Sunday, June 18, 2017

All Eyez on Me

For the longest time I had the biggest crush on Brittany Murphy from the movie Clueless. While everyone else was focused on Alicia Silverstone, my eyes were squarely set on Brit, as you couldn’t help but tell that she had this slightly dark and dirty side to her. And while she wasn’t the greatest actress to ever grace the big screen, you could certainly tell that she brought her life’s experiences to each and every one of her performances. I recently brought this up to one of my friends at a brewery the other day and I ended my monologue with "Man, gone too soon." And he replied "Or gone at just the right time!" While his cold, callous, and yet hilarious response to my outpouring of emotions hit me right in the heart, I must admit that he was probably right.

Well there’s one artist whose life was taken away from us far too soon and that was that of Tupac Shakur’s. Growing up in a terrible, small country town in south Texas, I only had so many outlets available to me to help me escape my misery; and Tupac was definitely the one tortured soul I identified with the most. No I didn’t grow up in the Black Panther movement, nor did I grow up in the hood with a mother who was hooked on crack; but I did grow up in an environment that couldn’t possibly let me become the man that I knew I had inside of me.

Tupac was an intelligent visionary who used his platform to tell the stories that no one wanted to hear at that time. He was the centerpiece of what was a major turning point for the genre of hip hop. While it was always big in the black community, mainstream audiences started to take notice the second this charismatic actor, poet, and young rapper started appearing everywhere. You couldn’t help be glued to the screen whenever he opened his mouth because he always had something important to say. Now I know there are those out there who only really know California Love and How Do You Want It and it’s those people who think he was only about bitches and money. But they need to do a deeper dive into his discography to really get a sense of what he was all about. I mean, there’s a reason why the Vice President of the United States (Dan Quayle) basically declared war on him in the media when he condemned his records.

Pac was an unbelievably complicated person and what he was able to accomplish in only 25 years on this Earth is unheard of. That’s why it’s impossible to tell his story in just over two hours. I mean Jim Morrison was really only around for 4 years yet it took a 3 hour movie to tell his story. Now I’m not saying they should’ve made a 4 hour biopic on Tupac (although I would’ve been down with that), I’m just saying, either do that or simply focus on one part of his life when attempting to tell his story. And that’s why this film failed for the most part.

You can’t leave it up to Benny Boom to direct a film about the most important figure in hip hop’s life. This is the same guy who directed freaking Next Day Air! Next Day Air?!?! What, were Cheech and Chong too busy? Go wake up one of the Hughes Brothers to make this film. Or hell, why not get Ernest Dickerson to write and direct it! He actually knew Tupac and was a part of one of the most iconic moments in cinema; he directed the scene were Pac officially goes insane in the underground classic Juice. That moment alone took him from being an obscure rapper from Oakland to a legend in the eyes of every young black person in America. Everyone knew who Bishop was. So getting Dickerson could have been a slam dunk for everyone involved as he is still producing good work today by being a part of shows like The Wire, Bosch, Treme, Dexter, and The Walking Dead. But no, why not go get stupid Benny Boom instead!

Well Boom makes the fatal mistake of attempting to cram Tupac’s story in 2 hours and in the process rushes through some of the most important aspects of his life. His growing up around the Black Panther movement is full of overacting, melodrama, and terrible acting by child actors. It completely takes you out of the film and you feel as though you’re watching a bad television show on the CW network. Thankfully Demetrius Shipp Jr., the man who was cast to try and pull off the impossible task of embodying Tupac, comes on screen soon after this; and I have to say that for the most part he does an admiral job. It’s just that Boom once again screws up and gives a half ass effort when it comes to portraying Tupac’s musical performances on screen. Seriously, it felt as though he realized he was fucking it up and just quit mid performance. I’m not joking by the way, the scene would be halfway into a verse of Brenda’s Got a Baby or I Get Around and they’d just simply cut away to another shot. Shouldn’t the producers have realized they made a mistake at the point, fired Boom, and brought in someone to try and save their investment?

Oh well, it wasn’t all bad; the second they decided to put their focus on his early relationship with Biggie and the time his album Strictly for my N.I.G.G.A.Z. came out, they actually slowed their storytelling down a bit and it actually felt like a real film. Some of the most interesting parts were the behind the scenes looks into the incidents that led to his many court appearances and ultimately his incarceration. There you saw the direct fallout from Dan Quayle’s press conference and how those in power changed their view of him. This however was effective mainly due to the story itself and Shipp’s delivering on what was handed to him because the awful Boom once again reared his ugly head by not being able to draw even more out of these scenes.

Now I honestly could write a 5,000 word review on this film but no one would ever read it; so I’ll just end this by saying, if you’re a Tupac fan, go see this film as you’ll be reminded of just how awesome and impactful his music was and how much of important figure he was in our history. This film doesn’t come close to doing him justice but it’s certainly not the worst thing I’ve ever seen. I just wish that Tupac was still alive today so that he could’ve had some input to help give a more accurate portrayal of his life; similar to what Ice Cube and Dr. Dre were able to do in Straight Outta Compton. But sadly, we were stuck with scrubs giving their take on this rapping legend. Overall I give All Eyez on Me a rating of kind of WEAK but it’s Tupac, so go out and see it.

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