Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2006, DVD)

The First thing that I need to emphasize is that I am not a fan of Curtis Jackson a.k.a 50 Cent s music, but regardless of the fact that his gangsta image is questionable, and his music is a structured and well thought out money making formula, I do respect 50 Cent as an Entrepreneur.

Fiddy (the lazy name for 50) who is at the prime of his career, has been able to monopolize the music, clothing, and video game industries almost effortlessly. Also, although Fiddy s rhyming skills most times can be mediocre, he has adapted a formula that has made him the man that everyone loves to hate but still gets him paid ..by causing controversy. Fiddy is one of the best in this business in regards to manipulating the business to create the illusion that he is better than he really is.

I realized long ago that he is a lot more intelligent than people think or that he chooses to portray. Although one may think that he is a puppet to record label execs, while it is obvious to a certain extend, he does have a great amount of power to control which direction he wants to go. With that being said, heading for the big screen should come as no surprise to people who are familiar with his story.

The story Get Rich Or Die Trying stems from the childhood of a young Marcus (Marc John Jefferies) the son of well intentioned mother Katrina (Serena Reeder) and an absentee father. Katrina, a good hearted person, is a street pharmacist (drug dealer) and although she tries to hide it from her son, he is obviously very observant and knows very well what she does to make ends meet.

Forced to be a orphan due to his mothers murder, Young Marcus continues his mother s legacy as a drug dealer, running the streets under the wing of Majestic (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje)in order to maintain the life of new sneakers and clothes that he is use to getting from his mother. He also has this determination to "avenge" his mother's death, by finding out who killed her, as well as find out who his biological father is.

Before long young Marcus is Big Marcus (Fiddy) who also owns the street name Little Ceasar. Rapping at first is a hobby, and something that Marcus is apparently good at, but he brushes it aside when he realizes that it takes a lot more work than rhyming into a tape recorder. While running the streets he meets his long lost childhood friend Charlene (Joy Bryant) a good girl with a purpose, who it seemed after the first night with Marcus becomes pregnant with his child. Inevitably, living too comfortably with being a pusher leads to jail time where he meets Bama (Terence Howard) who would later become his friend and business partner. Once out of jail Marcus makes the decision to pursue rap music full time but the problem question is, can he make the reformation without dealing with repercussions and showing disloyalty to the people who helped him as a dealer?

Everything else is self-explanatory as his focus shifts to bigger things. This also leads the reminisce of the infamous nine times shot (which is actually 10 minutes into the opening act), and also causes Marcus to realize that he needs to do whatever it takes to leave the street life behind and master the rap game, which of course, because it s not supposed to be a fictional story does allow the underdog to come out on top. Its not the fact that he does make it, it s the journey he took to get there.

Get Rich or Die Try was directed by Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot) and written by Terence Winter (The Sopranos) and tells the part true part ficticious tale of Fiddy s real life. The films running time obviously seemed to be a problem to a lot of film critics (it runs at 134 minutes) however, I didn t find it that big of a deal. Then again between you and I, I did not have any major expectations from fiddy when I saw it, I actually expected worse. Fiddy is already known for his slurring rhymes, and one dimensional facial expressions. Remember, even though you are not a fan of Mr. Interscope, you still can t expect a major a breakthrough in a lead role for the first movie from a singer (a rapper in particular) even though they do show what looks like anger or lying on a hospital bed in their music videos.

The film also consists of some very strong artist's that come together to make potential Oscar material, and although Fiddy is not one of those artist's, his performance is not terrible. Yes, he needs to work on his emotions and he lacks chemistry with the actors he is on screen with (actually that is a lie, the scenes with his actor baby son are very real and shows that he obviously loves kids in the real life), yes, he is somewhat stiff, yes, there are a lot of holes, and yes he was getting ahead of himself by being in front of the camera with some of the best black actors that are out right now. I do give him more respect in acting than I do in him rapping cause I see that aside from the fact that he is not like Ice T, Will Smith, Mos Def and even Ludacris who could naturally make the transition from the mic to the big screen, he does have potential if he s willing to branch off to take on more challenging roles. Of course that would take the same dogged determination that he invests into being a business and sparking feuds.

Another flaw is that it s edited out quite a bit. The plot seems have been missing quite a bit of something which could not be covered in two hours. Also, the film while trying to maintain an ultra-violent theme, tries to have some more artistic segments, which make it a bit of a contradiction when you have some flat out shooting and ruthless violence to more romantic sequences.

Based on the direction of the film, Marcus is supposed to be a thug with a sensitive side, and fiddy tries with what seems to be the best of his abilities, but maybe it s harder for him to convey emotions of vulnerability because even though Marcus and Fiddy are supposed to be the same person, they really aren t, or never ever were whatever that may imply.