first time felon movie review

We sent an email to [email protected]

Didn't you get the email?

By joining, you agree to the Terms and Policies and Privacy Policy and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

• About Rotten Tomatoes®
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening This Week
• Top Box Office
• Coming Soon to Theaters
• Certified Fresh Movies

Movies at Home

• Fandango at Home
• Prime Video
• Most Popular Streaming Movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• 88% Nosferatu Link to Nosferatu
• 82% Babygirl Link to Babygirl
• 77% A Complete Unknown Link to A Complete Unknown

New TV Tonight

• 89% What If...?: Season 3
• -- Squid Game: Season 2
• 86% Doctor Who: Season 1.1
• -- Call the Midwife: Season 13.1
• -- Queen Woo: Season 1
• -- Maestro in Blue: Season 3
• -- The Flipping El Moussas: Season 2

Most Popular TV on RT

• 93% Black Doves: Season 1
• 70% Dune: Prophecy: Season 1
• 86% One Hundred Years of Solitude: Season 1
• 75% Dexter: Original Sin: Season 1
• 77% No Good Deed: Season 1
• 79% Landman: Season 1
• 90% Star Wars: Skeleton Crew: Season 1
• 86% The Day of the Jackal: Season 1
• 75% The Madness: Season 1
• 68% The Agency: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV

Certified fresh pick

• 96% Laid: Season 1 Link to Laid: Season 1
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

30 Most Popular Movies Right Now: What to Watch In Theaters and Streaming

54 Video Game Movies Ranked (with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 )

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming.

Awards Tour

Weekend Box Office: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Speeds to Pre-Holiday Weekend Win

Renewed and Cancelled TV Shows 2024

• Trending on RT
• Awards Season
• Verified Hot
• Renewed and Cancelled TV
• Happy Holidays

First Time Felon

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Charles S. Dutton

Delroy Lindo

Rachel Ticotin

William Forsythe

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

First Time Felon

Greg Yance is caught with over 5 grams drugs on him for trafficking. Prison is overcrowded and violent. As first time felon, he can get 120 days of boot camp instead of 5 years prison. Boot ... Read all Greg Yance is caught with over 5 grams drugs on him for trafficking. Prison is overcrowded and violent. As first time felon, he can get 120 days of boot camp instead of 5 years prison. Boot camp's tough. Greg Yance is caught with over 5 grams drugs on him for trafficking. Prison is overcrowded and violent. As first time felon, he can get 120 days of boot camp instead of 5 years prison. Boot camp's tough.

• Charles S. Dutton
• Daniel Therriault
• Delroy Lindo
• Rachel Ticotin
• 13 User reviews
• 1 Critic review
• 2 nominations total

Top cast 71

• (as Treach)

• (as Jo. D. Jónz)

• Disciple Leader

• Greg's Mother
• (as Robin Vaughn)

• (as Sandra 'Pepa' Denton)
• Pookie's Killer

• Johnny the Farmer

• Smiling Inmate
• (as Michael Ngaujah)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia Actor Clifton Powell is not credited for appearing in this film. Powell portrayed King, Yance's boss.

Calhoun : One down. Seventeen to go.

• Soundtracks Down de Road Written by Dion Parson Performed by Marc Cary Courtesy of Arabesque Recordings

User reviews 13

• Apr 17, 2000
• September 6, 1997 (United States)
• United States
• Lần đầu phạm tội
• Green Cove Springs, Florida, USA
• Home Box Office (HBO)
• Spring Creek Productions
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Runtime 1 hour 50 minutes

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed.

Letterboxd — Your life in film

Forgotten username or password ?

• Start a new list…
• Add all films to a list…
• Add all films to watchlist

Add to your films… I watched… Edit diary entry

A moderator has locked spoilers for this review

Press Tab to complete, Enter to create

Your diary date (if set) and watched status for this film will remain publicly visible if you change the privacy level of this entry. Add members to your Close Friends from their profile. Set your account default in  Settings .

Add to lists

Where to watch

First time felon.

Directed by Charles S. Dutton

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

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.

Omar Epps Delroy Lindo Rachel Ticotin Treach Justin Pierce Lucinda Jenney Robin Michelle McClamb Tom Nowicki Sandra 'Pepa' Denton Jo D. Jonz Badja Djola William Forsythe Kristen Jones Byron Altman Ed Grady Deborah Hobart Gary Anthony Williams Sahr Ngaujah Johnell Gainey Patricia Clay K. Addison Young Roger Ranney Tom Kouchalakos Derrick L. McMillon Tommy Hollis Lou Walker Dennis Neal Drew Palmer Lee Perkins Show All… Dottie Healy Susan Rogers Peters Jade Jenise Dixon Stephen Fulton Kevin Sibley Greg Yance Gina Bolton Terry L. Fields Marcus Barrington Gabie Chaves Elizabeth Fendrick Aquarius Jefferson Xavier Hayes Mark Lee Henry Porter Rhynell Brumfield Eli T. Peña Will Alston Greg Davis Jr. Dohn Norwood Charles S. Dutton Rahman Johnson Max Kohnke Clifton Powell Michael Wayne Thomas

Director Director

Charles S. Dutton

Writer Writer

Daniel Therriault

Cinematography Cinematography

Jeffrey Jur

Composer Composer

Joseph Vitarelli

Spring Creek Pictures HBO

Releases by Date

06 sep 1997, 28 sep 2001, releases by country.

