Get Rich or Die Tryin' (15) <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

This do-rags-to-riches story stars Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson as the street hood who wants to make it as a gangsta-rapper, only the gangsta bit keeps muscling out the rapper. Born to a mother who's a drug-dealer, Jackson soon buys himself a gun and follows her into the family business: cue a relentless cycle of shootings, maimings and killings.

Director Jim Sheridan might have been expected to cast this as a memoir of redemption, à la Eminem in 8 Mile, but instead merely offers his star a length of rope, with which Jackson duly hangs himself on a bough of rotten criminality. His acting's no more than tough-guy posturing, and the self-pity of the whole venture ludicrous.