All Eyez on Me

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All Eyez on Me is based on the true story of rapper Tupac Shakur. This is one of the movies I was looking forward to the most this year, and was one of the most underwhelming experiences I had with a movie so far this year. For the most part, the acting is solid. Demetrius Shipp, Jr. is excellent in the lead role as the late rapper. I would also like to compliment Danai Guirira, Jamal Woolard, and Kat Graham playing Afina Shakur, rapper Biggie Smalls, and Jada Pinkett respectively. Unfortunately, it’s everything else that kind of falls apart. Starting off with acting, the kid actors and the actress who plays Pac’s sister are terrible. There is no emotion in anything any of them say. The editing, writing, and directing are horrible. The best comparison I can make is 2015’s Straight Outta Compton. That movie was about twenty minutes longer than this movie. For me, Straight Outta Compton felt well paced and actually breezed by for me. I bring this up because All Eyez on Me is horribly paced. It’s a chore to sit through and feels longer than its 2 hour and 20 minute runtime. On top of that, it glosses over a lot important things, making this movie feel more like greatest hits of Pac’s accomplishments. They have a framework involving Pac in prison being interviewed by a journalist (played by Hill Harper, who is also good in the movie). I don’t have a problem with that. Where my issues with the movie come in are when they just introduce characters to the movie out of the blue. People like Suge Knight and Biggie Smalls are introduced into the movie at points in their lives where they’ve already known Pac. We don’t really know how they met, when they met, or why they met. Sometimes, the scene transition will just be one of 2Pac’s music videos, and in the terms of filmmaking, editing, and segues in general, it feels sloppy. Ocassionally, the movie will show fistfights. I don’t have a problem with this idea. My issue is that they’ll use one of my least favorite filmmaking techniques to film them. That technique is shaky cam. The bottom line is: This movie sucks! Don’t watch it.

2 / 10