True to the Game

I've read the books & unless they are going to make a part 2 & 3 it falls a little flat at the end. If they choose not to I suggest read the books to find out the True ending.

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.

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.

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 😔

It's not cool to use a title from a well known book about "the game" and make a movie this bad. What's the number to the refund hot line? I am not joking. This movie should have never been released unless it was on YouTube. I thought about giving it two stars because Columbus Short did a decent job with the little he had and the music wasn't bad. But I can't. it's a joke. This nonsense has to stop.