2pac all eyez on me album review track by track movie#
When his mother Afeni visits him in prison for a little Shakespeare (“to thine own self be true”) and tears, you know “Dear Mama” will kick in any second.īoom’s other go-to is superficial movie sampling: A nefarious dealer named Nigel (Cory Hardrict, “Warm Bodies”), star of the subplot that leads to the lobby ambush that nearly killed Shakur, is straight out of the crime-movie cliché handbook. We’re good, right?, the movie implicitly asks, before reminding you in stilted dialogue how many records he sold and breakthroughs he made.īoom, who hails from music videos, treats many aspects of Shakur’s life like a chance to do the beats-and-montage version, complete with intro. The portrayal of his rape accuser, from her introduction ass-shot-first in a club to her vampish sex-scene behavior, to her smug look of satisfaction as the sentence is read in court, is, frankly, reprehensible.Īlso Read: Snoop Dogg to Induct Tupac Shakur Into Rock and Roll Hall of FameĮarlier, when Shakur’s more woman-unfriendly lyrics are brought up, Boom cuts to Shakur’s “one true friend” Jada Pinkett (Kat Graham, “The Vampire Diaries”) giving the seal of approval by smiling and laughing on the phone with him about his sexually braggadocious “I Get Around” video. It’s maybe the most defensive biopic ever made. “All Eyez” is the mash-note version of Shakur’s life, essentially, less concerned about the inner life of a man who struggled to reconcile image and art, and infinitely more worried that you’ll think badly of him because he had run-ins with the law and did time for sexual abuse. The only other role that comes close to feeling substantive is Gurira’s, but her intense pop-up appearances, from knowledge-dropping militant to recovering addict, never gel into one memorable portrayal.
Shipp isn’t bad, he’s just all personality, relegated to working his uncanny resemblance like a novelty act. That’s this movie’s MO when it comes to the subject’s talent: make Shipp imitate the performance and duplicate the thug-life swagger, and consider the journey a foregone conclusion.
Nothing against Shipp, but this recreation only triggers a desire to see the real thing. Rather than show you how Shakur landed his breakthrough role in Ernest Dickerson’s “Juice,” Boom inexplicably jumps straight into Shipp recreating his character Bishop’s “I am crazy” monologue. In one moment, Shipp is delivering Hamlet’s soliloquy in performing arts school, and in two whiplash moves he’s dancing and rapping with Digital Underground and nailing a recording contract. It’s a insipid blur of militancy, law-enforcement brutality, poverty, and drug-dealing, with shouted dialogue (“We’re moving again?!”) to drive home that we’re moving along, nothing to dwell on here.Īlso Read: Steve McQueen to Direct Tupac Shakur Documentary Shakur’s roots as the son of a tried-and-acquitted Black Panther mother (Danai Gurira), who moved the family from New York to Baltimore and finally Oakland, are treated like one big trailer. This allows for both spoken questions (“That’s where you met Jada Pinkett?”) and narrated answers (“They was feelin’ my flow, and I got signed!”) that preclude conveying anything through filmmaking, or scenes that might have to go longer than a minute.
One need look no further for proof of shallowness than the shopworn framing device director Benny Boom (“Next Day Air”) and his three screenwriters use to compartmentalize its subject’s life: an unnamed journalist (Hill Harper) interviewing the rapper in prison. Watch Video: Tupac Biopic: Get First Long Look at Lead Actor in 'All Eyez On Me' Trailer to care whether Shakur is given dimension or not. It’s clearly intended to capitalize on the success of “Straight Outta Compton,” yet there are single shots in “Compton” that convey more mood, information and insight into its music’s origins than the entirety of “All Eyez On Me.” It’s a slipshod movie convinced you’re either too enamored to want anything besides an attention-deficit-disorder gloss over Shakur’s accomplishments, or too dazzled by its startling-lookalike lead Demetrius Shipp, Jr. This cut-short icon thrived on his contradictions.īut the dramatized movie we’ve gotten, “All Eyez On Me,” is a hagiographic dud that unfolds like a depth-free magazine listicle. He was a cauldron of machismo and sensitivity, a poster child for misogynistic gangsta rap who could fire you up with a message of injustice or melt your heart with tracks about welfare mothers. Unpacking Tupac Shakur’s life would be daunting for anybody hoping to capture it in one biopic: Black Panther mom, turbulent childhood, theater school, hip-hop stardom, movie fame, criminality, charisma, rap feuds, prison, surviving a handful of gun battles, then tragically not surviving one at the age of 25.