Get Rich or Die Trying

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starring 50 Cent, Bill Duke, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Marc John Jefferies as Young Marcus
Paramount Pictures
directed by Jim Sheridan

there are many benefits of living in hollywood and having a blog.

and being in the xbi.

still. (secretly.)

theres the xray vision, the cool gadgets, the wine women and song.

and of course the black helicopters. mine being, as some of you may know, chopper one.

but the bad news is with all of those things there are rarely any suprises because you know about things before they happen.

in fact one of the xbi shrinks speculated that perhaps i was a stoner for the last 10 years because i wanted to dumb down so life would feel “normal” again, so that mundane things would feel interesting since my reality was so skewed.

false, but good try i told her and whispered nice ruffled pink panties.

she said what?

i said with xbi xrayvision contact lenses nothing is mundane.

but she was partially correct. i like pleasant suprises and there werent very many here in hollywood since it was our job to not only be in touch with the heartbeat of the city but to know what was going to happen before it happened.

which brings us to todays movie.

one of the things the xbi likes to do for its agents is take us to the movies. believe it or not but i dont like going because im an idiot and id rather go with a pretty girl and hold her hand and buy her popcorn and play footsies and giggle through the film all slunk down in the balcony. i dont like going with a bunch of dudes on a film lot in the middle of a sunny day.

but back when i was “working” at Look-Look i was called in midday to screen Fiddy’s new film as a summer treat.

because my bosses knew that we liked surprises they didnt tell us who was starring in the movie, who directed it, or what it was about – which is Exactly the way i like movies.

let me say that i LOVED this film. now we saw it while it was unfinished. two scenes were missing and the ending seemed so horrible that it felt to me that perhaps they were going to clean that up too.

but 50 was good, lil 50 was Great, the director who had done My Left Foot did a wonderful job of making it slightly different than 8 Mile but just as serious.

and you know what, it was a good story.

going into the film i did not like 50 – i thought he was a mumbling ignorant flash in the pan successful only because of Dr. Dre and Em, who didnt deserve to escort Vivica A. anywhere and would be forgotten in hip hop before 2008.

but watching this movie i understood why he spoke that way, where he came from, and what odds he overcame.

yes it has its flaws that probably wont be edited out or fixed, but it was a hell of a movie that anyone who enjoyed Boyz in the Hood or 8 Mile would enjoy, or anyone who doesnt understand hip hop should see because this is American music, when at its best, comes straight from the streets.

and we get to see how crack influenced both drug dealing and music.

now lets talk about the billboard bru-haha. apparently some are not happy with the advertisement of 50 holding a gun to hype his movie.

why not?

its a violent movie about guns violence and gangsta rap.

I see Bruce Willis holding a gun in the poster of Hostage, i see Al Pacino holding a gun in Scarface, i see Arnold Schwarzenegger holding a gun in True Lies

so why cant a brotha have a gun on the poster hyping the film about his violent life?

maybe its because the old adage is true: the only thing more frightening than a man with a gun, is a [black man] with a gun.

but these protesters, just like pretty much every other faker out there, are hiding behind the kids, saying that the billboards promote gang violence and theyre too close to schools.

anyone who watches this film will learn that this film explains that neither drug dealing nor gangs got 50 a movie, a career, or the fame: it was hip-hop. yes theres drugs and violence in here, but its music that saved this Black man. thats the lesson the kids should be taught.

on the busblog scale of 1 to 4 quarters… this film gets 75 cents because of its unbelieveably horrible ending and nonsenseical 10-minute middle passage. otherwise fascinating, riviting, believable, real, and suprising.

ebert gave it a thumbs up and 3 stars + E Online gives it a B + dallas morning news gives it a B

32 thoughts on “Get Rich or Die Trying”

  1. Very good point about the gun in the pix? It’s amazing how any stallone or arnie movie is never even thought of as being violent.
    P.S. Thanks for the link on your daily specials the other day!

