King of Queens; 50 Cent Can Rap, Hustle and Take Bullets-but He Can't Act.

Summary

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[Terence Winter] won a couple of Emmys for penning perhaps the two greatest Sopranos episodes ever aired (the immortal "Pine Barrens" and last season's soul-crushing "Long Term Parking"), but judging from Get Rich or Die Tryin', he's spent his lengthy hiatus watching way too many direct-to-video Fred Williamson cheapies.

Then there's 50 Cent. As so much of hip-hop relies upon adopting a fictional persona, it's not surprising to see rappers forging promising acting careers. On one hand you've got Tupac Shakur, Will Smith, Ice Cube, Mark Wahlberg, Ice-T, LL Cool J, Sean Combs and Andre Benjamin. On the other hand you've got 50 Cent.

Get Rich does, however, boast another wily, superbly sketched performance by Hustle's star Terrence Howard, who seems to be trying to one-up Jude Law by appearing in every commercially released motion picture this year. Even though he doesn't drop by until almost an hour in, Howard's tiny turn offers more wit and savior faire than you get from two full hours of 50 Cent's inarticulate murmurs and dead-eyed close-ups. What a difference a real actor makes.

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Extract

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King of Queens; 50 Cent Can Rap, Hustle and Take Bullets-but He Can't Act.

Get Rich or Die Tryin' is the sad tale of three artists stranded hundreds of miles away from their respective comfort zones, and we the audience must observe, in rapt dismay, as the trio tries to make the best of some obviously ill-advised career choice...

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