Réussir ou mourir

Marcus lives with his loving but drug dealing mother. After she gets murdered in a drug deal, Marcus is brought into the life by drug-lord Levar (Bill Duke) and his associate Majestic (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). He lives with his grandmother (Viola Davis) and grandfather (Sullivan Walker). As a teen, Marcus (50 Cent) gets arrested and quits school as he climbs the drug business. He writes his raps on the side and reunites with childhood love Charlene (Joy Bryant). He gets thrown in prison where Bama (Terrence Howard) saves him in a prison fight. Meanwhile Majestic sets up Levar in a cop killing and takes over the gang. Marcus gets out of prison and leaves the gang to pursue rapping with Bama as his manager. He refuses to sign with Majestic and gets shut out of the industry. Bama convinces him to rob a drug dealer.

50 is not a good actor. He's never going to get an acting award. He does have a natural understated charm which does come across on the screen. It's not the most original story but it's compelling enough. It has little insights like comparing drug dealing on the street corner to a minimum pay jobs. There is also an authenticity to the performance and getting the character shot 9 times is a little reminder. It doesn't have the intensity or the drama of 8 Mile but it's still a functional familiar story despite hitting some slow spots.

In 'Get Rich or Die Trying' Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson plays Marcus, a drug dealer from the street who wants to get out of the thug-life and be a rap star. This movie is supposed to be about 50 Cent and his true-life struggle to be a success.

This film was good in that it seemed to parallel the life of 50 Cent. From what I know, it is fairly accurate to a lot of what he went through. My problem is that this plot has been done and redone. A story about a poor ghetto kid trying to be heard, clean up his life and make it as a rapper. Have we not seen this before ('8 Mile', 'Hustle and Flow', etc.)? Do not get me wrong, this is a good movie in its own right. However, the plot is unoriginal and very predictable; even if it is true to life. I would only recommend this to big 50 Cent fans or someone who has not seen '8 Mile' or 'Hustle and Flow'.

The criticism of this film reminds me of that received for Jarhead. People said Jarhead was not a war movie, and the Get Rich or Die Trying had to little to do with rap. My question is, why doesn't this make it a bad film? And to make one last comparison, this film way out did anything 8 Mile attempted (much more of a social critique).

The strength in this film is derived from it's black and white presentation of the "dope game" and how for fifty it was either sleep in a cellar, or buy a Mercedes. Sheridan did a good depiction of how selling drugs is an easy escape, a way to make you feel like a man. The best and most powerful scene in this film is when someone slips a razor blade in his solitary cell in order for him to kill himself. He remarks, "I thought about it". I also enjoyed the non-romanticized violence, and how the drug game was not altogether glorified.

The downfall of this film is it's over dramatized scenes, and it may be a little to long, however, a good critique of Black Urban society, and well worth your 8 dollars.

I don't see why everyone has such a problem with this movie - I thought it was okay, it wasn't the best movie I've ever seen, and it didn't have the best acting ever, but it certainly wasn't the worst movie ever.

The ending wasn't too good, but the movie wasn't too shabby, the storyline was good and it proved to keep me entertained for the full two hours. I learnt a lot about 50 cent during the movie, even though I'm not a fan of rap and/or 50 cent himself, I still enjoyed it.

The movie gives you inspiration, if 50 cent can go through a lot and come out of it a billion dollar rapper at the end, it makes you think that you could probably do something on the same level.

You don't have to like rap and/or 50 cent to enjoy this movie and read into it. If you enjoyed the trailer, don't let the bad reviews put you off, that's what I did, yet I liked the movie.

most of the people who gave this a bad review are probably the same people that gave eminem's film 8 mile a good review. both films depict the life's of the two rappers and in my opinion this film is better because 50 Cent has been through MUCH more in his life than Eminem has. the only difference is that 50 cent is black. People hatred for 50 cent and or maybe gangster rap probably have given them a tainted view on this film. it is not glorifying drug dealing etc like other films such as American gangster with denzil washington or film series such as breaking bad does, it is just merely telling a story of someones life. The fact that most of it is a true story should be enough to help people sit back and learn about the upbringing of one of the biggest stars this century. not a great film but no where near terrible.