While many expected Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson’s
debut – especially after hearing those unkindly early reviews
– to be worth, well, 50 cents, the good news is there’s
more than a couple of dollars worth of good entertainment here. Is it a
paint-by-numbers offering? Flagrantly so, but they’ve
categorically used some premium paint. Obviously tipped off by his friend Eminem - who had success a couple of years back with his first entry into cinema 8 Mile
- that you’ve got to surround yourself with people that know what
they’re doing, ‘Fiddy’ has hired accomplished
filmmaker Jim Sheridan – how you go from the heart tugging In America
to the 50 Cent movie is still baffling though – to play the big
boss. The result? A good movie – not a great movie – that
would’ve been so much worse had Sheridan – like Samuel
L.Jackson, who was offered a supporting role in the film – given
the birdie to da’ player’s project. Loosely –
in other words, it’s his story just exaggerated to the max
– based on Jackson’s real-life story, Get Rich of Die Tryin’
centres on a kindly small-time drug dealer (Jackson) who gets in over
his head with the local gangs, kingpins and low-lives. After a stint in
jail, he decides its time to walk away from that life and is determined
to become a rap music star. With a friend he met inside (the always
fantastic Terrence Howard), he sets out to achieve his dream. As a story, this is probably a better film than 8 Mile. There’s much more to the yarn than the latter, and it will easily hold the audience’s attention for its duration. On
the other hand, and considering it is a Jim Sheridan film, it
could’ve been improved. For a start, Sheridan has pooled two
tried-and-true formulas: the gangster film (the first half of the film)
and the rags-to-riches music star film (the second half of the film)
with the joint maker a little too obvious. And though the performances
border on grand at times – 50 even proves himself a likeable
screen presence – the dialogue is a little hokey. Still, considering most had written this off as the next Cool as Ice, Get Rich or Die Tryin
is an impressive debut for the coin-coined music superstar, and a film
that will undoubtedly entertain anyone with a fondness for underdog
tales. DVD Extras Pretty much the only extra on the DVD is a rather so-so making of. Bummer for the fans. Conclusion:
Movie 60% Extras: 40% 
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