Review of All Eyez on Me (2017) by Kristofer H — 24 Jun 2017

Proper Perspective: Most biopics fall into one of two categories - truly captivating stories about important people in history or glorifying important people in history. Guess which category this movie falls into? Let's talk about All Eyez on Me...

Official Synopsis: Tells the true and untold story of prolific rapper, actor, poet and activist Tupac Shakur.

Plot: The story of Tupac Shakur told from flashbacks of his life and through a reporter's interview with him in 1995 while in jail.

Take: As this movie progressed it did the one thing that a biopic absolutely cannot do; it made me want to watch a documentary. The story telling device was not compelling, rather distracting. It jumped from an interview that was recorded by a reporter roughly a year before.

Tupac was murdered to dramatized scenes of him as a child, teen, and young adult. The interview aspect served no purpose to the narrative and could have been cut out altogether.

Speaking of that, the runtime is 140 minutes, which was about 30 minutes too long for this script and director. The movie felt long and again, made me long for the documentary version.

All of the actors were okay more or less. Demetrius Shipp Jr. (literally nothing else) was fine as Tupac. He looked enough like him, but played him as a subdued quiet man, when by all accounts Tupac was a highly energetic personality. Any scene that Shipp was in concert or the studio rapping, it was unbelievable. He was clearly mouthing the words and had no energy or passion, like when Tupac would perform. It was too distracting not to mention.

Jada Pinkett Smith has already made herself heard that this movie was very inaccurate to their relationship, so the rest of the movie does not have a tint of believability to it since Tupac, Pinkett Smith, and all the other principals in the movie were not highly involved in the production.

The did the atypical thing most biopics do where the main character is never really portrayed negatively, wins all fist fights, and is more or less an angel. Also, the poignant move where everyone was uneasy about the night Tupac died. Telegraphed lines, warnings, second guessing, etc. whether that happened in real life or not, it feels too much like a movie narrative and cliché that is overused.

A writer is suing the producers of the movie in real life for stealing his story without permission, claiming that most of the movies narrative is based on intimate interviews that he had with the late rapper. There is nothing more to say.

Recommendation: Go pop on a Tupac album, if you don't have one go buy a Tupac album or two and enjoy the music. Maybe watch a documentary, but there is no need to go spend money on this movie in theaters.

It was dope getting to hear Tupac songs in a movie, but then again I can just put on a CD...