![]() Only then does Ace step up, and then almost by accident. For all their differences, though, Ace and Mitch are tight he appreciates Mitch, a generous soul, with “love for everybody, I mean, everybody.” At the same time, Ace keeps his distance from the business, until Mitch is sent to prison. Flashy Mitch (Mekhi Phifer) also falls for the allure of glitter, all wide smiles and fabulous riches: “Making money, that’s my style,” he boasts. Calvin (Kevin Carroll) is wily, ambitious, and aggressive, if shortsighted. His boys are jumpier, in the way that “street” movie characters tend to be. Ace is appealing in a lanky, low-key way, almost eerily laid back. He thinks back on his pre-dealing days, when he’s still called “Lucky,” a childhood name that he’ll soon be rejecting, when he feels unlucky because he’s started dealing.Īt first, Ace has a regular job, delivering for a local dry cleaner (Chi McBride, a long way from his Principal Harper of Boston Public). When Ace starts his story, he’s recalling it from the hospital, where he’s been wheeled in with a bullet in his head. Written by Matthew Cirulnick and Thulani Davis and directed by Charles Stone III (who made the ubiquitous Budweiser “Whassup” ads and whose next film, Drumline, is already generating good buzz), Paid In Full is based on a true-life story, already made into a documentary film, called Game Over (Part 1). This despite the fact that Paid In Full, the third film from Damon Dash and Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Productions (following the lively concert documentary Backstage and the hackneyed gangsta tale State Property), includes elements that you’ve seen before, whether in old-school gangster movies or in relatively newer gangsta movies. Ace surely did but, as is often the case in movies about speedy rises to fame and fortune, he’s now looking back, looking for where it all went wrong.Īs familiar as this story sounds (and is), Ace is hardly your usual somebody. And I was here… livin’ it.” To be here - Harlem, circa 1986 - you had to have plenty of cash and nerve. “If you was here, you was definitely somebody. “This is the stage,” says Ace (Wood Harris), as the camera pans a busy nighttime strip, girls in shimmery halter-tops grinning, shiny BMWs gliding.
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