True to the Game

I'll never be able to explain what keeps me coming back to urban dramas even when I've expressed my occasional distaste for many. Maybe it comes from the hope that as the years go by, there will be one urban drama that shakes up the genre and challenges old concepts and writing. However there are films like True to the Game that makes me believe the genre has gotten too comfortable.

The film, based on the based selling novel by Teri Woods, follows Quadir (Columbus Short), a well established street hustler. He began to have thoughts of stepping out of the game after falling for Gina (Erica Peeples) and receiving threats from others taking over his position.

Usually by this point, I try to say something positive about the movie, but frankly, I just don't have much to say at all about this. It's your typical run of the mill urban drama and no plot point or actor can elevate the material past that. While the movie does have some occasionally nice lighting, it's not long till almost every scenery looks artificial to the eye. The editing is even stranger, when it almost immediately changes scenes after someone is shot or a short time to react from a shooting.

The one thing that bothers me the most about the film is the lack of emotional impact. There's one scene in particular near the end of the film, that's supposed to be a emotional moment, but is so rushed like the rest of the film and the rest of the film slogs even further down a hole it can't crawl out of.

I haven't read the book to True to the Game, but I feel the movie gives me the feeling I'm not missing much at all. While I commend them trying to make material with a very small budget, it doesn't make up for lazy writing, unengaged acting or the lace front beards almost every male has on.

True to the Game trilogy is my favorite urban fiction collection, hands down. I had such high hopes for the film. Things I liked: Colombus Short surprisingly portrayed Quadir better than I initially thought he would. The clothing choice for the men was on point and stayed true to how I imagined them to look, based on the book. Qua's right hand man, Tyriq, was very convincing. I enjoyed his character. Jarell had some off moments, but I think his character was well-played and added the nemesis-type flair to keep it interesting. Things I didn't like: Gena is quite lovely as I imagined but her acting was sub-par at best, as was 95% of the cast! Rasun, Qua's other righthand, was absolutely unconvincing. Draya, Shirell, could've been left out of the movie altogether. She has no acting ability at all. Aubrey was not in the books at all. Her character was forced and she added no value to the movie in my opinion, just like Shirell.

Those are major components off the top of my head. I wanted to see a classic, to match the legend of the books. I watched it 3x in 2days to come to my final conclusion, but at best; I'd consider this a B-league film. An exponentially higher budget and a more experienced cast would have placed this film at the top. I believe TTTG would be mentioned with the likes of Goodfellas, Paid in Full, Dead Presidents, etc had it been given the proper resources and due diligence it deserves. Very disappointing. I would love to see it continue with the major escrow this one needed, maybe even scrapped and remade from scratch. The movie does the legacy of Quadir and Gena absolutely no justice whatsoever! Come harder next time, Miss Woods. We need stories like yours on the big screen!

How many time they gonna mention they're from philly??? We get it... 10 mins in and they mentioned it 15 times

Surprisingly, I find myself agreeing with the LA Times and New York Times critics on this one. The movie is so terrible people left the theater before it was half over. To make matters worst, the novel was amazingly well done and seemed hard to mess up. The movie plot and story line are so nonsensical, and hilariously unconvincing, it's hard to imagine anyone but amateurs put any work into this film. With the exception of Columbus, and maybe one other person, the casting and acting are so horrible one wonders who was in charge of quality control. The special effects, to the extent they could be called that, seemed to be from the 70s, as the film is very low budget and wrought with cheap, almost invisible action scenes. Yet, it's packed with long meaningless conversations that left me longing for the next scene. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the movie is that it is so unbelievably boring, you're left thinking it has to get better and it actually gets worst until the credits appear. I found myself wondering who gave the thumbs up to such a poor movie and why such a great novel received such a low budget and obvious lack of cinematic support. The movie isn't worth purchasing on demand. I would recommend waiting for Netflix as it's not going to last in theaters much longer.

Compared to the book this movie isn't what I hoped for while the book left you wanting more while the movie fell flat and tons of things were left out (with that being said I understand they have a budget & have to put so much in a certain time frame but DAMN) & whoever did the editing & frame shots SMH this would be better off on TV1 or BET but def not movie theater material Columbus Short as Qua did a good job as a couple of others that were casts such as Jamaar Simon as Rasun Qua's right hand man was well played, Nelsan Ellis as Tarik which could have had more scenes but did a great job, Aundra Fuller as Jerrell played the hater/wannabe they all played their parts but some of the other cast mates could have stepped it up a bit more Sahirah played by Nafessa Williams did a good job as the average gold digging hood chick looking for the next come up even Gena's little cousin Bria (played by Iyana Halley) was more convincing & believable than Gena's character there wasn't enough emotion or life to her she was dry (SORRY just my opinion) but hey it is what it is I do think this film could have been as big as Juice, Paid in Full or Boyz in the Hood (which are Urban Classics I might say) with the right people behind it I hope that if there's a possibility of a sequel that they have a bigger budget & a better production team because I was highly disappointed 😔