First Time Felon

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

Omar Epps portrayed Greg Yance good. A good story line but it can be better filmed. We can make selections in our life and courage needed to overcome prejudices on the way to accomplish our choices is the main idea I think. It is interesting to see the racial prejudices still have place in US but it is some kind of subliminal discrimination. You cant see openly but feel it. The movie gives this good. Also the correction methods of the government which uses military style reeducation on the movie is interesting. it reminds me the methods soviets use to politically educate the misfits to the society. The movie also portrays the dilemma of the convicts. If you made one mistake in your life a second chance is very low option for you.

This will be my first comment posting due to the fact that this is first time I felt the need to do so. I caught this movie somewhere towards the beginning and within 10 minutes it had pulled me in to the point where I could not step away. At first I thought it was going to be a "prison movie" but turned out to be so much more. When the boot camp sequence ended the movie just got better and better. Omar Epps was tremendous in this movie and actually had me caring about the character ,which never happens to me to the point that it did here. I felt that I was watching someones life story and not fiction,and it turned out I was right after signing on here. Omar made this movie very believable and I would recommend you see this movie. I will watch it again.

I almost stopped watching when the inmates graduated but I hung in there and realized this movie was going beyond the cliches and attempting to show what few choices a gang banger with a record has. Very realistic.

I am so glad that I stumbled upon "First Time Felon" ... it is wonderful! Based solely on the title, I probably would have passed it by, assuming it wouldn't be "my kind of movie". But from the very beginning, I was totally drawn into this factual drama and thoroughly enjoyed the entire film. It's a good, solid story, enhanced by superb acting and excellent direction. I highly recommend it for anyone!