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50 Cent falls a dollar short in "Get Rich or Die Tryin'"

By BOB LONGINO
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Fiddy Cent's big new multimillion-dollar movie is really worth about fidteen cents.

"Get Rich or Die Tryin'," starring and about the life of ultra-successful rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, is like a wannabe "The Godfather" without the horrifying horse's head, Eminem's "8 Mile" without the Oscar-caliber song and John Singleton's "Four Brothers" without the multitude of engaging personalities.

Paramount Pictures

"Get Rich Or Die Tryin'"

The verdict: Get a better movie.

Director: Jim Sheridan
Starring: Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Joy Bryant, Benz Antoinee, Viola Davis, Terrence Dashon Howard
Run time: 117 minutes
Release date: Nov. 9, 2005
Rating: R for strong violence, pervasive language, drug content, sexuality and nudity.
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"Get Rich" winds its way through drug sales, snarling Mafia-types, daring robberies, bloody gang wars, a jail stint and rap recording sessions as it reimagines Jackson's life in the form of a determined orphan named Marcus.

The movie has its moments — especially when inspired costar Terrence Howard is present. There are a couple of dynamite scenes (including a prison shower attack with a shank that's about as perfect a display of cinematic realism as you'll ever see), a couple of lines of riveting dialogue ("When it comes down to it, I got a knife in the drawer," Marcus's weary grandmother says about protecting her family) and lots of gunfire.

The film reverberates with shots from Uzis, shots to bad boys' legs, shots to gangsters' heads — and nine shots to Fiddy's body on a darkened street that probably should have killed him but didn't.

Director Jim Sheridan ("In America," "In the Name of the Father," "My Left Foot") recently cut 17 minutes from "Get Rich" to get the running time under two hours. Why did he stop there?

What we're left with is a movie that, at times, barely seems to move (it feels like it lasts three hours) and a lead actor who doesn't just look bored, but delivers so many of his lines like he'd rather be anywhere else. That may be an accurate view of the reality of ghetto living, but it doesn't make for a very compelling movie.

Sheridan starts this film with a strong gimmick — a shaking, vibrating camera that pulses to the staccato bass of a rap song playing loudly from a moving car. He also sets a strong tone with characters whose spewing speech instantly falls into flurries of the n-word.

It's the setup for an intense robbery scene and eventual nine-bullet-wounds moment that leaves 50 Cent's Marcus sprawled on the street. A perfect time, in the movie business, for a retrospective flashback on Marcus' hard life.

"Everybody was in love with my Mom," the young Marcus says in narration after he and his mother, smiling and happy, sing along to a particularly fiery Chaka Khan song on the car radio. "So anybody could be my dad."

That disconnection to the world eventually devolves into drug-selling, guns and the inability to express his feelings except in the rap songs he forges and practices into the wee hours of the morning.

Marcus first wants money for sneakers. Then for a gun. "I don't know what I wanted a gun for," he says. "But I got one anyway."

His life is on a fast track, and Sheridan seems to show just about every moment — hanging out with his gang, his connections to organized crime, drug sales, the introduction into the ghetto of crystal meth, parties, stripper dancing and a stint in prison.

It's during the latter that Marcus meets up with Howard's character, a North Carolinian named Bama, who eventually becomes his music manager.

It's also when "Get Rich" takes its first substantial breath of life.

As he did in "Hustle & Flow," Howard shakes the film at its core, summoning a character of interest, vibrancy and urgency. One moment, he's gentle and sweet, the next he's a human time bomb going off.

When Howard's onscreen you keep wondering what he will do next.

If Fiddy Cent really wants to be an actor, let's hope he was paying attention. That was his first real acting lesson.