Get Rich or Die Tryin'

Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment / 2005 / 116 Minutes / R
Street Date: March 28, 2006

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. A young African-American male grows up without a father in a tough neighborhood surrounded by drugs. Seeing quick money, he starts dealing cocaine, until he begins realizing his dream of being a rapper. The appeal of rap is so dependent on crime, drugs, broken families, and life on the mean streets that you can see why filmmakers are so drawn to rags-to-rapper storylines. But ever since rap became arguably America’s most popular musical form (at least to kids) these stories have taken on a sameness that has become a cliche. Every single one of these stories may be true, but that doesn’t mean the marketplace can handle every single movie based on them. Had Get Rich or Die Tryin’ come out five years ago, it might have been received differently. But after 8 Mile and similarly-themed movies like Hustle & Flow and Paid in Full, (along with the tiresome gangsta rap battles played out on the pages of music magazines and crime blotters) these beats are all too familiar.

In the case of Get Rich, the film’s success relies on the director assigned to bring the story to life. On the surface, Irish helmer Jim Sheridan (In America) seems an odd choice, but his humanity, empathy and hardscrabble childhood is a match for what needs to be conveyed here. What’s odd is that when you consider how grounded Sheridan can be, Get Rich feels pulpy, like a gussied-up Blaxploitation movie. The bad guys become cartoonish and the violence borders on Scarface territory (without Brian DePalma’s blatantly operatic flourishes). It’s bad enough the story is cliched, but now it seems unrealistically New Jack.

As anyone with a remote control knows, 50 Cent was shot nine times outside his grandmother’s house in 2000. This has become his street-cred calling card. As if being a human colander makes his rapping better or his music more engaging. And if that’s the case, I propose a nationwide search to find the rapper who’s been closest to death, since as you know, a near-death experience means you’re a good rapper. Imagine an African-American male shot 15 times and clinically dead for 30 seconds. Now that guy would be an amazing rapper! Even better would be a rapper who was shot 147 times, cremated, and then rises from the grave to become the ultimate gangsta! Kids would flock to hear his raps. Mel Gibson would direct the film version of his life: Passion of the Rhymes.

Anyway, 50 Cent’s life-altering bullet ballet begins the film. After he and his crew (including recent Oscar nominee Terrence Howard) knock over a money laundering business, Marcus (50 Cent’s nom de film) is ambushed in the street. Laying on the cold, rainy concrete, waiting for the final bullet, he reflects on his life. And what a sad life it is. Having never known his father, Marcus (well played in flashback by Marc John Jefferies) is raised by his mother Katirna (Serena Reeder), who deals drugs on street corners. When Katrina is killed, Marcus goes to live with his grandparents. Before long, the young Marcus takes up the family business, selling dime bags with a gun in his jacket pocket. After assembling a mini-South Bronx cocaine empire, Marcus is thrown in jail, where he meets Bama (Terrence Howard). In the pokey, Marcus begins voicing a desire to express himself by rapping, and Bama offers to be his manager.

At this junction, it must be said 50 Cent is not a strong movie presence. His face is made of stone, certainly hard-earned from the life he’s lived, but we can’t even begin to penetrate him. It gives the film no emotional center so we can’t root for him, except on a basic and unacceptable “he’s the star of the movie, so I am required to root for him” kind of way. Imagine 50 Cent as the star of Hustle & Flow and you get what I mean.

Out of prison, Marcus tries in earnest to become a rapper, even if he can’t quite shake his criminal past, which includes ruthless Columbian drug lords. After we revisit his nine-bullet ambush, we pick up the action as Marcus starts closing the doors on the unwanted parts of his life and realizing his dream of degrading women and saying “motherf***er” in front of large crowds.

In Hustle & Flow, we got a clean sense of what made Djay want to rap. We know what drove him artistically. Here, we’re not sure why Marcus wants to rap, even if we’re quite sure he’ll have plenty to rap about. This is strange coming from Sheridan and Sopranos writer Terence Winter. Those two are all about family and family dynamics and soul-deep, well-reasoned motivations. Here, it’s vague, as if its inevitability means it doesn’t have to be explained properly.

Too slick, too familiar, and featuring a wooden lead performance, Get Rich splits the artistic middle. Fitty fans don’t care about an “adult” movie directed by the Irishman who gave us In the Name of the Father. Mature moviegoers have no interest in 50 Cent, or padding his pockets with more money. By the end, no one is satisfied.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

With the exception of some softness, I thoroughly enjoyed this 2.35:1 presentation. The South Bronx locale means a muted, slightly gritty feel, but the palette is bright and wide. Colors are fully saturated, with reds that don’t tear and pretty greens and blues. Blacks are rock solid as part of a package that features great contrast. However, I did notice the occasional crushed black shirt. The softness issue cuts into the quality of the detail, but I still thought the detail was good. The image has a satisfying, filmic depth. It looks and feels big screen, without seeming slick. I found no edge halos worth mentioning and no pixelation or print defects. If it weren’t for the softness, this would be an outstanding transfer. Instead it’s a very good transfer, satisfying and fun to watch.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

When your downstairs neighbors call the police to complain about the noise, don’t say I didn’t warn you. This Dolby Digital 5.1 is a rapper’s delight, with an LFE track that will make the walls crumble. And the bass is thick and crisp. It’s not muddy at all. There is a realism to the soundscape, with a winning combination of music, effects and dialogue that create a strong city feel. Dialogue is snappy and always understandable with no edginess. There’s some good stereo imaging in the bullets flying and in some of the music. The track doesn’t sound constricted. It feels like it’s coming from all over the room. If you’ve gotta listen to rap for two hours, this is the way to do it.

There is also a nice, but more constricted Dolby Surround 2.0 track and a French Dolby Digital 5.1 track.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The only real supplement is the hilariously titled A Portrait of the Artist: The Making of Get Rich or Die Tryin’. Calling it “A Portrait” instead of just “Portrait” gives it that intimate, Masterpiece Theater feel that really brings the comedy to full boil. Actually, comedy orgasm is fully achieved at the beginning of this 30-minute piece, when 50 Cent asks a live concert crowd if anyone of them were familiar with In America or My Left Foot. Hearing these rap-loving kids claim knowledge of an obscure Irish film director (“My Left Foot! That’s movie’s kickin’!!”) is incongruous and downright weird. After that, the piece settles in, with Mr. Cent visiting Sheridan’s Irish neighborhood. We then meet members of Cent’s family and see Sheridan on-set. It’s a pretty nice piece, meandering through the particulars of production.

Finally, we’ve got the film’s trailer and previews for Last Holiday, Four Brothers, P. Diddy’s Bad Boys of Comedy, Aeon Flux, and Nick Cannon Presents Wild ‘n Out.

Final Thoughts

Irish director Jim Sheridan seems an inspired, left field choice for distinctly American material, but he can’t sell a rags-to-rapper story that has become cliched. It doesn’t help that 50 Cent is an inexpressive presence surrounded by more talented actors, including Terrence Howard. The audio and video on this Paramount DVD are excellent and the lone supplement is a pretty good making-of featurette. Go rent Sheridan’s outstanding In America instead of Get Rich or Die Tryin’.