What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that younger teens are going to want to see this movie. It includes frequent violence (shooting, stabbing, fist fights) and its consequences (loss of friends and family, funerals, desires for revenge and discussions of alternatives). The hero appears in the hospital, in emergency surgery, and near death, as the film flashes back to his birth in a diner. A woman is burned to death in her home (her killer claims to have raped her first, though we don't see this). The hero starts his drug dealing career as a child, shoots rivals, and is shot himself, in a brutal scene shown twice. Prisoners fight in a shower, showing naked bodies and bloody effects of stabbing and beating. One sex scene includes close-ups of body parts. Dialogue and lyrics include frequent cursing (including "f--k" and the "N" word).
- Families can talk about Marcus' choices: to be a drug dealer (to "get paid") or to try another route to "get out of the ghetto." How does the movie make Marcus sympathetic despite the fact that we see him shoot another dealer? How does this story add to the myth that 50 Cent has created about his life? Does the movie glamorize a violent lifestyle? Do your kids think this movie is true?