Nike Sportswear and Urb magazine are teaming up with Cinema Tuesdays, curated by Flux, at the Ricardo Montalban Theatre to screen "Notorious" this Tuesday, kicking off their year of (now monthly in 2009) free film screenings.  The Notorious B.I.G. (a.k.a. Biggie Smalls) biopic, which opens nationwide Jan. 16, is open to the public, but you'll need to RSVP here. 

Admission is not guaranteed, so we recommend arriving early if you want to get inside (the film starts around 8:30 p.m.).  The last few music-themed films that screened here (such as the Flaming Lips' "Christmas on Mars" and Justice's "Across the Universe") saw lines around the block last year.

I actually caught a screening of "Notorious" earlier this week, and was pleasantly surprised. The solid script, penned by Reggie Rock Bythewood and former L.A. Times writer Cheo Hodari Coker, kept the biopic moving along swiftly, and Angela Bassett nearly steals the film with her strong performance as Voletta Wallace.  Coker manages to work in an incredible amount of detail in the movie, which should please true hip-hop heads.

The Times has at least two "Notorious"-related features coming in the days ahead (a story by Ann Powers and a review), so we won't say too much more here. But suffice it to say, "Notorious" does a decent job of capturing the slain rapper's ascension in New York (and eventually nationwide) during the 1990s, although the second half of the film doesn't fare nearly as well as the first half.  And the soundtrack, of course, is a winner.

Nike staffers usually crank the volume at the historic Hollywood theater, so that you really feel the music during screenings.  For fans of the late hip-hop icon, that's a serious plus.

The event kicks off at 7:15 (MC Lyte spins) and the actual screening begins at 8:30.  A Q&A with the film's director, George Tillman Jr., follows around 10:30.  If you don't know, now you know.

-- Charlie Amter

Photo of the Notorious B.I.G. at the Billboard Music Awards in 1995 by  Mark Lennihan/Associated Press