Get Rich or Die Tryin': Critic Reviews

Neither powerful nor interesting.

Jim Sheridan's film, loosely based on the experiences of its star, the glowering rapper 50 Cent, lacks an emotional core.

Shockingly inert.

Before we enter the theater, we know he's a millionaire winner starring in a movie about how he won. So it's hard to believe him when he isn't smiling.

Be warned, when a fedora-sporting Godfather starts wheezing out pearls about violence begetting violence, you may die tryin' to stop laughin'.

A gangsta rapper without fire in the belly isn't terribly interesting, cinematically or musically.

Mr. Sheridan understands the sudden, spasmodic nature of turf battles. Get Rich plays like a genre movie with a particularly skilled hand at the helm.

A film with a rich and convincing texture, a drama with power and anger.

Sheridan's ensemble ensures that Get Rich, the film, comes to life around the edges, if not at its center.

The apparent turf war between director and screenwriter results in a compromised, confusing tale of a young man trying to mark his turf.

Sometimes [50 Cent] could enunciate more clearly, but he does a great job of being a bad rapper early in Marcus' career. And most musicians will say that performing badly on purpose is one of the most difficult things for them to do.

Crippled by a trite story line and a serious lack of flash from rapper and first-time actor Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson, Get Rich or Die Tryin' pretty much dies trying.

50 Cent has some good moments, but other times he seems like little more than a blank slate.

Plays like a contrived cross between New Jack City and Hustle & Flow.

The charismatic rapper is so utterly inexpressive as an actor that he's constantly getting swallowed up in his own movie.

Don't for a second think that we're meeting the next great rap star to become a movie star.

The picture can't decide what it wants to be -- maybe a gangster flick, perhaps a musical biopic, or how about a real-life slice of mythic inspiration.

This isn't Sheridan's most complex or richest picture, but there's lots of life to it: This is an unapologetically glossy pop product, powered by a strong, old-fashioned sense of B-movie melodrama.

For all its biographical truth, Get Rich's journey into a ghetto of hustlers, gangstas and mindless violence is all too familiar.

The film's inability to resist the lure of maximum exploitation becomes frustrating.

Sheridan's surface vividness is applied around a vacuum