  2. have they been hyping this movie a lot? i hadn’t heard about it until the other day, but i’m also not watching too much tv or going to the movies like i used to.
    it must be a pretty impressive movie to get such good ratings across the board. i’ll remember that!

  3. no it’s not being hyped a lot here in LA, i dont know why. 50 sold 7.5 million records for his last cd, you’d think they’d assume some of those people would be interested in watching a semiautobio film about him.
    but maybe hollywood/los feliz isnt where theyre putting their ad dollars.

  5. I feel very skeptical of 50’s range, but this is something that would make me give it a chance. I think it will be tough for this movie (hypewise) because it has to be compared constantly to 8-Mile right? Em was definitely a more accessible artist when his movie came out. Race is a huge reason, but also 50’s persona is not as relatable to the average joe in america.

  6. good picture.
    Its probably the last movie I ll ever go see.i dont like the “you have no idea what I had to deal with before i became famous”.They give a negative image of what social class struggle really is,But Im talking without having seen the movie.

  9. Tony! I hate being a sheep (read: follower) but I heard bad things about this movie (ironically by white men) and I was just at the theatre (it’s raining in sunny Vancouver) and saw Jarhead and now wish I wasted it on “get rich or die tryin” because jarhead, about marines who freak out, wasn’t worth the $10.95. You posted your review 4 hours too late! Or I read it too late. one of the two. It’s just easier blaming you.

  10. Oh yes, just spent a lot of time catching up on your past week’s posts during my absence.
    I realized the difference in Remembrance Day a few years ago when we decided to go to Las Vegas for the long weekend. We were all wearing poppies and nobody knew what they meant.
    My nieces and nephews grandfather on the other side was a war veteran who has since passed on. Every year at school he used to go in and give speeches on the war. This year, because he’s not around, my Mom told my nephew, “you honour your great-grandfather when you lay the wreath for people who fought in the war”. So when it was his turn, when he was standing before the officers, after he laid the wreath he gave a bow. The officers smiled and he sat down. After that, whenever anyone laid a wreath before them, they bowed too. Such a proud moment that a little boy can respect and honour those who died for freedom. I think maybe that’s bred into us – how lucky we are – at young ages.
    Thanks for the nice words on this country (Canada).

  11. I agree with the billboard issue entirely. But, the movie was a huge disappointment. There was no character arc. Character development was half assed. Fiddy was fine, and the cast was awesome – individual scenes were okay, but the story as a whole was lacking and cliche’d.
    One of the best films of the year has been “Hustle and Flow” which makes for a much more exciting and engaging film about the rap world without relying on action scenes and gunfire. I have nothing against action scenes and gunfire, but even with them “Get Rich” is isn’t a quarter the film either “Hustle and Flow” or “8 Mile” were (get it: “a quarter”? Fiddy cent movie comparison? Whatevs).

  13. “But these protesters, just like pretty much every other faker out there, are hiding behind the kids” suggests that you hadn’t seen the original billboard (still up at the Metro 4, incidentally). It showed 50 with a gun behind his back in his waistband and an infant in his arms. Hence the hue and / or cry.
    Yeah, those people who hide behind the kids are real downers.

  15. I have a question that maybe you can help explain tony… what is the difference, if any, between flickr and buzznet? I want to buy an account at one, but I don’t really know enough information on buzznet. I currently have a free flickr account. thanks for the input!

  16. many differences between the two
    flickr is owned by yahoo, buzznet is indie
    buzznet might have fewer users but its a real community. the odds of you actually getting comments on your pics are much higher. its not just a photo hosting service, it’s a place to check out other peoples photos and journals and vice versa.
    i particularily think that the interface makes more sense. if you click on one of my pics on my strip the left it will take you to a page that shows you the pic, 12 other thumbnails, all my galleries, and a list of my friends – flickr makes you click around to get those things.
    there are lots of other differences but those are the biggies for me.

