Get Rich or Die Tryin’

Review by Clint Morris

50 cent himself may have nine lives - and the bullet holes to prove it - but when you’re a rapper you usually only get “one shot, one opportunity” to prove to cinema audiences that you’re worth shelling out greenbacks to see on the silver screen.

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, knowing that you’ve got to surround yourself with people that know what they’re doing, ‘Fiddy’ has hired accomplished filmmaker Jim Sheridan to helm the pic. But how you go from the heart tugging In America to the 50 Cent movie is still baffling...

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.

3.5 out of 5

Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Australian release: Thursday the 19th of January, 2006.
Cast: Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson, Joy Bryant, Terrence Howard, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Bill Duke.
Director: Jim Sheridan.
Website: Click here.

Brought to you by MovieHole