then - who knows? - maybe a sitcom or, better, a big-league basketball tryout.

Mack 10, an Ice Cube disciple whose ``The Recipe'' was a 1998 break-out album, and Fat Joe, a k a Fat Joe Da Gangsta, who has a string of hits, are both of the hard-core school, so it's not surprising that ``Thicker Than Water'' is a gangsta throwdown.

Mack 10 plays DJ, a straight-outta-Compton homeboy, while Fat Joe plays Lonzo, a New York import lying low in LA.

Though affiliations are never mentioned, DJ favors blue while Lonzo likes red, so figure it out.

To visit his college-student girlfriend, DJ has to infiltrate enemy territory, but when his gang-banging girlfriend doesn't pick him up on time, he is accosted by Lonzo's posse. They're ready to execute him for trespassing, but Lonzo, eager to unwrap his own girlfriend's birthday gift, issues him a ``pass.''

DJ has a subsequent opportunity to return the favor, and at a chance meeting afterward, the two discover they have more in common than incessant use of the N-word; both are fledgling record producers who require only a bankroll to blow the business apart. (The only white people in this movie own the record companies.) Ruling out bank robbery - Lonzo's lack of success in that field is why he had to leave New York - and bond trading, they settle on drug dealing and hook right up with Gator (C.J. Mac), a New Orleans-based gentleman who fronts them half of Colombia on their good word.

Their alliance is tested by job stress and financial success, not to mention the suspicions of their street soldiers and Gator's greedy underlings.

Bullets are sprayed, blood is spilled, strip clubs are visited and enough beats are busted to justify a soundtrack album, for which this movie is just a long-form infomercial.

In the time-honored manner of homey-in-the-hood movies, some hard lessons are belatedly learned in ``Thicker Than Water'' - people die in gunfights and don't come back to life to be in the next video - and a half-hearted anti-gang message is ultimately delivered. But the real lesson here is that if you make enough money playing gangstas on record, you may get the opportunity to play one in the movies, too. It doesn't matter if you can act or have a story to tell. It's a matter of taking what's yours. It's a turf thing.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Thicker Than Water'' (R; violence, nudity, language).

The stars: Mack 10, Fat Joe and Ice Cube.

Behind the scenes: directed by Richard Cummings Jr. Written by Ernest Nyle Brown. Released by Palm Pictures.

Running time: One hour, 30 minutes.

Playing: Mann 9, Granada Hills 9; Century 8 Theatres, North Hollywood; Mann Plant 16, Van Nuys; Century 16, Ventura.

Our rating: One star.