• Theatrical R

110 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by TeeHawkACTORS ★★★ 5

Forgot all about this HBO film that Roc directed before he did the Baltimore miniseries, and I never did watch it until now. Good first time effort, but a bit too on the nose for me. Everything from the circumstances to the dialogue to the characters were straight outta the criminal justice system playbook. 

Review by InsomniacDreams ★★★½

A decent TV quality prison redemption story. Surprisingly First Time Felon is based on a true story as well. The first half of this film especially was excellent where the second half seems to lose steam but with a couple superb performances from Delroy Lindo & Omar Epps alike help this little gem hold water.

Review by theburkenation ★★★½ 2

For a fairly dated 90s movie from HBO, First Time Felon holds up really well! Omar Epps's performance is legitimately great. Worth checking out!

Review by Matt_Samahl ★★★

Fun fact this movie is directed by Charles S. Dutton who played the father of Omar Epps' character Eric Forman on House.

Review by Frank Ferraro ★★★½ 2

7.1 out of 10

I’m gonna give this 7+ due to the fact it was based off a true story and it was a pretty good redemption story and overall I had a positive message

Definitely not a great film. I would say it’s good close to decent, but definitely worth a peep.

Review by Ben Cannon ★★★ 2

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

I feel like there's still a lot to process here, but it felt like a movie with a lot of very real moments but without a very real story—which is funny considering that it's based on a real story.

As Chuck Trash says in their review , this is "a movie with a whole lot of 'almosts.' Omar Epps almost goes to jail as a felon, then ends up in some faux-prison boot camp. He almost gets into it with a rival gang member, almost goes back to county, almost finds redemption. Then, he gets out. At this point, he almost re-joins his gang, then he almost finds a real job--[cut short by his history as a gang banger], almost becomes…

Review by sieckman ★★★½ 1

Starts off in a horrifically violent Oz-like prison and transitions into a Full Metal Jacket style boot camp. Can be sappy, can be preachy, but overall a good (true) story. Just like in Juice , Omar Epps is great in this type of role. Pepa from Salt-N-Pepa has a small part. Worth watching, if you can find it.

Review by SeMeN SPeRmS ★★★ 1

RIP Justin Pierce

Fuck 'Shock'!

Review by Seldom Seen ★★★★

YouTube Great cast and movie based on a true story.  It was truly haunting when they were asking Eddie (played by Justin Pierce) if he’d ever attempted suicide.

Review by Carlos Lee ★★½

Decent drama based on actual events.

Review by babybones ★★★

For a TV movie, it's pretty striking. We start off with the bleaker side of 90s city life. Sometimes it feels like you're watching a documentary. This is a film that probably could've had a sequel, but it makes it even more real that it didn't — you get to imagine what happens next.

Review by PorkChopExp1986 ★★½

Average HBO TV movie from the 90's. It is basically a prison boot camp film. It is based off of a true story, but the movie has very much a low budget feel to it. Delroy Lindo does a nice job in his supporting role, but the movie doesn't take you anywhere new.

Select your preferred poster

Select your preferred backdrop.

Prison Movies

Prison stuff. In prison movies.

First Time Felon (1997, USA)

It’s bit surprising that there aren’t more prison boot camp movies, given the potential (brutally exploited in movies like Full Metal Jacket ) to show tough men being bullied, abused and humiliated. That potential really is within easy grasp of the prison movie genre.

It is the territory of First Time Felon . The film is based on the real life story of Greg Yance (played here by an impassive Omar Epps), successful drug dealer and high-ranking member of the Vice Lords gang in Chicago. He gets pinched in possession of a largish quantity of heroin, and is sent down for 5 years – but as he is a ‘non-violent first-time felon’ he is given the option of doing a 120-day boot camp program (and then probation) instead. Not surprisingly, he opts for the boot camp.

The camp, euphemistically known as the ‘Impact Incarceration Program’, is all that you would expect; correctional officers getting into the faces of the inmates, indiscriminate abuse, tough discipline, arbitrary punishments and no tolerance for individuality or questioning of the approach. Leading the assault by the officers is Sergeant Calhoun (Delroy Lindo), who is on a personal mission to remind all the African American inmates that it is they who oppress their brothers by selling them drugs and condemning the black community to lives of disadvantage, crime and under-achievement, and that they cannot claim disadvantage and oppression as an excuse. Sometimes it gets too personal for Calhoun and he over-exuberantly over-steps the mark.

