| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
A film with a rich and convincing texture, a drama with power and anger.
|
| 70 |
Salon.com
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.
|
| 63 |
Boston Globe
On most levels his performance is as flat as his abs: very early Wahlberg.
|
| 63 |
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
Sheridan's ensemble ensures that "Get Rich," the film, comes to life around the edges, if not at its center.
|
| 60 |
Variety
Mildly engaging but very far from being for 50 Cent what "8 Mile" was for Eminem, this lurchingly structured story of survival against the odds looks to get off to a strong start thanks to the singer's large following.
|
| 60 |
The Hollywood Reporter
For all its biographical truth, Get Rich's journey into a ghetto of hustlers, gangstas and mindless violence is all too familiar.
|
| 60 |
Chicago Reader
Sheridan gives this a pacing and depth one doesn't often find in "urban" product, though Jackson, reliving his own life traumas, is handily upstaged at every turn by Terrence Howard (Crash) as his oddball manager.
|
| 58 |
Entertainment Weekly
Neither powerful nor interesting. It is a run-of-the-mill movie ''product'' developed as part of a 50 Cent marketing plan.
|
| 58 |
Baltimore Sun
Terrence Howard has stolen 50 Cent's thunder - and his lightning, and his storm clouds, too - twice in one year.
|
| 50 |
USA Today
Movie stardom is seductive, but 50 Cent and his fans will be best served if he sticks to to his day job.
|
| 50 |
Film Threat
Too much of the time, Jackson is a complete blank, like he's bored with his own story.
|
| 50 |
New York Post
The erstwhile crack dealer born Curtis Jackson may be a prot‚g‚ of Eminem, but this shapeless and derivative gangsta saga is no "8 Mile."
|
| 50 |
TV Guide
Fans of 50 Cent, whose own endlessly exploited past keeps him surrounded by Kevlar and bodyguards, will probably see the film for what it is -- a weak, watered roman à clef -- while admirers of Irish director Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot, In America) will marvel that he had anything to do with such a trite variation on the venerable "Star is Born" scenario.
|
| 50 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Parts of Get Rich Or Die Tryin' crackle with energy, vitality, and texture, like the prison-shower fight that descends into a weird sort of slapstick farce. But 50's leaden turn drags the film down. Scenes celebrating his personal and professional triumph ring hollow, since Rich never really gets under his skin.
|
| 50 |
The New York Times
The parts of Get Rich or Die Tryin' that feel most genuine have to do with friendship and family, rather than with criminal intrigue. But the movie ultimately lacks an emotional core. It will certainly make 50 Cent even richer, but it wouldn't have killed him to try a bit harder.
|
| 50 |
Los Angeles Times
A motion picture with one foot in artistic expression and one in pulp fiction and commercialized violence. It wants the respect that goes with a quality production, but it can't resist providing the brutality and exploitation the film's core audience expects.
|
| 50 |
Miami Herald
Unlike this summer's compulsively watchable "Hustle & Flow," Get Rich or Die Tryin' captures none of the thrill of finding your voice, recording a demo or landing a concert.
|
| 50 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
If, like me, you were hoping for "Scarface" as a hip-hopera, I am sad to report that Get Rich or Die Tryin' has heat, but not sweep.
|
| 50 |
Portland Oregonian
Marcus, like the real-life Jackson, survives being shot nine times. But this film is dead on arrival.
|
| 50 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Hard-working to a fault, this is a movie that's all effort and no direction, a movie completely lacking in what its hero eventually finds -- a sense of identity.
|
| 50 |
Dallas Observer
50 Cent sounds articulate in his raps, but as a lead actor, he talks like his mouth is filled with food.
|
| 50 |
Rolling Stone
The film is shockingly light on music and heavy on crime scenes that play as bogus.
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Missing a purpose.
|
| 42 |
Christian Science Monitor
This thinly autobiographical gangsta odyssey never achieves liftoff, and Jackson is unconvincing.
|
| 40 |
Austin Chronicle
Broad across and rippling with muscle, 50 Cent mumbles his way through his hits.
|
| 40 |
LA Weekly
Even more problematic is the script's clumsy, sprawling architecture, Sheridan's clubfooted sense of pacing and his grubby, indistinct visuals. The only upside? The Chieftains aren't on the soundtrack.
|
| 40 |
Village Voice
Unfortunately "My Left Foot's" Jim Sheridan, that reliable purveyor of Irish struggle-porn, anchors us in tedious exposition.
|
| 38 |
Premiere
Unstylized, inconsistent, unconvincing, and familiar to a fault.
|
| 38 |
New York Daily News
A gangsta rapper without fire in the belly isn't terribly interesting, cinematically or musically.
|
| 38 |
Charlotte Observer
I expected Get Rich or Die Tryin' to be gritty, scary, maybe disturbing or thought-provoking. What I didn't realize was that it would be so dull that any other effect it could have made was wiped away.
|
| 30 |
Washington Post
Shockingly inert.
|
| 20 |
Empire
It's bad enough to ban on purely artistic grounds.
|
| 0 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
A disaster on all levels.
|
