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The film unfolds with bare-bones production values that at times work in its favor (musical performances that play out on literally small stages feel intimate, for example), but other moments feel distractingly TV movie-like, including Boom’s propensity for going slo-mo during important moments. READ MORE: ‘All Eyez on Me’ Trailer: Tupac Shakur Biopic Looks To Be This Year’s ‘Straight Outta Compton’
#2PAC ALL EYEZ ON ME BIOPIC MOVIE#
If anyone makes off with a movie star turn in “All Eyez on Me,” it’s “Walking Dead” star Gurira, next bound for a major part in the upcoming “Black Panther” feature. A Tupac Shakur movie should be big and vibrant and loud, but “All Eyez on Me” is off-key at every turn.Īt least one supporting character makes it out unscathed: Danai Gurira - as Tupac’s beloved mother Afeni - comes out swinging during the film’s opening sequence and never lets up, believably burning right through the screen, conjuring the kind of passion the rest of the film lacks. Elsewhere, the film lacks any hard and fast sense of place or time, and though it uses a fair number of Shakur’s actual songs, they’re few and far between, and other period-appropriate tracks are also glaringly absent. Even for casual fans, it’s disappointing.Īlthough “All Eyez on Me” occasionally dips into Tupac’s complex nature (his relationship with his family and his revolution-focused upbringing are of particular import), it always zips away the moment deeper motivations and themes are explored. His burgeoning movie career gets the same treatment, and Tupac’s achievements are hailed with a shrug, simply stops along the way to getting back into the salacious personal details that the film is more preoccupied with portraying. The Tupac of “All Eyez on Me” shows zero interest in and talent for rapping until nearly an hour has gone by, when his talents are apparently awoken by a spoken word poetry class that’s not explained in any deeper terms than the absolute basics. Instead, “All Eyez on Me” is much more interested in brashly showing off the trappings of fame (ladies, clubs, booze, weed) than the road that led to them. Most damning of all is that Tupac’s creative process remains woefully under-explored, and his rise to fame is mostly delivered via thinly-written narration. Stretched out across two-and-a-half hours, “All Eyez on Me” has more than enough room to hit the highlights, but it instead wastes precious time lazily flipping through chapters in the rapper’s life with few thematic connections, and instead ticks through years and events as if they were required. (A second act meeting with record execs that sees Tupac delivering as close to a manifesto as he’s allowed is a highlight specifically it allows Shipp to show his range.)
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It’s a technique that diffuses energy and forward motion at every turn, and one that really does a disservice to Shipp, who’s at his best when he’s given more time to settle into a scene. It’s a persistent problem throughout a film, which is choppily cut by editor Joel Cox, with nearly every scene snipped oddly short.
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READ MORE: ‘All Eyez on Me’ Extended Trailer: Tupac Shakur Is a Rapper on Mission with Biggie and Suge Knight - Watch Opening with a political urgency that belies a very different project, Boom’s film (penned by Jeremy Haft, Eddie Gonzalez, and Steven Bagatourian) initially reads as a timely rallying cry around Shakur’s legacy, before devolving into a paint-by-the-numbers biopic that unspools with as much energy as a Wikipedia entry. Framed in the most uninspiring way possible - with Hill Harper playing a journalist who visits Tupac in prison to reflect on his life and legacy - the film is hobbled by exposition-heavy voiceover and an ill-conceived decision to flip back to the jailhouse interview just as things are really kicking up. While in some circles that could be enough to recommend the first-time actor for the part of the beloved late rapper, it’s a casting choice indicative of much bigger issues in Benny Boom’s long-gestating biopic, “ All Eyez on Me.” The casting choice suggests that a commitment to accuracy, but that doesn’t make up for many other shortcomings in a movie that does no favors to Tupac’s legacy.