  17. I didn’t realize 50 Cent was anti-gang violence and anti-materialism and that the phrase “Get Rich or Die Trying” was supposed to be tragically ironic. He should replace his poster with somebody holding a dying friend in his arms and crying or something. Otherwise in his current poster it just comes across that the movie presents thug life/values as legitimate and a badge of honor – a man showing off how big his gun, his wallet, his muscles, and his mic are.

  19. Dan,
    you didn’t realize it because you haven’t seen the fim, I’m guessing.
    Also if you look at 50’s back buldging from welts of bullets that he’s taken you’d see that his life isn’t a marketing ploy.
    He had his violent start, he’s had his rough middle period, and here we are at his wildly successful peak which was brought to him by rapping about the drama in his youth.
    In the poster that I posted you see a gun in one hand and a mic in the other. Two roads an impoverished orphan could take. First he took the gun, then he took the mic.
    But yes the film far from glorifies drug dealing or gang violence. Sadly the critics that Unsom point out miss that. Maybe it’s easier for them to relate when its a story of a white boy rapping about his trailer park.

  20. gotta say, i see their point.
    hostage and true lies glorify hostage negotiation and international espionage, respectively. what gang bangers have such aspirations?
    and scarface is over 20 years old. i imagine if it were in wide release today, many cubans would take umbrage with the way they were being portrayed.
    i’ll still see it. i like a little sex and violence on the silver screen. have you seen lord of war or a history of violence? great movies.

  23. if it were edited properly id say it would be worth considering for such praises, but if Unsom is saying that the flaws still remain then i can see why the whiteboy movie geek bloggers have no love for it and therefore why it will get no oscar nom
    but the first 45 minutes is definately quality
    btw Carly your posts about traveling with Nina and Shane were killer!

  24. Aw, shucks. Thanks! It’s not over yet, though… there’s still three or four more days left to discuss…
    And you know, I was going to avoid “Get Rich” like the plague, but after reading your review I’m reconsidering.

  25. Tony,
    You’re right, I haven’t seen the film, so I am exactly the target audience for a poster like that, which is meant to get people to go see the film by giving an impression of what it’s about IMHO. If a poster only communicates successfully to people who’ve already seen the film then i don’t think it’s doing a good job.
    This symbolism of two paths he’s choosing between went completely by me; from the poster it looks more like he’s embraced both thug values and singing as part of his identity. Why doesn’t it show him in the middle of throwing the gun away while keeping the mic? Or if he’s supposed to be choosing between them, why not a photo of him looking troubled and looking at the gun in one hand and the mic in the other and some caption like, “There comes a time when a man has to make a choice” or something like that.
    I would never imagine that 50 Cent intentionally got shot in the hopes that someday he could advance his career by showing off his bullet wounds. But that poster easily gives the impression that he’s showing off his bullet wounds as proof of how tough he is instead of communicating what a terrible thing his bullet wounds are.
    You might argue that a fan of 50 Cent would never make these mistakes. Maybe you’re right; I’m not a fan, so I wouldn’t know. The little snippets I listened to in iTunes don’t seem to be anti-violent to me, though, they seem to be the standard macho gang banging stuff, but possibly I’m just listening to misleading things out of context.
    But in any case I think a good movie poster would successfully communicate to both fans and non-fans, and this poster isn’t doing the job. And neither is the movie’s title, to be honest. If somebody titles a movie about their life, “Get Rich or Die Trying,” you assume that’s the maxim they’ve lived by. I can’t think of any biography out there which is titled something that’s the opposite of what its subject did. If the filmmakers who made Gandhi’s life story had titled it, “Gandhi: Get Rich or Die Trying,” they’d have been a laughingstock.

