Although I disagree with most of the reviews, the movie's rating is spot on!. Yes, licence has been taken when telling a true life story as it should be and I'm sure that the real "Jamesy Boy"(James Burns, one of the producers), would be proud of the "final cut" as was I. Yes... some of the "gang" scenes were drawn out but they were important to show how a young boy gets sucked in for the money and lifestyle. This is NOT a true "prison movie" such as the Shawshank Redemption. The flashbacks to "Jamesy's" incarceration and eventual redemption are vital to the plot development. The performance of the lead actor, Spencer Lofranco(Jamesy) was outstanding. Yes, another Canadian like me! Yeah! True, his so called love scenes, albeit limited by the writing, were not the strongest but they were NOT the essence of this wonderful movie! Fortunately, Spencer was surrounded by a great supporting cast led by James Wood's superb performance as the warden, Ben Rosenfield(Jamesy's inmate friend), Michael Trotter(Roco) and of course, one of the finest African-American actors, Ving Rhames.Robert Thompson, Victoria, B.C. Canada

Justin Beiber gets involved in a life of crime and goes to juvenile hall which in turn is prison with adults, or something like that. Ving Rhames tells him the correct pronunciation of Rio De Janero and this inspires Justin to turn his life around. He writes a rap and decides to not deal drugs and devote the rest of his existence to plunging what looks like blood filled toilets in a motel. There's one brief shot of female nudity. Not enough to fap to. I did however enjoy watching the Biebs get the snot beat out of him. James Woods is in it which was nice. Also Justin tries to save a kid that took a shank for him from killing himself. He fails and punches James in the nose.

The story is basically a strong one, particularly because it's based on an actual person's life. But somehow in general the movie doesn't really grip the edge it should be having. One thing that I notice is that the story flow tries to beautify the movie by splitting its two acts into smaller pieces which the movie alternates in between all the entire duration. But the thing is, the alternating is done on very short durations that the feel on each act doesn't really have any adequate time to build strong in the viewers' minds. If the movie let the environments sink in for longer time, say like twenty five minutes or so before alternating, I think the impact will be far better. The acting overall is a little bit below standard. Spencer Lofranco still needs to work more on his expression which seem hyperbolic on most times. Having Ving Rhames helped a bit in giving depth to this movie.

I have to disagree with the other reviews here. Before deciding to watch this film, I took a sneak peak on a youtube trailer. It looked decent so I gave it a go. Maybe for snobby upper class people, this movie would not be that great. Truth is, it's a very realistic look into the life of a troubled young man. I can relate due to the events that have taken place in my life as well. If you are a fan of "Baby Boy" , "Boys N The Hood" , "Dog Pound", "Felon" etc, then you will probably enjoy this film as well. It's more of a modern day teenage gangster movie which depicts the reality of a 14 year old violent, drug dealing, stick up kid, hard ass who weaves his way in and out of jail. The acting was up to par with any other Hollywood movies, and was most definitely not "terrible", as stated in other reviews. I rated this movie 8 stars due to the fact that I had expected very little from this film, and yet it delivered a true, gritty, grimy, feel of the life of a teenage gangster. Paired up with average acting and nicely shot camera angles. I would suggest this movie to anyone who enjoys this genre of film. Take a chance, you won't regret it!