Get Rich or Die Tryin'

by Madison Carter

50 Cent? Not even a dime.

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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Young would-be rapper (stop) has to deal with adversity (I said stop) to make it and become a star (for God’s sake I said STOP!). This interest you? If so, then run right down to your local video store and rent 8 Mile or Hustle and Flow. Either of those films are worth watching over and over again. Sadly, the latest film to try the same route, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, doesn’t come close to measuring up against either.

Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson portrays an inner-city drug dealer who gets shot and tries to turn his life around by becoming a rapper, all the while still embracing his thug lifestyle. And yet it’s not autobiographical. Right. Jackson is no actor, and should stick to the short form music video style in which he doesn’t have to actually say anything or emote. Okay, so he cries. Even that is a bit campy.

What is this film supposed to represent? That a drug dealer can make it without really giving up the past? The lone special feature, a making-of featurette called “A Portrait of an Artist,” tries to answer this with more questions as to why he did what he did. Unfortunately, the piece is as uninteresting as the film itself. Jackson clowning around in a prison shower is about as exciting as it gets, if that says anything.

There were a few bursts of violence that accompanied the film when it opened theatrically. I predict there’ll be more, this time from customers demanding their rental money back. In a $5.00 world, 50 Cent just doesn’t cut it.