November’s Magical Musical Movie Review

It’s November and music is in the air… and in theaters!

Money enthusiast and rap star 50 Cent stars in Get Rich or Die Tryin’. How about “Get Rich or Don’t Get Rich?” You don’t need to make everything into a life-and-death struggle, Fiddy. Now I don’t want to give away the ending of the movie, but since it’s a big-budget feature film starring 50 Cent in the story of his life, I’m guessing “dying tryin’ ” isn’t an outcome.

The Chumscrubber is a feature-length adaptation of Chumbawumba’s one hit song. It centers around a man who drinks a whisky drink, a vodka drink, a lager drink, then a cider drink. I assume this man is an alcoholic. The film chronicles his struggles, what gets him down and how he gets up again.

Zathursa. See: Jumanji

For songs that don’t rhyme and jokes about black people, check out comedian Sarah Silverman in Jesus is Magic and hear variations on the same six jokes that made her sorta-famous.

In the trailer for Walk the Line, Joaquin Phoenix states, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.” and the movie appears to say just about as much. Folsom Prison? Check. “Ring of Fire”? Check. Reese Witherspoon? The heck? What’s she doing here? At least her goofy southern-somewhere drawl finally seems appropriate.

Finally, Rent tells the inspirational story of several hip, young artists living in a run-down part of New York who are all trying to ‘make it’. No wait, that’s the movie Fame. Okay, but Rent is a musical. No wait, Fame was also a musical. But what Rent has that Fame doesn’t is more timely references to things like AIDS and Newt Gingrich. But with all the similarities, maybe this movie should be called Rent: I’m gonna live forever …or die tryin’.