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

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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.

 

Related post:

 

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'?