Life after death
Christopher Wallace is not dead. Neither is Tupac Shakur (for real this time). Resurrected for the silver screen, the story of Biggie Smalls was brought back to life this week with the release of ‘Notorious.’ They brought back the beloved rappers for an hour or so of screen time … just to kill them again.
To fill the shoes of the Notorious B.I.G. would be nothing short of a grueling test. With his debut performance, Jamal Woolard didn’t just show up, he owned the show.
His performance was heartfelt, raw and impressive. His mannerisms, character development and presence shed a light on the rapper not previously known to those outside of the hip-hop realm.
Without a doubt, casting the new-comer into these big shoes was a smart move.
From there, the film goes downhill.
Derek Luke (‘Antwone Fisher’) couldn’t command the screen the way that Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs dominates in real life. Luke lacked a powerful presence as the acclaimed rapper, producer, cologne maker and miscellaneous capitalist.
Disappointing, considering that Combs carries the plot.
Other famous musicians came and went along the way, such as Lil Kim (Naturi Naughton) and Tupac Shakur (Anthony Mackie). Like Luke’s trying performance, however, they failed to capture the personas we’ve idolized over the last decade.
The heart of the story lies not within the stars, but within the story of B.I.G.
It starts off a little corny and, frankly, unbelievable. Somehow I can’t see the drug-dealer-turned-rapper innocently sitting on his stoop in a navy button-down as a child. But, who knows.
He quickly goes from innocent child to dealing crack on the streets. After spending a while in jail and knocking up his 17-year-old girlfriend, he teams up with Combs and the two head off to ‘change the world.’
If these weren’t real people with big personalities, the film might have had a decent shot at moving an audience.
The film’s ending almost had it – raw footage of the crowds gathered in Brooklyn after his murder mourning Biggie Smalls. They ruined it with cheesy and very poorly shot and placed footage of Biggie’s mom (Angela Bassett) giving a beauty-pageant-esque wave to the masses.
Some parts progressed way too slowly, making the movie feel like it was much longer than 100 minutes. Biggie falls in love, cheats, falls in love again, cheats, gets married, cheats, gets back with affair number two, then dies. In short – that was about all that happened.
The ghetto lifestyle wasn’t glamorized, but it wasn’t quite condemned, either. The screenwriters seemed unsure if they wanted to pass judgment or paint a scene.
Combs would say, ‘My business is the streets but it ain’t in the streets,’ but B.I.G raps about the trials and glory of living a hard life.
They do tackle one issue and do so in a very blunt manner: gang feuds. Apparently being in a gang is cool, as long as you’re not rivaling with another gang over who shot someone.
The East Coast vs. West Coast war resulted in Tupac’s murder and, eventually, Biggie’s, as well.
The movie didn’t do the late Tupac Shakur much justice, painting him as a paranoid and delusional sex offender. But since Biggie came off as a player, ‘getting 10 girls a day,’ it all evened out.
The music made the film interesting, which is to be expected in a movie about rappers from Brooklyn. Seeing the songs written, produced and performed by someone who eerily looks like the late rapper is exciting.
If for nothing else, the soundtrack was worth sitting through the documentary-like picture following the life and death of the Notorious Biggie Smalls.
Published on January 21, 2009 at 12:00 pm