  26. yes, Dan, I share your concerns. as i said in the review, i wasnt a fan of 50s either. im not much more of a fan now, i just understand him a tad more.
    the title i believe speaks to the first 3/4s of his life – one that was, like many poor people’s – desperate, dark, lonely. one where if the odds are against you as a poor Black man where your life expectancy is 24-25, you may as well “get rich or die trying”. and apparently Fiddy was quite a drug dealer and actually did get rich.
    the film studio has a tough trick to pull though in regards to the poster and the marketing. if they had done how you suggest they would have lost 50s base who enjoys imagining him as this hardbody gangsta with a chequered past. his last record sold over 7 million copies with that image.
    i think with the title and the marketing their angle was to get those fans in there who are familiar with his work and therefore slightly familiar with his story, and get them into the theater and show them how this drug dealer criminal turned his life around.
    how you do that without making your boy look soft isnt the easiest trick which is one reason you see the alternate ads with the baby.
    plus controversey rarely hurts box office grosses.

  27. Point being, you didn’t understand the poster controversy in the first place.
    Anyway, he’s a mumbly thug whose raps are poor and when even Samuel L. Jackson passes on a movie – as he did on this one – you know it’s gotta suck.
    Bushwick Bill – now THERE’S a story to tell. Hitch your wagon to that star instead!

  28. oh i understood the controversey. people trying to hide behind “children” to look good in the eyes of some while taking on the big bad movie industry and a Black rapper.
    movies dont turn kids into gangmembers. the Godfather series didnt increase he size of the mafia, and this movie wont increase the size of bloods or crips.
    with that said, the movie id like to see this very same director take on is the Eazy-E story.
    and i dont want Samuel L. in it overshadowing everyone. hes a great actor but he didnt belong in this 50 Cent movie, and i wouldnt want him in an N.W.A tale either.

  29. “i can see why the whiteboy movie geek bloggers have no love for it”
    What, huh, what?
    Tony, you admit you don’t get out to the movies much. And if you did, c’mon – better than “Hustle and Flow”?
    Besides, if the film has a story, I’d like someone to share it with me. Where does Fiddy ever really choose between the way of the gun and becoming a rapper? Near the end, he never shoots anyone, but he lets his buddies kill someone instead. Where’s the message here?

  30. I never said i wouldnt like Hustle and Flow – but i did say i didnt like the ending. in fact i said it lots of times.
    the message of the entirety of the story is 50 was a workaholic at drugs and a workaholic at hip hop – which to me says focus your energies on something you wont go to jail for – or die because of and learn from the mistakes of your parents.
    for all these protesters allegedly interested in their kids, it seems to me that the 50 cent story and message is priceless not just because its real but its still happening in front of their eyes.

  31. I just never see where he made a choice. In the film, he just seems to do what seems convenient for him at the time. And in the end, except for some exposition saying that drug dealing is bad, the movie still glamorizes the o.g. lifestyle. I’d have no problem with this, except that Fiddy and the filmmakers keep saying that the message of the movie is about making a choice, and in the film Fiddy never makes a real choice.
    The beauty of Hustle and Flow is that it never pretends to have a message beyond the value of integrity – and the hero is a pimp. At the end of the film, he’s still a pimp. But it never pretends to be anything else.
    The genius of 8 Mile is that the hero, Rabbit, walks away with his chin up, even though he’s lost the girl, he’s lost all his friends, and there isn’t a record deal in sight.
    But “Get Rich” ends with the gangster being glorified – he has his posse to do the violent stuff, and except for a few bullet holes he hasn’t sacrificed anything.
    Theres a few cool scenes, but without a solid ending it isn’t a movie. Its a bunch of clips. That said, I loved War of the Worlds AND The Island. Both films had lazy endings – but I never had high hopes for either movie. “Get Rich”, on the other hand, has a cast I love and a director I admire. Huge disappointment.

  32. I’m going to see 50 Cent in concert here in Van City December 3rd, and I can’t wait. Haven’t seen the movie yet, but will.
    Anyone that can get out of street hustling alive and move in a new and more positive direction in there life-brilliant. Then to be so successful at it-fucking brilliant.
    I sincerely empathize with kids and kids that turn into men, that are caught in the vicious street life cycle. It’s very hard to get out, most don’t. The thing is many of them are very smart astute individuals capable of much beyond their own comprehension…..

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