RATING:

Starring: Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Terrence Howard, Joy Bryant, Bill Duke, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Omar Benson Miller, Tory Kittles, Viola Davis, Marc John Jefferies, Ashley Walters, Serena Reeder, Walter Alza. Written by: Terence Winter. Directed by: Jim Sheridan.

Rated R for strong violence, pervasive language, drug content, sexuality and nudity.

50 cent is one of the biggest and most popular stars in hip hop and the driving force behind “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” a the drama directed by six-time Oscar nominee Jim Sheridan about an orphaned street kid who makes his mark in the drug trade but finally dares to leave the violence behind and become the rap artist he was meant to be.

In the movie made up of details that parallels 50’s life, Marcus (played by 50) has always known he was going to be a rapper, but when his drug dealing mother is murdered, he turns to dealing – hustling drugs pays the rent. Only his grandmother (Viola Davis), girlfriend Charlene (Joy Bryant), and violent-but-loyal friend Bama (Terrence Howard) keep him grounded as his world spirals out of control. As Marcus applies the same manic intensity to his writing as he does to dealing, he finds that writing down his words helps him to stay sane. For years, Marcus endures this living hell until a tragedy that nearly kills him forces Marcus to change his life.

I’m gonna keep it real.

Sorry folks, this movie is whack – hence two stars.

The only thing hot about this movie is the soundtrack. There are a good 3 or 4 songs on the soundtrack that are dope. Like I said in my Splinter script review, the really great script that I read by Terence Winter was butchered to be this lame movie. A huge letdown. This is a movie that shows you everything that is wrong with Hollywood. Too many hands in the pot. Even Terry Winter himself in a recent interview said that this is the only movie that he has worked on where the studio was hands on and changed everything he wrote.

It shows.

I am going to stick to my guns and a lot of people will disagree with me but I think Jim Sheridan was the totally wrong choice for this movie. His brilliance is nowhere on the screen like his past efforts. This movie came out being typical. They should have given this movie to any of the current “it” hip hop music video directors (Jessy, Benny, Hype, Marcus, Paul...take your pick) who have worked with 50 and could have slammed this out of the park. I’m sorry and I don’t care what the press notes say – an Irishman from Dublin will never blend in on Guy Brewer Blvd in South Jamaica Queens.

If it wasn’t for the profanity, this movie would have been a PG-13 flick. This movie is not as hardcore as it was hyped to be and this being Latinoreview, I have to warn the Latinos out there that the Colombians in this flick come out looking like buffoons in this movie as they mostly do in studio movies when Latinos are secondary characters. Cartoon characters. Every time the Colombians would come out, I would nudge my buddy and we would laugh at how corny Colombians are made to look like in this movie.

Anyway, it really bummed me out and I wanted to love this flick because I championed the great script that Terry Winter wrote but was deeply heartbroken at how it turned out. Save your money folks and either rent it on DVD or wait for the bootleg to show up on Jamaica Avenue.