Get rich or die tryin'

Rappers got a whole lot of thigs to say about their life, normally how much they struggled until they arrived at the top. This movie stars 50cent, whose name in the movie is Marcus. He lives in NY and as a big part of the black population there, he is usually involved in a constant drug dealing environment, because even his own mother sells crack and he knows it, but the only purpose for her to do so is to raise her little boy like the way it's supposed to be. Unfortunately at the age of 8, his mother, Katrina gets killed ( burned alive) by a close friend, Majestic, because she's bringing a lot of trouble for his gang about selling stuff at others territories.

After that, Marcus gets to live at his grandparents house and secretly, he keeps up with his mother's business on the streets. He starts to get expensive clothes, a new car, a gun, and buy a house on his own, until he gets arrested for a couple of months because of selling dope. During these months, he starts to work with his lyrics at the jail, to become a new rap star the day he gets out, and after that, he'll try to deal with some important enemies, including his mom's murderer.

As all of those biographical movies about my favourite artists, I really liked it. I really like to watch these kind of movies that talk about how people overcome in their lifes. The original soundtrack is priceless, with one of my favourites tracks by him, Window Shopper the technical material in the movie is decent.

I just think that the movie got a bit longer than it should've been and the end wasn't what I was expecting, but it's ok.

8 Mile

8Mile was released in 2002. It's a really interesting movie starring Eminem. He interprets a guy whose nickname is "B-rabbit" who used to live with his girlfriend but when they got split, he had to go back to his mom's trailer house. Since that, his life has been a living hell. His mom hangs out with a guy who's a douchbag, beats her, etc... Economical problems.... He gets a job in a factory to earn some money so he can move to a new house. Even though people criticize him for being white and not belonging to rap, Rabbit  frequents a place called "The shelter" where mostly coloured people go to perform Rap battles to get respect in the ghetto of Detroit . Rabbit's goal is to win the shelter's champion, "Papa Doc" who pertains to a gang called "The free world" which wants to get him out of the rap game without killing him.

The movie itself is pretty good. I really enjoyed it because some points of the movie are related to Eminem's real life back in the day. Little mentions about Rakim, Notorious, 2pac and other big rappers were cool too. There's a really nice plot twist were Rabbit's mom gets a paper in the mail, which is an eviction order because she didn't pay the rent and they almost had nothing to eat, but a couple of days later, she wins at the bingo and earns 3200$.

I'm not a good movie reviwer but I think every technical material about the movie it's ok. The dialog, the camera positioning, etc...The only thing that got me a bit disappointed was the fact that they didn't improvised their bars in their rap battles, and I think rappers like Proof, Eminem or Xzibit, could've done it in the movie, instead of memorizing it from the script.

Film Review: Poetic Justice

In this film, we see the world through the eyes of main character Justice, a young African-American poet. After the shooting death of her boyfriend, Markell, who had some beefs on the streets, she falls into a deep depression. She spents the whole day taking care of her cat, in the house she inherited from her mother or working at a local hair salon. One day, she mets Lucky, a postman who comes in the salon, and start flirting with her, but she fakes a lesbian relationship with her boss to mock him away, and Lucky gets mad.

After a couple of days, Lucky and Chicago ( Lucky's co-worker at the post office) get orders to drive to Oakland to deliver some posts and Chicago's girlfriend, Lesha, convinces Justice to go with them because she had to go there for a hair show, and Lucky needed to meet his cousin, who's a famous rapper and Lucky wanted to become a rapper just like him.

At the beginning of the trip, Lucky and Justice argue a lot, but through the trip, they're going to see, they have a lot of things in common, meanwhile the other couple, Chicago and Lesha's relationship is getting increasingly broken.

The foursome make a couple of detours, the first being a family reunion barbecue. Here it becomes apparent  that Iesha and Chicago's relationship is troubled. Iesha openly flirts with other men at the barbecue, while Chicago broods watching her behavior. The second stop is a beach where each of the four characters contemplate their separate situations. Next, they stop at an African Cultural Fair where Lucky and Justice grow closer as they discuss their lives. After leaving the fair, the friction between Chicago and Iesha explodes when Iesha tells to Chicago she has been seeing someone on the side and he hits her. Lucky initially decides not to get involved in the fight until Justice defends Iesha by kicking Chicago in the back, and Chicago turns his physical brutality on Justice. Lucky, Justice, along with a bleeding and shaken Iesha leave Chicago by the side of the road and continue on their journey.

Lucky stops the postal van at a beach, and Justice goes to see what's wrong. She begins opening up to him about her life and Lucky becomes sympathetic. They share a kiss and Justice walks away apparently unsure of her feelings for Lucky. She goes back to him and they share another kiss.

When they arrive in Oakland, they are met with the news that Lucky's cousin, with whom he had been working on recording music, has been killed. Lucky blames himself for not being in Oakland sooner, believing he could have prevented the shooting. He turns his anger on Justice, angrily blaming her for distracting him while they were on the road.

Some months have passed, and Lucky and Keisha meet up with Justice again back at the hair salon, just at the moment Lucky brings in his daughter Keisha. Lucky is remorseful over his conduct in Oakland and the cruel words he said to Justice there, and apologizes. She smiles at him and they share a passionate kiss. Justice smiles, and then turns her attention to Keisha, fussing over her hair. Justice and Lucky's eyes meet over Keisha's head and they smile...

Poetic Justice was one of the best movies i've ever seen. I really enjoyed the plot twist, seeing how Lucky and Justice were more and more closer. there was some funny moments, and sad ones too, but seeing them together in the end, was really cool, and mixing the ghetto stuff, the 90's style, Tupac (lucky) who's my favourite rapper made a perfect movie.