and this will decide whether you like the movie or not. Note: like - not love or hate. This movie is neither as good as the hype, nor as bad as the blow hards. Its rests somewhere in-between.
I was very surprised by the time-line. In '89 I was listening to this music - a lot. Anyone young and into rap music at the time had this in their play list with 2 Live Crew, Public Enemy, Sir Mix A Lot, Stesasonic, 3rd Bass amongst others. But you have to understand I was also listening to De La Soul, Faith No More, and the Beastie Boys. I'd like to think now, looking back, I have a bit of perspective at NWA's relevance at that time. If we were left believing this movie - NWA had no peers, and no matter what people think, they did. Back to the point, it is astonishing how fast NWA made their bones, got distribution, and made it to every corner of the US of A. I should know, I was in a backwater corner - might as well of been living in a tree house by comparison to the urban vistas of this film.
What's good? The music is good. Dialog, and performances often have snap, humor, and a legit feel. There is some good acting, and you can tell a lot of work went into these performances. SouttaC is well produced - it has all the trappings: sound, shots, lighting, glitz, glamor - absurd % of hot chicks with flesh flying high in many an over the top scene. This shouldn't be overlooked, or under appreciated. People completely out of the NWA loop will also learn a thing or two about the members and events. But this movie is not made for educational purposes, and a lot of the material is not presented in a way that improves the film.
This movie has omissions - smoking, and smoking and, smoking and drinking. Yea, it is implied - but the reality of this behavior is flat not the film. There are also way too many throw away lines that are supposed to indicate other huge absences: like Cube's film career.
Who edited this? Was the director by the editors side? Maybe that was the problem - this movie has more chop than a fickle lake shore. Many (all?) of the heavy dramatic scenes fall flat, because suddenly everyone is crying, angry, yelling, fighting, bouncing - with no set up! How the hell is a viewer supposed to buy into these lives, when the films tempo and presentation of material is all over the place? Good guys, bad guys, grey guys - whatever! As in all movies, it comes down to the script. Very unlikely that the script was written how this film is edited, which leads me to believe this movie was attempted to be saved in post instead of extensive preproduction. It felt as though preproduction focused on character building, not character development, and integrating them into a cohesive work of art. Predictably, the last 20 minutes of the film is painful to watch, in large part due to the strict chronological unfolding of events. Many viewers will give this a pass due to content - I won't; it is bad film making.
Perhaps most disappointing is the formulaic approach: From out of nowhere, rise to fame, we are a brotherhood, money causes issues, band members fall out, everything goes wrong for the bad guys, but the good guys come out on top. What is this? A well produced episode of inside the music, or history of rock and roll? Reduced to it's essence, this is a pretty damn bland film - that never chooses exactly what it wants to be.
Love NWA? - you gonna like this movie. Hate NWA, rap culture? Then F off! Crazy how people go Way out of their way to hate and attempt to $#|+ on things they have opinions about. My attempt? Objective analysis. Did I mention the editing in this movie is terrible?
My rating - 6.5/10, rounded down
I was very surprised by the time-line. In '89 I was listening to this music - a lot. Anyone young and into rap music at the time had this in their play list with 2 Live Crew, Public Enemy, Sir Mix A Lot, Stesasonic, 3rd Bass amongst others. But you have to understand I was also listening to De La Soul, Faith No More, and the Beastie Boys. I'd like to think now, looking back, I have a bit of perspective at NWA's relevance at that time. If we were left believing this movie - NWA had no peers, and no matter what people think, they did. Back to the point, it is astonishing how fast NWA made their bones, got distribution, and made it to every corner of the US of A. I should know, I was in a backwater corner - might as well of been living in a tree house by comparison to the urban vistas of this film.
What's good? The music is good. Dialog, and performances often have snap, humor, and a legit feel. There is some good acting, and you can tell a lot of work went into these performances. SouttaC is well produced - it has all the trappings: sound, shots, lighting, glitz, glamor - absurd % of hot chicks with flesh flying high in many an over the top scene. This shouldn't be overlooked, or under appreciated. People completely out of the NWA loop will also learn a thing or two about the members and events. But this movie is not made for educational purposes, and a lot of the material is not presented in a way that improves the film.
This movie has omissions - smoking, and smoking and, smoking and drinking. Yea, it is implied - but the reality of this behavior is flat not the film. There are also way too many throw away lines that are supposed to indicate other huge absences: like Cube's film career.
Who edited this? Was the director by the editors side? Maybe that was the problem - this movie has more chop than a fickle lake shore. Many (all?) of the heavy dramatic scenes fall flat, because suddenly everyone is crying, angry, yelling, fighting, bouncing - with no set up! How the hell is a viewer supposed to buy into these lives, when the films tempo and presentation of material is all over the place? Good guys, bad guys, grey guys - whatever! As in all movies, it comes down to the script. Very unlikely that the script was written how this film is edited, which leads me to believe this movie was attempted to be saved in post instead of extensive preproduction. It felt as though preproduction focused on character building, not character development, and integrating them into a cohesive work of art. Predictably, the last 20 minutes of the film is painful to watch, in large part due to the strict chronological unfolding of events. Many viewers will give this a pass due to content - I won't; it is bad film making.
Perhaps most disappointing is the formulaic approach: From out of nowhere, rise to fame, we are a brotherhood, money causes issues, band members fall out, everything goes wrong for the bad guys, but the good guys come out on top. What is this? A well produced episode of inside the music, or history of rock and roll? Reduced to it's essence, this is a pretty damn bland film - that never chooses exactly what it wants to be.
Love NWA? - you gonna like this movie. Hate NWA, rap culture? Then F off! Crazy how people go Way out of their way to hate and attempt to $#|+ on things they have opinions about. My attempt? Objective analysis. Did I mention the editing in this movie is terrible?
My rating - 6.5/10, rounded down