Review of Straight Outta Compton (2015) by Axet — 19 Aug 2015

It's really annoying and just poor to portray police constantly shouting F word profanities in movies. They generally do not in the line of duty, and if they did it would be highly unprofessional. Sure, certain ones must sometimes and especially in the ghettos of this movie but at a certain point when every single line from officers is F this, F that such as in the first arrest scene by the Compton police as depicted in this film, one loses the suspension of disbelief. And this is a true story! The gangsta rappers talk that way, but don't believe the hype when they twist it onto the police. In the scene with the Torrance police the same thing, every single line out of the cops' mouths has F whatever. Then ironically in the LAPD chopper arrest scene later there's no profanity from the police. So what are the filmmakers saying, LAPD don't swear during intense arrests but the other local agencies do? Movies are ALL editorial and everything can either be made very accurate or very carefully manipulated to make a point. Or they can just be half ass and sloppy about both the truth and the point they are trying to make, which is what this movie is much of the time.

A fairly large canvas that rips off scenes straight outta "The Doors" (which was maybe the first L.A. supergroup contrary to the film's bit from the media claiming NWA as that, and they were going 20 years later!) but without Stone's masterful power. For that matter this movie is the same rags to riches musical story as "Jersey Boys" was from last year but also without nearly the emotion and finesse that film had from master director Eastwood. This film is a fairly competent noble attempt but proves ultimately a soulless run through with an overly long running time. If it had half the energy the end credits have it might have been above the fray.