Notorious (2009)

The Tupac Shakur biographical film All Eyez on Me was being released in cinemas, and I had watched the fantastic N.W.A. biographical film Straight Outta Compton, so I felt it only right to watch this film focusing on one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time. Basically young Christopher George Latore Wallace (Christopher Jordan Wallace, Biggie's son) lived his childhood years in Brooklyn, New York, and became a drug dealer at the height of the crack epidemic, hustling with Damion "D-Roc" Butler (Dennis L.A. White) and Lil' Cease (Marc John Jefferies). Christopher (Jamal Woolard) is told by his girlfriend Jan Jackson (Julia Pace Mitchell) that she is pregnant, so he earns more money to support his family, taking his drug dealing seriously, and participates in a rap battle, which he wins, but his mother Voletta (Angela Bassett) kicks him out for drug possession and not attending school. Christopher spends nine months in prison for possession of guns and drugs, until he is bailed, then he meets Kimberly "'Lil Kim" Jones (Naturi Naughton), but she was abused in a previous relationship, so refuses to pursue another. Christopher reconciles with his mother and visits his newborn daughter, T'Yanna, then he catches the attention of ambitious record producer for Uptown, Sean "Puffy" Combs, or "Puff Daddy", or "P. Diddy" (Derek Luke), with his recorded demo, under the name "Biggie Smalls", he is promised a record deal, but it falls through, and he and D-Roc are again arrested, but D-Roc takes the blame to allow Chris to pursue his music career. Biggie is depressed finding out his mother has breast cancer, but Puffy establishes new record label Bad Boy and signs Biggie, he records his debut album Ready to Die, and during a photo shoot meets R&B singer Faith Evans (Antonique Smith), they begin a relationship, and marry, she catches him cheating, but they later reconcile, but tension still grows between Chris, Faith, Jan and Kim. Celebrating the release of the album, Biggie, also becoming known as "The Notorious B.I.G.", meets rapper Tupac "2Pac" Shakur (Anthony Mackie), he admires 2Pac, but questions people he associates with, Biggie blames Bad Boy when the news breaks that 2Pac is robbed and shot, dissing the record label at an awards ceremony. Rivalry increases between Biggie and 2Pac, the media refer to it as the "East Coast-West Coast rivalry", with attacks made on both sides, an unknown caller gives Biggie a death threat, and 2Pac and Suge Knight (Sean Ringgold) verbally assault Biggie at a party. 2Pac interprets Biggie's latest song "Who Shot Ya?" as a diss at him, but Biggie and Puffy claim it was recorded before the shooting, 2Pac responds with a diss song at Bad Boy called "Hit 'Em Up", then 2Pac and Faith have a magazine photo shoot together, but she insists to Biggie nothing happened between them, they try to reconcile when she tells him she is pregnant with their child. The East and West coast rivalry continues to escalate, Biggie gets booed at a concert in Sacramento, California, but then he performs "Who Shot Ya?", the rivalry between Biggie and 2Pac continues until 2Pac is killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. Biggie and D-Roc renew their friendship, Biggie considers pulling out of the rap game, but he goes to Los Angeles, California to promote his upcoming album Life After Death, bringing D-Roc, Lil' Cease, Puff and Faith with him, while there Biggie receives more death threats. Following a phone call to 'Lil Kim to apologise and arrange a meeting, Biggie leaves the party, he is shot and killed by an unknown gunman when getting into his car, his funeral is held a few days later, his friends, family and thousands of fans lining the street mourn, Biggie's song "Hypnotize" plays as his casket is driven down the city streets. Also starring Jasper Briggs as Damion (Age 8-13), Cyrus Farmer as Art Selwyn and Edwin Freeman as Mister Cee. Newcomer Woolard just about looks and sounds the part of the larger than life rap star, and there is good support from Bassett, Naughton and Wallace Jr. playing his own father as a young man. There are some memorable sequences, from sex scenes and of course the recognisable songs (I was hoping the Biggie Smalls tribute song "I'll Be Missing You" by Puff Daddy feat. Faith Evans and 112 would be included), but the script is full of the hip hop lifestyle clichés, and doesn't cover enough of the subjects we know about from the media, a not well executed but reasonable in parts biographical drama. Okay!

Notorious is a cliché ridden, badly scripted, by the numbers and shallow biopic of New York rapper Christopher 'Notorious B.I.G' Wallace.If it was not for the fact that he died in 1997 I could have sworn he was an Executive Producer of this movie given how much this film hypes him up. A school nerd turned big time drug dealer and babe magnet. It did not matter if a girl in the hood showed no interest in his large girth. A few sweet words, a smile and they would be humping his large frame. This happens repeatedly throughout the film.Now I once knew a fat guy who was a babe magnet, he was also a small time drug dealer. Which begs the question did all these women fall at his feet because Notorious was a rapper or drug dealer or a nobody with lots of charm?The movie deals and speaks in clichés throughout. A character mentions not once but twice lines like, 'we are not here to play the game but to take over the game.' Many of the themes dealt here were better in earlier films like Hustle and Flow and Get rich or die trying. They also had better music.Many of the side characters are depicted in a shallow way. Sean Combs was a producer in this film and he just happens to be portrayed as a great guy in this film. Lil Kim goes from a sweet office worker to a sex bomb. Angela Bassett is a hard working, virtuous mother, who raises Notorious single handedly but her Jamaican accent is a bit off. Tupac Shakur pops in and out of this film but his shooting marks a turning point in this film and the east and west coast rivalry in the mid 1990s.The movie never deals in depth as to what was the cause of this rivalry and why Shakur was shot. The film is not interested in the casual viewer but seems to be squarely aimed at fans of Notorious B.I.G and rap enthusiasts.Even at the end of the movie it is shown that Notorious was maturing, learnt the errors of his way but again its just clichés. I was more interested to know why if it was so dangerous for him to go to California, why did he not wear a bulletproof vest and drive around in a bulletproof car with heavy security? He certainly had the money for it, so was he just arrogant or plain dumb? The film never deals with it but in real life someone would had asked those basic questions.

Christopher Wallace AKA Biggie died for the wrong reasons. He was better than Tupac who was really a big mouthed punk but society doesn't see it that way. They see 2 idiots creating drama between 2 guys who did nothing but instigate and create havoc into society. Tis the reason both of them died instead of American society making the right call. Both of them were born with a tool to create something that made some kids believe but instead they created havoc between parts of US. Realizing what went on this movie was made I think? It's not called Thug Life but called Notorious instead. Biggie was better as a person just like this movie was called for but he died. America is a screwed up country where white lives matter more than anybody else.

This movie is amazing. If you're a fan of hip-hop and a fan of biggie then you will love this movie. It got his life story perfectly from when he was a young child drug dealing up to when he became a very successful rapper. It was amazing when he beat that guy in the rap battle and the funeral scene was depressing. Plenty of people say they don't like this movie but it got his life story perfectly and I can't wait until the Tupac movie comes out. Hopefully it will be as good as notorious. They got the east coast/west coast rivalry perfectly in notorious so hopefully they will do that with the tupac movie. Jamal woolard played biggie perfectly and biggies son was very good in the film. Some scenes are sad and some scenes are amazing.