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I attended the rap biopic "Notorious" last week and I am pleased to report that no one was shot.

In fact, the most discomfort I felt in the theater was clearly being the oldest person there. By light years.

"Notorious" chronicles the short, tragic life of the supersized rap impresario known on the stage and in record stores as Biggie Smalls -- or the Notorious B.I.G.

Named Christopher Wallace in real life, Smalls displayed a rare talent for fresh, edgy rhymes and rose quickly in the fickle world of rap music under the guidance of rapper/producer Sean "Puffy" Combs.

Before being fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting. He was only 24.

Raised by a single mother (Angela Bassett), Smalls, played by a remarkable newcomer, 33-year-old Jamal Woolard, found his inspiration on the hard streets of Brooklyn.

Nerdy and overweight as a boy -- and an "A" student -- he found solace and acceptance as a rapper. Then, when he grew older, as a drug dealer.

Following a prison sentence, he steadily built a reputation as a performer and scored a contract with Combs.

Rightly or wrongly, Smalls saw his fame and sales soar. He also achieved a reputation (real or imagined) for feuding with West Coast rappers.

It ultimately cost him his young life.

Now his movie has gotten its own bad rap in Greensboro.

A 32-year-old man was shot twice in the abdomen Jan. 24 in the lobby of Grand Theatre Four Seasons Station 18. At press time, no arrest had been made but someone had to have seen something.

The shooting followed an argument, police say, and it may or may not have had a connection to the movie. Still, to be safe, the theater's management suspended showings of "Notorious" for a day.

Some say it was wrong to assume instantly that this particular film might have had something to do with the incident. But I don't blame them.

On the same day as the Greensboro shooting, four people were stabbed at an after-party following a screening of the movie in Smalls' hometown of Brooklyn. Had anybody paid attention to the movie?

If anything, "Notorious" is a cautionary tale about the utter foolishness of rap's gangsta bravado and crotch-grabbing pretensions. As the inevitable ending draws near, the silly spats and misunderstandings that breed senseless violence seem so trivial.

Despite generally favorable reviews, especially for the acting, some critics fault the movie for glossing over the details that led to the nasty falling-out between Smalls and another rapper, Tupac Shakur, who had, in the beginning, been a close friend. (Even though my tastes generally lean elsewhere, I admit to owning CDs by both artists.)

Shakur died months before Smalls -- in a drive-by shooting. He was only 25.

He has been called the greatest rapper of all time and carved out a successful acting career. He even had formed his own movie production company at the time of his death. But he was a conflicted soul, whose music could extol the virtues of black women in one song, then crudely dismiss them as sex objects in another.

In both cases the lives of two prodigious talents were snuffed short in rains of bullets. For what?

Meanwhile, people in Greensboro are left to wonder whether you can go to the movies without the fear of being caught in some idiot's crossfire.

I don't blame the theater. The Grand is an opulent, well-run movie house in a part of town that's struggling to survive. What are they supposed to do, install metal detectors?

Even the Old Navy store at Friendly Center has seen a fatal armed robbery. At some point, you have to trust and pray that other people aren't going to harm you in public places for simply being there.

I saw "Notorious" at the Brassfield and am happy to report that the audience of mostly teens, white and black, hardly made a sound during the movie. In fact that the crowd was better behaved than the predominantly boomer audience that had turned out days earlier at the Carousel for the doggie movie, "Marley & Me." (A woman sitting nearby placed three cell phone calls, and spoke loudly, as if no one else in the theater mattered.)

Despite the violence in Greensboro and Brooklyn, "Notorious" did well at the box office during its opening week, grossing $21 million and earning more per screen than any other film in the country.

That means that fewer theaters have chosen to show it, but the ones who have are attracting big crowds.

Its reputation no doubt precedes "Notorious," even though it does anything but glorify violence.

As musical biographies go, it's a pretty good film that I suspect a lot of you won't see it until it comes out on DVD.