Paid in Full (2002)
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Theatrical Release: Oct 25, 2002 Wide
Box Office: $3,042,188
Synopsis: Set in the early 1980s, this entry in the African-American urban gangster genre puts character development in the front seat for a change as it rolls through the Harlem streets on its usual rise-and-fall route. Ace (Wood Harris) starts out a laundry delivery guy, but thanks to a chance... Set in the early 1980s, this entry in the African-American urban gangster genre puts character development in the front seat for a change as it rolls through the Harlem streets on its usual rise-and-fall route. Ace (Wood Harris) starts out a laundry delivery guy, but thanks to a chance encounter with a Latin coke dealer (Esai Morales), he quickly works his way to the top of a drug empire. Mitch (Mekhi Phifer) is his more extroverted, colorful pal, the "born hustler" whose bravado hides a tragic family life. For a while the money just keeps rolling in and everyone's happy, but then comes the inevitable turn to tragedy, heralded by the arrival of the brash, trigger-happy Rico (rapper Cam'ron in his screen debut). A sensitive script and moody direction by Charles Stone III allows PAID IN FULL to sidestep a lot of the cliched glamour of similar films. The violence is realistically depicted, and the ultimate emptiness and paranoia of the lifestyle is allowed to manifest slowly through a nice, low-key performance by Harris. Roc-a-Fella mogul Damon Dash produced, based on the true story of Harlem drug lords he remembers from his childhood, one of whom even served as a technical advisor. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Wood Harris, Cam'ron, Mekhi Phifer, Chi McBride, Esai Morales
Screenwriter: Austin Phillips, Azie Faison, Matthew Cirulnick, Thulani Davis
Producer: Damon Dash, Jay Z, Brett Ratner
Composer: Vernon Reid, Frank Fitzpatrick
DVD Info
Release:
May 4, 2004
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
Stone seems to have a knack for wrapping the theater in a cold blanket of urban desperation.
For a rapsploitation film to target and frown upon the darker forces of its nature is certainly a good sign for the maturation of the genre.
I'm going to give it a marginal thumbs up. I liked it just enough.
Very familiar, yes, but a stylish and above all well-acted tale of friendships gone sour and the inevitable steep price of crime -- a much better movie than it’s ever going to get credit for.
The story is familiar from its many predecessors; like them, it eventually culminates in the not-exactly -stunning insight that crime doesn't pay.
This is a heartfelt mea culpa -- which gives Paid in Full much of its unexpected emotional power.
If you saw it on TV, you'd probably turn it off, convinced that you had already seen that movie.
If there's a way to effectively teach kids about the dangers of drugs, I think it's in projects like the (unfortunately R-rated) Paid.
This familiar rise-and-fall tale is long on glamour and short on larger moralistic consequences, though it's told with sharp ears and eyes for the tenor of the times.
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by: troyssbx 9/12/02


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