Netflix too soft? Then 50 Cent's all-action streamer will knock you for six
You stream, I stream, we all stream. But is any of it any different? Often, it can seem as if we are collectively wading through the same binge watch gloop – a budget sci-fi show here (Stranger Things, the entirety of Apple TV+), a drama about how awful people are there (White Lotus, Sirens, The Perfect Couple). Night after night one must-see series runs into the other – they all appear to star either Nicole Kidman and each has the same shiny yet vaguely conveyor-belt-esque production values. What happened to new ideas? What happened to fun?
The answer might finally be here. But not on Netflix, Disney + or any of the usual suspects. The saviour of TV, it turns out, is not a middle-aged career executive in a suit with another Marvel spin-off to sell you. It's a rapper who has survived death threats, lawsuits and several invitations to attend one of P Diddy's notorious parties (he refused). And he wants to bring together the very best of entertainment: ie films where Jason Statham slaps people, in which Michael Caine plays an aged criminal and where piracy means men with cutlasses with parrots on their shoulders. Nobody asked for his help – and yet he might just be the saviour of the small screen thrill-ride.
Rapper 50 Cent has been coining it for the past decade with his surprise spin-off career as a television mogul – and now he's taking a punt on the UK with the roll-out of his high-kicking, hard-hitting '50 Cent Action' channel. Following a successful launch in the US last year, '50 Cent Action' has just arrived on Prime Video UK with a sinew-popping selection of beefy beat 'em ups. Prime viewers have to pay extra on top of their usual subscription – but, then, there's no such thing in life as a free punch.
Still, it's quite a lineup – ranging from Tarantino classics such as Kill Bill and Jackie Brown to brawny barnstormers like Sylvester Stallone's Expendables and Jason Statham's Crank. Also featured is Matthew Vaughn's 2010 superhero parody Kick-Ass – a title which encapsulates 50 Cent's philosophy when it comes to home entertainment.
The common thread running through all of the above 'Fiddy' approved content is a high body count. Truly, this is a channel built in the image of its creator – a hip-hop heavyweight who has delighted in waging feuds with rivals such as P Diddy (long before his downfall) and Ja Rule. However, under the braggadocio – and the scars he sustained in a near-fatal drive-by shooting – the artist born Curtis James Jackson III is also an astute businessman with a finely-honed instinct for audience tastes.
That ability to cut through the noise of limitless streaming options and give viewers what they want – even if they didn't know they wanted it – is a unique skill. One that has taken 50 Cent to an estimated net worth of $60 million. If hardly in the Jeff Bezos league, it is nonetheless an impressive figure considering he filed for bankruptcy in 2015 – although he has admitted that was a 'business move' after a court ordered him to pay $5 million over a woman's leaked sex tape (which he posted online without her permission).
By the time of the sex tape trial, Jackson, whose hits include In Da Club, was already forging ahead as a force on TV. In 2014, the Starz network in the US aired the first season of his crime drama Power – the tale of New York City drug dealer, James 'Ghost' St Patrick (Omari Hardwick), whose rise and fall mirrors Jackson's own experiences as a school-age pusher of substances in Queens.
At the time of Power's debut, Starz was best known as the home of the bawdy historical drama Spartacus and for various Walking Dead spin-offs. All were quickly eclipsed by Power – a fast-paced drama which buzzed with the same energy that 50 Cent brought to his rapping.
Plugging into an untapped demand among audiences for a street-wise thriller, Power was an instant success. However, for Curtis, this was merely the start. He and Starz went on to launch a multitude of Power sequels and spin-offs, including Force, Raising Kanan and BMF.
One show followed another – he has at least 10 to stream on Amazon alone – and many were stacked high with superstar cameos. Kendrick Lamar took time out from feuding with Drake to play a drug addict in Power, Eminem portrayed a drug dealer 'White Boy Rick' in BMF and Mary J Blige starred in Ghost as crime boss Monet Tejada.
If television is a glorified hustle, then it is a field in which Jackson was destined to excel. Born in Queens as the borough hurtled towards an apocalyptic early Eighties crack epidemic, he was just eight when his mother, a drug dealer, died in a fire. His grandparents did their best to raise him and steered him towards a career in boxing. But there was no teaching the hot-headed future mega-star who, by 14, was dealing crack at school.
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His crimes caught up with him relatively early – at 19, he was sent to a facility for juvenile offenders, where he decided to turn his life around. His first step was to create the alter ego of 50 Cent – a more confrontational and seat-of-the-pants version of the real Curtis. He also embarked on a career as a rapper – though his life in show business almost ended before it had begun when he was shot in a drive-by shooting (the motives for which remain murky to this day).
He almost died and was left with permanent scars and damage to his voice – hence his husky rapping style. However, he made the most of the notoriety with his 2003 debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin', a global smash that yielded the ubiquitous In Da Club – recorded with hip hop legend Dr Dre, to whom he was introduced by mutual friend Eminem.
Jackson became one of the biggest forces in hip-hop more or less overnight. But even at the height of his success, he was looking to a life beyond music – and was soon proceeding with mythologising his life in the 2005 biopic, also called Get Rich or Die Tryin', overseen by – of all people – Oscar-nominated My Left Foot director Jim Sheridan, who has described the rapper as 'a very sweet, funny guy and an extremely hard worker.'
The movie Sheridan and Jackson made together was fun and flashy. The same can be said of Jackson's 50 Cent Action channel. It is the best sort of leave-your-brain-at-the-door entertainment. Jackson makes no great claims for the channel – only that he is passionate about action cinema and that there is a huge audience that feels likewise. In an era when television too often trips itself up trying to be clever, how refreshing to encounter a talent who has made it his mission to give viewers exactly what they want.
50 Cent Action: five to watch
1. Crank
Jason Statham does what Jason Statham does best in this far-fetched but fun story of an assassin (Statham) who must keep his adrenaline flowing at a constant rate while trying to track down the enemies who poisoned him (and who have the antidote).
2. Black Sails
Rip-roaring pirate drama that begins as the 'origin story' of Treasure Island's Long John Silver but quickly expands into a sprawling tale of derring-do and bloody backstabbing on the high seas.
3. The Condemned
The Hunger Games meets Alan Clarke's Scum in this brutal tale of 10 convicts forced to fight to the death as part of an illegal game broadcast to the public. The cast is headed by geezer godhead Vinnie Jones, alongside wrestling star Steve Austin and Japanese stunt coordinator Hidemasa Yamaguchi.
4. King of Thieves
Michael Cain is a career criminal in old age in a zippy heist film that tells the story of the Hatton Garden safe deposit raid from 2015 in which robbers absconded with £14 million. A top-notch cast also features Michael Gambon, Jim Broadbent, Charlie Cox, Ray Winstone and Francesca Annis.
5. Killing Gunther
Arnold Schwarzenegger brings all his cigar-chomping charm to a chaotic mockumentary tracking a disaster-prone assassin's attempt to kill the world's most notorious hitman (Gunther, portrayed with the traditional dry wit by Arnold). Comedian Taran Killam directs and plays the assassin – but it's Arnold's laconic presence that seals the deal.
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