Starring DMX and David Arquette. Rated 18A.

Even by gangsta rap's lowly standards, Never Die Alone's King David is a reprehensible scumbag. That's saying something, from a genre that's given us such riotously repugnant songs as the Geto Boys' "Mind of a Lunatic". (For those who missed it: "My girl's gettin' skinny/ She's strung out on coke/So I went to her mother's house/And cut her throat".) Their fellow rapper DMX's character in Never Die Alone matches them: the bling-laden dealer has a habit of hooking his girlfriends on blow, then slipping them more addictive heroin so they become his slaves. When they start causing trouble, he simply cuts them a deadly dosage. (Cue foaming mouths and convulsions.)

King David gets his: the film begins with his shooting. But as Never Die Alone tells his story via flashbacks, the messages are uncomfortably mixed. DMX has an electric, charming charisma, and the film glorifies and glamorizes his character's exploits--without any Tarantinoesque irony--even as it tries to criticize them.

King David has returned to the East Coast to pay up his debts and reestablish himself. The local gangsta boss is willing to forgive him, but one of his henchmen, Mike (Michael Ealy), has a personal score to settle and ends up putting a bullet in King David. It's a white writer, Paul (David Arquette), who finds him bleeding in a gutter; he takes King David to a hospital, where the dying drug daddy bequeaths everything to this stranger. Paul finds himself driving away in a pimped-out Stutz Blackhawk and discovers a stack of audiotapes. King David has, between pushing dope and waxing people, conveniently recorded the story of his life.

Director Ernest Dickerson (cinematographer on Spike Lee movies like Do the Right Thing) gives the film a handheld, noirish feel, creating atmospheric ghetto digs. But he and screenwriter James Gibson (adapting a story by cult author Donald Goines) leave few clichés unused, whether it's the aging kingpin who constantly has two sequin-clad babes on his arm or Paul's Hemingway-like love for the bottle. The more pressing problem is there isn't a redeeming character in sight. Even our "hero", the wronged Mike, has a penchant for slapping the bejesus out of his kid sister.

There's moral ambiguity--that's what made movies like Boyz N the Hood great--and then there's hypocrisy. Gibson and Dickerson can't seem to make up their minds about their central lowlife: is he kinda cool and amusing or just plain evil? Take a typical King David quip: "Stupid bitch didn't even know the difference between heroin and cocaine." Is that supposed to be funny, shocking, or just morally repulsive?

In some ways, Never Die Alone is a reflection of gangstaism--a rap song brought to life. But why is it that when you actually have to see it, and not just listen to rhymes about it, it seems so much uglier?