Get Rich or Die Tryin - 1.5 out of 5

I must say when I first heard the 50 Cent was going to do a movie "based" on his life I was less them excited to as it sounded like just wanted to be like Eminem and do his own 8 Mile. However when I saw that that Jim Sheridan was attached to direct I was willing to give this movie a chance cause if anyone can do a good job of showing the underdog overcoming his environment to be a success its him.

I must say that the feel of the film was good as it came across a grittier version of 8 Mile (I film which I enjoyed more then I expected) and there were several great performances from the supporting cast especially Terence Howard and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje who give their all here.

In spite of the good performances and quality direction the film fails to amount to much of anything for several reasons. The first is that the screenplay (written by emmy winner Terence Winter) is filled with cliches including a laughable "Rocky" montage. The film also had a real been there done that feel as the rapper rags to riches has a been there done that feel with * mile and the excellent Hustle & Flow still in recent memory. The biggest problem with the movie was with its star 50 Cent. He just doesn't have bring the charisma to the screen that Eminem brought to 8 mile, seemed to mumble through his lines, and for any sense involving any type of emotion had the same stone dead look on his face.

Overall a quality director in Sheridan did as much for this film to make it entertaining but was ultimately betrayed by a clichéd screenplay and a wooden lead.