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NUMBERS
Box Office: $3,042,188
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CONSENSUS
Though well-acted and non-exploitative, Paid in Full treads a very well-worn story.
CAST & CREW
Wood Harris, Cam'ron, Mekhi Phifer
Directed by Charles Stone
more...
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. more...
MPAA RATING
R, violence, pervasive language, some strong sexuality, and drug content
RUNTIME
1 hour, 37 minutes
RELEASE DATES
Theatrical: Oct 25, 2002
Video: Apr 8, 2003
RELEASE COMPANY
Dimension Films
GENRE
Dramas, Gangsters, New York City, Drug Dealers, Urban Violence, Urban Crime, African American Culture
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PARENTS EVALUATION
TRAILER & MEDIA
PHOTOS
TIDBITS
SUBMIT/EDIT ARTICLE
SUBMIT USER REVIEW
FORUM
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 "Stone seems to have a knack for wrapping the theater in a cold blanket of urban desperation."
-- Phil Villarreal, ARIZONA DAILY STAR
 "Bottom-rung New Jack City wannabe."
-- Tor Thorsen, REEL.COM
"All too familiar...basically the sort of cautionary tale that was old when 'Angels With Dirty Faces' appeared in 1938."
-- Frank Swietek, ONE GUY'S OPINION
"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."
-- Brent Simon, ENTERTAINMENT TODAY
"That we are not the target and still got ninety percent of it is a compliment to director Charles Stone III and screenwriters Matthew Cirulnick and Thulani Davis who whipped the original story into coherent shape."
-- Chuck Schwartz, CRANKY CRITIC®
"At least it's a fairly impressive debut from the director, Charles Stone III."
-- Craig Roush, KINNOPIO'S MOVIE REVIEWS
"Good performances and a realistic, non-exploitive approach make Paid in Full worth seeing."
-- Mervius, FANTASTICA DAILY
"Harris is supposed to be the star of the story, but comes across as pretty dull and wooden."
-- Jerry McCormick, SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
"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."
-- Mark Keizer, BOXOFFICE MAGAZINE
"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."
-- Chris Hewitt, ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS
"Paid in Full is remarkably engaging despite being noticeably derivative of Goodfellas and at least a half dozen other trouble-in-the-ghetto flicks."
-- Ed Gonzalez, SLANT MAGAZINE
"A cross between Blow and Boyz N The Hood, this movie strives to be more, but doesn't quite get there. Good performances keep it from being a total rehash."
-- Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone, THEMOVIECHICKS.COM
"An intelligent crime drama, not because of the criminal activity it dramatizes but because of its powerful examination of the forces that drive criminals."
-- Keith Cassidy, MIAMI HERALD
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"This is a heartfelt mea culpa -- which gives Paid in Full much of its unexpected emotional power."
-- Shirley Sealy, FILM JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL
"Suffers from a flat script and a low budget."
-- Erich Scholz, CITYSEARCH
"If you saw it on TV, you'd probably turn it off, convinced that you had already seen that movie."
-- Steve Rhodes, STEVE RHODES' INTERNET REVIEWS
"Bolstered by exceptional performances and a clear-eyed take on the economics of dealing and the pathology of ghetto fabulousness."
-- Maitland McDonagh, TV GUIDE'S MOVIE GUIDE
"The story is familiar from its many predecessors; like them, it eventually culminates in the not-exactly -stunning insight that crime doesn't pay."
-- Jim Lane, SACRAMENTO NEWS & REVIEW
"The direction has a fluid, no-nonsense authority, and the performances by Harris, Phifer and Cam'ron seal the deal."
-- Desson Howe, JOURNAL NEWS
"Lazily directed by Charles Stone III ... from a leaden script by Matthew Cirulnick and novelist Thulani Davis."
-- Ernest Hardy, L.A. WEEKLY
"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."
-- Ted Fry, SEATTLE TIMES
"Paid In Full is so stale, in fact, that its most vibrant scene is one that uses clips from Brian De Palma’s Scarface. That’s a cheat."
-- David Cornelius, AMAZING COLOSSAL WEBSITE
"It's actually too sincere -- the crime movie equivalent of a chick flick."
-- Jay Boyar, ORLANDO SENTINEL
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ROTTEN 47%
Avg. Rating: 5.8/10 |
"It's good, hard-edged stuff, violent and a bit exploitative but also nicely done, morally alert and street-smart."
-- Michael Wilmington, CHICAGO TRIBUNE
"Rings true, from the smooth dialogue to the unaffected performances of the central actors."
-- Megan Turner, NEW YORK POST
"Performances are strong, especially that of Mr. Wood."
-- Tom Sime, DALLAS MORNING NEWS
"It does offer an uncommon thoughtfulness that makes it far less exploitative or sensationalistic than most examples of its genre."
-- Frank Scheck, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
"I'm going to give it a marginal thumbs up. I liked it just enough."
-- Richard Roeper, EBERT & ROEPER
"Though filmed partly in Canada, Paid in Full has clever ways of capturing inner-city life during the Reagan years."
-- John Monaghan, DETROIT FREE PRESS
"Needed a little less bling-bling and a lot more romance."
-- Carla Meyer, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
"Set in a 1986 Harlem that doesn't look much like anywhere in New York."
-- Ben Kenigsberg, VILLAGE VOICE
"Instead of a hyperbolic beat-charged urban western, it's an unpretentious, sociologically pointed slice of life."
-- Stephen Holden, NEW YORK TIMES
"A fake street drama that keeps telling you things instead of showing them."
-- Owen Gleiberman, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
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"...does such a fine job of engulfing you in its world and allying you with its characters' choices, good and ill, that its shortcomings are remembered only as an afterthought."
-- Rob Blackwelder, SPLICEDWIRE
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* Who are the Approved Tomatometer Critics?
* Mouse over a tomato icon for a publication's original rating. Original rating not available for every publication.
* In fairness to critics whose last name begins with a letter at the end of the alphabet, certain pages are sorted in reverse order, z-a.
* Certain "Paid in Full" article data provided by the Movie Review Query Engine.
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