I would be wasting my time and anyone else's time on sitting here, typing in the details that makes this film a steaming pile. However, the film, like all films, whether it was a straight to video production or a theatrical release, deserves my critique on why this film sucks.
Allow me to start with what worked in this film: the unintentional comedic moments? That's right. Moments and occurrences in the film that was intended on being serious, life altering in the life of Cam'ron, turned out to be hilarious. He was faced with a crisis decision where he had an opportunity to avenge the death of a loved one, but he made the right choice by not sinking deeper into an unredeemable, cesspool of the glorification of young blood being shed and other wrong doings. Instead, he makes a different choice but ruins it still with an uncalled for action (disgusting action rather) that was drop dead uproarious to me. The build up, surfaced by individual close-ups of Cam'ron and his potential, pint-sized victim, made it funnier than it would've been.
On the other hand, everything about this film was pitifully awful.
The writing was the worst. It must've been a script overwhelmed with uneventful moments, no structure, no character arc, no beginning, inappropriate pacing and literally no end. In fact, the film felt longer than it really was.
The directing was pure amateur night at the Apollo, the talent that would get chased off by the sandman. I don't care if a film is low budget, it could still look good with substance in story, character, acting, etc. And the film isn't low budget in my eyes with SAG actors and a big Fresnel lamplight that was used outside for night exteriors, so there's no real excuse for the madness. So, with the proper knowledge of making movies, with zero dollars, it can still look good. The cinematography was way off most of the time with hot areas in the frame that was jarring to me few times. Also, the cameraman/director could benefit from understanding the Five C's of Cinematography (Camera Angles, Continuity, Close-Ups, Cutting, Composition) before calling for the poorly framed close-ups and two shots I was seeing. The editing was inept. The acting really sunk this film to a one star status rather than two stars.
Amongst the entire cast and crew of this steaming pile, there wasn't a single person with some creativity? In this film I saw scenes similar to "Belly" and "Donnie Brasco." Even the DVD cover was reminiscent of his feature film debut, "Paid in Full." I can tell the filmmaker was inspired more by the gangster films he loves out there rather than his own life.
The girl that played his childhood friend was the worse actor in the film. Then his boys were making me sick, with their lame jokes. They made me feel as if I was watching paint dry. Then he (Cam) ruins the end by making it without one. Vomit.
I can go on and on but this film was so bad that it's really not worth my time. I feel as if I sunk a level for even taking the time to rate and comment on it.
