Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005) - Sheridan's hiphop biopic riddled with weak spots

5/04/2021

Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005) - Sheridan's hiphop biopic riddled with weak spots

♥♥

Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson hangs on to a baby boy without a shirt on and with his underpants visible on this mostly B/W poster for Jim Sheridan's Get Rich or Die Tryin'

Curtis Jackson walks in the footprints of his murdered drug-dealer mother and becomes a pusher as a boy. But as a young man rap draws him in, with the problem then becoming; how does he get off his criminal path?

Get Rich or Die Tryin' is written by Terence Winter (Brooklyn Rules (2007)) and directed by great Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot (1989)). It is based on the real life story of Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson, who plays himself in the film, and the title is also the title of 50 Cent's 2003 debut album.

A talented boy, Marcus John Jefferies (Supermodel (2015)), has been cast as the young version of Jackson; but when high school age arrives it is suddenly the at the time 29 year-old 50 Cent (Den of Thieves (2018)), who plays his own younger self. This understandably feels like quite a stretch age-wise.

Viola Davis (Nights in Rodanthe (2008)) is wasted as a perpetually down grandmother. There's a bathhouse fight scene that doesn't bear comparison to the later infamously great bathhouse fight scene in Eastern Promises (2007). Sheridan attempts with a father search plot-line and a montage with fireworks to lend the film some needed structure and visual energy, but the authenticity is wobbly, the direction unclear, and it is too easy to reject 50 Cent and his music based on Get Rich or Die Tryin', which is never more than very basic level entertainment.

Jim Sheridan: 2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

The Boxer (1997) - Excellent film of boxing and love in ugly Ireland

Watch a 2-minute excerpt from the film here

Cost: 40 mil. $

Box office: 46.5 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.16 times its cost)

[Get Rich or Die Tryin' was released 9 November (North America) and runs 117 minutes. Shooting took place from April - June 2005 in Ireland, including Dublin, New York and Ontario, including Toronto. The film opened #4, behind holdover hit Chicken Little and fellow new releases Zathura: A Space Adventure and Derailed, to a 12 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 30.9 mil. $ (66.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 4.8 mil. $ (10.3 %) and the UK with 3.6 mil. $ (7.7 %). The film won a National Board of Review award, and the soundtrack sold over 3 mil. copies. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Sheridan returned with Brothers (2009). 50 Cent returned in 7 music videos and a video game prior to his theatrical return in Vengeance (2006). Get Rich or Die Tryin' is rotten at 16 % with a 4.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Get Rich or Die Tryin'?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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5/04/2021

Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005) - Sheridan's hiphop biopic riddled with weak spots

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