Review of All Eyez on Me (2017) by Jamie H — 18 Jun 2017

"All Eyez On Me" is an ignorant film. Whether they didn't know any better, or they did it intentionally the filmmakers managed to severely botch a telling of the life of Tupac Shakur. From its unfocused format to the outright lies it feeds to the audience this is not a film that successfully conveys the life and death of one of the most influential and interesting people to make music.

Demetrius Shipp Jr. tries his hardest to pull off his performance, but other than looking like Tupac, it comes off as more of an impression instead of a well thought out impersonation. It's likely not Shipp's fault however, as the script he was given isn't cohesive and it outright plays Tupac as a fool instead of a complex man.

The choice of Benny Boom directing this thing was a definite head-scratcher, and it becomes apparent very quickly that he was way out of his depth with this film. He hasn't shown the ability to direct a simple premise, let alone an extremely sensitive biopic.

"All Eyez On Me" was likely doomed from the beginning, but Shipp commits to the performance and people who know very little about Tupac could see this and be entertained. As Biopics go there are worse attempts, but Tupac deserves much better than this.