Cheap Paid in Full (DVD) (Wood Harris, Mekhi Phifer, Chi McBride) (Charles Stone III) Price

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Customer Reviews of Paid in Full

very entertaining, based on a true story
A well made movie about a young kid who finds himself right in the middle of a money making drug ring. This young man works at a dry cleaner shop untill he finds a bag of cocain in a pair of pants, when he trys to give the bag back to the owner he realizes the money he could make and soon sets up shop with this and begins buying large amounts of cocain from him. What started small has now grown into pounds,and pounds of cocain. But people soon become blinded by all the money this is where the movie gets interesting. The ring quickly begins to fall apart and people begin to tur on each other leaving people dead and broke. This movie is a real masterpiece and gives you a look into 80's drug dealing and the problems involved with it.

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Drug dealers get paid in cash but pay it back in blood!
This movie is actually really good. The acting is amazing. The direction is good, the script is well done, the dialouge is also very convincing. Although I was young in the mid 80's (I was about seven or eight) I rember from the music videos and from how older kids dressed that this movie captured that era perfectly. This movie is extreemly authentic. Being a drug dealer was a lot easier in the 80s than it is now. Less competation, less attention from the cops, etc. Also Cocaine was not nearly as plentiful and was thus much more expensive....The star of this film plays Avon Barksdale on the HBO series "The Wire". In this movie he is a lot nicer than he is on the wire, more of a buisness man and less of a gangster. Michael Phifer, who plays Mitch, is practaclly a staple now of any movie invovling the hood but he is defintly a good actor. Nither "Avon" or Phifer give their best perfomances in this movie but they are both solid. However, Camron is amazing. I know, I know, he had the juiceist, easiest part, the least complex character, etc. However, no one can say he did not impress in this movie, he blew me away! Wow! And I did not even know that was Camron until the ending credits, the whole movie I was thinking, who is this guy, how come I have never heard of him before, etc. Only when I read the credits did I know who he was, I did not Camron was so big and diseal. He has unbelivable screen presence, the viewer canot take their eyes off of him. He outacts everyone is this movie. Even though he had a less challanging role than everyone else in the film that does not change the fact that his performance was incrediable. Not since Tupac Shakur died have I seen an a rapper act that well. (Dont get me wrong, he does not compare to Tupac, but he is the closest thing we currently have in terms of acting ability)I really cant say enough good things about his perfomance, so convcing as the loudmouth, obnouxious, but incredibly dangerous gangster. His only weakness his overconfidence and love of the spot light. What a character contrast to "Avon" the the guy who played Ace in this movie. Ace was smarter than Rico though and thats why he managed to avoid jail while Rico got played. I liked the ending too, the kidnapping out of nowhere was great, showing that just because these guys are drug dealers does not mean they are the only low lives in the hood. All three main characters paid the price for all the easy money they made, no one gets off unscatheed although justice certainly does not prevail. Ace goes on the be a legitimate entrapuner, although he got his foot in the door with blood soaked drug money, but hey, thats life. If Ace had stayed at the laundry he would have been poor for ever, he did what he had to do to benefit himself, however, he caused untold misery doing it. Life is no fairytale and taking the moral highground will result in poverty and hopelessnes. However, choosing the dark path of narcotics sales results in a parinoid existence of betrayal, murder, and incarceration. Their are no easy choices or clear moral distinctions in this movie, this movie is the truth!

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Classic Gangsters
My fascination with gangsters on film continues. In Paid In Full, the most telling scene is the Harlem young people in a movie theatre watching Al Pacino's, Scarface. They love that movie, cheer the crazy, bloodthirsty, self-made, only-in-America bad guy. When poor and black Harlem residents get a handle on the new drugs in the early eighties like cocaine and crack, money rains down. Wood Harris goes from delivery boy to kingpin of the Harlem drug trade. His buddies are more flamboyant than he. That youthful enthusiasm for easy money in the face of "The Man," proves to be our hero's downfall. This is a classic gangster story and it is very suspenseful and true to life.