First Time Felon

1997 "There's his way or the hard way. One guard. One inmate. One chance for redemption."

First Time Felon

6.8 | 1h50m | R | en | Drama

Inspired by the true story of Greg Yance. In the film, Yance (Epps) is a hood who goes to jail for possession of drugs. He is given a choice: 5 years in jail or a couple of months in boot camp. He chooses boot camp and finds out it is tougher than he thought it would be. He braves it through and comes home a better man. He then has to deal with the real world, and never gives up no matter what the odds.

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6.8 | 1h50m | R | en | Drama | More Info

Released: September. 06,1997 | Released Producted By: Spring Creek Productions , HBO Country: Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:

Synopsis

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Cast

Omar Epps , Delroy Lindo , Rachel Ticotin

Director

Charles S. Dutton

Producted By

Spring Creek Productions , HBO

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Trailers & Images

Cast

Omar Epps

as Greg Yance

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Delroy Lindo

as Calhoun

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Rachel Ticotin

as McBride

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Reviews

Theo Robertson Greg Yance finds himself busted for drugs and is sentenced to five years without parole . At his trial he is given a choice between serving his sentence in a tough penitentiary or to be sent to a tough boot camp As soon as the opening sequence rolled I came on to this page only to find it's a TVM . Oh dear not doubt a PG cert , a sort of disease of the week movie for homeboys . Quickly it became clear this was a HBO production with graphic language . The fact is I'm a big fan of HBO drama OZ and the first fifteen minutes played out like that classic show as Greg Yance finds himself quite literally having to fight for his life in an uncaring and brutal prison system Yance is given a choice of staying in the state pen or shipping out to a tough boot camp . You do think that in that case we'll be watching a sort of civilian version of FULL METAL JACKET . Rules are rules and somewhat strangely the rules of the camp involve no swearing . This means the film is conspicuous by missing a Sgt Hartman type character full of highly quotable foul mouthed language FIRST TIME FELON is certainly more enjoyable and impressive than a lot of TVMs I've seen and his competently directed by Charles S Dutton and competently acted by a mainly black cast . The problem is that the early sequences are so impressive the rest of the film doesn't sustain the hard hitting drama the story is capable of and becomes a bit too preachy the more it continues

buiger Nothing special. A lot better could and should have been made out of a probably very interesting true story.This made-for-TV movie has it's good times when it is rather powerful (especially the beginning) but then it loses itself as it describes the boot camp (everybody is so good and understanding...) and is overly simplistic towards the end by portraying "the cruel world that will not take a miraculously (in 3-4 months of boot camp) redeemed ex-criminal. Talk about politically correct...Overall, the acting, directing, cinematography, script, etc., same as the whole movie, average to below average.

dezertxeagle2 this is a great movie. Its very hard not to like it. Its about the life of a first time felon. its also about the American prison/justice system and how hard it is to get out once your in. Although Craig made it out of the system the sad truth is not a lot of people do.America imprisons the most people out of all the countries in the free world largely due to the war on drugs. I could write a whole book about that ,but you know where I am going. My favorite part of the movie was when Omar Epps (yance)and Treach (Sams) get over there differences by that little pond. The part I hated was when the DS pushed Sams buttons and got him kicked out of boot camp.That whole thing the DS said about "Black People and Niggaz" is kind of self hating. It should be more like Good People and Bad People, because I use the later as an endearing word to my peers

TC-4 I thought that this would be another preachy movie about black kids in jail and all their problems. I was wrong. This is about black kids will all sorts of problems in and out of jail but it is done very tightly and kept up my interest throughout. Omar Epps is getting a lot of well deserved credit for his acting but my thumbs up goes to the director Charles S. Dutton who I would like to see do other films. The music with the end credits was beautiful and sounded like the high class music that you hear with much bigger budget movies. I recommend that everyone see this movie once. You will not regret it.