What happened here? If any of you saw the first trailer for this film you would have thought this was going to be an Oscar masterpiece. Unfortunately I can’t seem to find that trailer anywhere on the Net anymore so you will just have to take my word that Paramount seemed to have quite a bit of faith in the feature, but Get Rich or Die Tryin’ is far from Oscar worthy. It is far from a lot of things actually.
This is a not-exactly true story based on the life of rapper, now “actor”, 50 Cent and I can only assume bringing yourself up from nothing, getting shot multiple times and working your way through life selling drugs is far more exciting than this. 50 plays the part of Marcus who is shuffled around early in life due to his mother’s “job” selling drugs, but when she is one day found dead he moves in with his grandparents and eyes the life we all dream of, the life of a gangsta. Now who can’t relate to this material? What, you can’t? Well, unfortunately this script doesn’t give you much of a chance to relate, so there goes that wish out the window.
What is the primary problem with this film? Well that all depends on how you look at it.
First off the material is slow, boring and predictable and that is just for starters. When five naked guys aren’t wrestling in the shower we are forced to endure what feels like hours upon hours of watching Marcus (50 Cent) recuperating from nine bullet wounds. Granted, being shot nine times is probably going to take some time to heal, but this is the movies! Speed it along friends.
The largest issue I had with this film were the roles taken by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Majestic and Bill Duke as Levar. These two guys are basically the kingpins of the neighborhood at various times throughout the movie and their parts are so stereotypical it is annoying as all hell. Duke delivers his lines with little more than a whisper (ooh scary) and Akinnuoye-Agbaje has the look of a wannabe Nino Brown (give it up friend Wesley owns that role in movie history). None of it seems to fit inside the reality the film is built on.
This brings us to 50 Cent, who makes Eminem look like Sean Penn. Sorry 50, the bewildered look, via gaping mouth, went out with Dumb and Dumber. Honestly, it looks like this guy has nothing to say, at least nothing worth listening to. When he does open his mouth there is no emotion and seemingly no interest in what he is talking about. The only time the film hits its stride is when Terrence Howard is on screen as Marcus’ one-time cell mate and now manager Bama. Howard gives us what we expect, nothing but the best. Whether it is comedy, drama or violence, he never fails to deliver.
As for the directing, it’s a’ight (little gangsta lingo for yah). Jim Sheridan (In America) is easily one of the better directors out there but he should have known better than to have a movie starring one of the industry’s top rap artists and save his only performance for the closing credits. Granted this isn’t a movie about rap, but come on, give the audience what they want. Trust me, not many people are going to be staying in their seats after two hours with this film. It was all I could do to stick with the film for that long. I wasn’t sticking around to watch 50 rap over credits when I could just download the song off the Net.
Get Rich or Die Tryin’ is one misfire after another. I only wish one of those bullets had missed Marcus and went straight through the script pages. The story is there, it just wasn’t executed very well. Did someone say rewrite?