Much of Yance’s story is pretty standard prison movie fare: he is exposed to violence first-hand in the jail, then at the camp is paired with rival gang member Tyrone and is forced to work with him. A team from the camp is sent to help the small Illinois town of Niota during the Mississippi floods of 1993, and they win the respect and gratitude of the local townsfolk. On release, though, he finds the going tough; he steadfastly refuses to get back into his former criminal ways but receives knock-back after knock-back when he seeks legitimate work. He hits rock bottom; his friend Pookie is gunned down and dies in his arms, he starts drinking to excess and becomes suicidal. One hopes, perversely, that the film will surprise and not end happily, but those hopes are never going to be realised in a film such as this.

What does it tell us? It suggests that boot camps are cheaper than imprisoning men for long periods and have greater success rates; some data would suggest otherwise. It tries to tell African American gang members that they are hurting their own. It tells the wider community that it’s tough going once you’ve been in jail, and that its attitude toward ex-offenders might lead to people with less resolve than Yance falling back into criminality through desperation. And it says that if only the Mississippi could breach its banks more often, the impact on criminality could be profound.

Posted on July 4th, 2010 at 3:05 pm. Updated on December 2nd, 2011 at 8:29 pm.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 4th, 2010 at 3:05 pm and is filed under Not Quite a Prison Movie , The Mess Hall , The Welcome Speech . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “First Time Felon (1997, USA)”

December 2nd, 2011 at 6:05 pm

I went to this same boot camp in 2006. The same one in the movie. and it was just like that,I was sure glad to have gotten out of doing another 6 months in prison if I didn’t go to and complete this boot camp successfully. Now that I look back at the 120 days I was there, it was kinda fun. Well anyways, it works and I have stayed out of trouble since going there. The program has changed me forever into a better person with more pride for myself. I would love to correspond with others that have been in the Illinois Impact Incarceration program and maybe even start a website to show how this program has changed us and how successful it really is, compared to prison,which is for the most part, ineffective…I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to go to I.I.P. and would like to thank IDOC for creating such a wonderful and successful program. To bad more incarcerated people don’t ever get the opportunity to participate in these types of programs. I think that it could reduce repeat offenders greatly.

April 29th, 2012 at 8:07 am

Fine 1 submit. Common drawback can be G. change ones own thoughts far too often.

September 28th, 2012 at 12:30 am

Chad, My brother is awaiting sentencing, and I am to testify at the hearing. He wants me to push for I.I.P. I take it that you recommend the program. Is there anything I can tell him to try to prepare him for it if we get I.I.P.? I’d love any insight or information you could give me about it. Thanks! And congratulations on your success!

~Renee [email protected]

March 26th, 2013 at 3:05 pm

I also participated in 1995 in IDOC’s IIP at Dixon Springs, which I believe this one is based off of. The Mississippi also flooded back then, and when I watch this movie it brings a tear to my eye as I remember being on sandbag duty as well. I also remember the people of these towns we went to being very grateful for us being there. This program instilled work ethic in me that I never had to this point. Since then, I have not been back to prison (I was only 17 at the time) I have been caught with pot a couple of times since, but nothing serious. Both times misdemeanors. Would I say this is a great way to catch them young before becoming career criminals? Yes indeed.

Leave a comment

XHTML: You can use these tags:

• Home Dear Eric
• Most Popular
• Movies by Country
• Movies by Era
• New, Upcoming or Elusive
• Top 500 Prison Movies
• Not Quite Prison Movies
• Mr Big (51)
• The Cell Mate (102)
• The Inevitable Rape (97)
• The Mess Hall (216)
• The Nasty Guard (194)
• The New Fish (138)
• The Stabbing (151)
• The Strip Search (104)
• The Warden's Daughter (16)
• The Welcome Speech (139)

Latest Reviews

• Escape from Death Block 13 (2021, USA)
• The System (2022, USA)
• Bad Girls Dormitory (1986, USA)
• Salute! (2017, Namibia)
• Git / Wicked (2015, Poland)
• 1. Cool Hand Luke (1967, USA)
• 2. Le Trou (1960, France)
• 3. The Shawshank Redemption (1994, USA)
• 4. The Hill (1965, UK)
• 5. Starred Up (2013, UK)

© Copyright PrisonMovies.net | Entries (RSS) | Comments (RSS) .

First Time Felon

(HBO, 116 min., R) Vol. 13, Issue 2

by K. Lee Benson

March 11, 1998

Rating: 3 of 5

"It is not our job to straighten you out. That's your responsibility." A Chicago gangsta's transformation into a productive citizen would make standard movie-of-the-week fare, but this HBO production boasts a top-notch cast, and, freed from network censors, can more realistically portray the brutal worlds of the streets and prisons than its network counterparts. Omar Epps stars as Greg Yance, who faces five years for selling drugs. Because he is a nonviolent first time felon, the judge gives him the option of serving four months in a Marine boot camp. Delroy Lindo ( Get Shorty ) and William Forsythe are superb as the instructors who drill into him the life lessons of discipline and self esteem that will serve him well once he returns to his crime-ridden and drug-plagued neighborhood. Recommended. ( K. Lee Benson )

Star Ratings

As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.

Order From Your Favorite Distributor Today: