Ah, to get rich or die trying? It's a fundamental question that everyone faces. Most seem to favor the acquisition of coinage as opposed to getting popped while attempting to obtain wealth, but for some, namely Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, it's not always a conscious choice. In the new film "Get Rich or Die Tryin,'" loosely based on the life of 50 Cent before he hit it big in the rap game, movie watchers are immersed in a world where one either gets some cash or is left with the paramedics breathing softly on them.
Directed by Academy Award-nominated Jim Sheridan, the film follows Marcus (50 Cent) from a preteen who just wants to spend time with his drug-dealing mom, hang out with his best girlfriend, Charlene (Joy Bryant) and record playful raps to being a grizzled grown-up drug dealer. This transformation doesn't happen without reason; as with every street rite of passage, 50 suffers loss. His mother is murdered, Charlene moves away and his fresh Air Jordan sneakers are taken away in favor of passed down clown shoes. As Marcus finds himself wanting the luxury that came with his mom's lifestyle, he resorts to selling marijuana on the street.
There's a particularly moving scene after young Marcus has made enough money to buy his first gun, and stares at himself holding his piece in the mirror while listening to Boogie Down Productions' "9MM Goes Bang," making one realize that Marcus has lost the childhood everyone deserves.
In a matter of years he moves on to pushing cocaine and quickly rises to elite status among dealers. Marcus buys a Benz, gets his own crew and lives the life he always wanted - no matter what the cost. As he tells his grandparents, "I'm a gangster, not someone who is going to get on their knees and clean for someone else." He has no remorse for what he is and what he wants: to get rich.
But after Marcus gets backstabbed by a friend and is shot - much like 50 - nine times, he realizes there has to be another way to make money. To use his own terminology, life is not going to back its thing up on him; no, he must push up on it if he hopes to succeed. Knowing that he has rap inside him, and with the help of his manager, Bama (Terrence Howard), he sets out to take New York's rap crown under the title of Young Caesar. This doesn't sit well with his former drug employer, Majestic (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), who wants him either pushing rock for him on the streets or six-feet deep in the ground.
The movie will most likely draw comparisons to "8 Mile," Eminem's semi-autobiographical film from 2002, but "Get Rich" trades the exhilaration of the freestyle competitions of "8 Mile" for scenes of the gangster lifestyle. In his acting debut, 50 ends up being more on par with Eminem than Vanilla Ice when it comes to thespian skills. Sure, he is basically playing himself, but unlike his recent public persona, he has a certain likeability that makes you root for him. The soundtrack is a highlight - devoid of 50's current radio output and full of the old 50 from his first mix tapes, songs that are exponentially more soulful and street.
"Get Rich or Die Tryin'" turns out to be a nice surprise. Sure, it falls into many of the clich?s seen in most gangster films. Exchanging his real life womanizing in favor of a being a one-woman man would maybe work for 50 if his relationship with Charlene had any chemistry at all, and the film has a handful of lines that are more fit for a Ja Rule album (something 50 would not take so kindly). But perhaps the best thing the film does is give insight into why street violence occurs: money, coke, respect and love. Hate the film or love it, 50 Cent displays the world he comes from and it's certainly not a trip to the candy shop.
