kmtw Reviews

Straight Outta Compton (2015)

Conflicted - Good movie but would Eric Wright wanted to be portrayed that way?

[7/10 · 19 July 2017]

As a movie, it's great. The casting was spot on and the actors are perfect. It keeps you on the age of your seat for the first 1hr 45 mins and then winds down from there. It has some humour in it and shows the human side of them all. They all have their flaws, but they have qualities that outweigh them.

I loved this as a movie. 7 is a high score for me and I would have given this movie an 8 if not for the last hour of the movie. The portrayal of Eazy-E struggling seems very disrespectful to me. If Eric were alive, would he have wanted himself being portrayed that way? He had a good solo career, he was working closely with Bone Thugs n Harmony who were nowhere to be seen.

It skipped his rap beef with Dre and his diss records to Death Row and Suge Knight. He even ends up bagging up cannabis to sell and make ends meet. It's very disrespectful to a man who isn't here to see that his legacy get's shown tastefully. He was a very proud man and would want to come across as stronger.

When Future generations watch this movie they will think Eric was a struggling solo rapper who couldn't function without NWA. The truth is he wasn't doing too bad financially, he had a successful solo career that was only slowed down due to his deteriorating health, and was helping many up and coming artists. He was still being paid for every record Dre sent out for the time he was under contract with Ruthless.

Despite it being a very good movie, it isn't the best biopic due to their portrayal of Eazy-E.

All Eyez on Me (2017)

Fails to inspire

[2/10 · 17 July 2017]

They said John Singleton was trying to defame Tupac with his script, I'm starting to wonder if they lied. It barely touches on his younger life, glosses over the main bits and moves on way too fast. The dialogue is boring. The controversial sexual assault scene did not go the way he said it went so I'm wondering how much more was fiction.

One of the biggest things I noticed was that Tupac was almost too perfect. People know he wasn't perfect, he was flawed, he was paranoid and he had a hot temper to go with it. This movie skips all of that. It's too scared to show anything that may put him in a bad light, but fans of Tupac accept his flaws and respect him regardless. Perhaps the next director who picks this up should remember that.

Although the acting wasn't too bad and mostly the script was shabby, I've always thought Romany Malco would be a better fit for Tupac since he has a stronger on-screen presence and more acting experience.

Someone needs to pick this back up and do a movie that actually fits his legacy, I'm not even a big fan of rap music or Tupac, but if the Biggie Smalls movie and NWA movie got such great reviews and actually did a good job, I can't imagine how annoyed Tupac fans are feeling that this is by far the weaker of the free.

My recommendation, do not pay to go see this movie at the cinema. It doesn't deserve any box office plaudits. It needs to bomb to put the people behind it to shame.