On the Come Up

By the numbers hood movie that covers all the cliche of hood movies. Only problem is this one is full of wokeness, politically correct language, and a play it safe strong female (at least attempt at it) lead. Sanaa Latham wrote this based on work of the same author of Hate You Give. Whereas that movie had something to say and had a strong supporting cast, this one has a bunch of characters no one cares about. It's like, they couldn't get those good actors from Hate you give to come back, so they hired the production assistants who had experience acting in church skits. When I heard the line: Latinx, I mean, really??? Even the writing is PC wokeness and laughable. Skip this garbage and see Hate You Give instead.

So there is a message in the movie that resonates loud and clear about rappers rapping about what is true to them. You can't hide from the message as it engulfs the movie so much that I left like I was watching an ABC flick for kids about doing drugs or something.

I will give director and actor Sanaa Lathan some credit for the movie not being corny. It had the justification of such guys like Mike Epps and Method Man acting in the film. It also adds coolness by having Lil Yachty play a rapper in the film. In addition, the rhymes (written by Rapsody) where descent (and I can only say descent only because the battle rapper rhythm that the movie takes is not my thing).

It was obvious what the overall point of the movie was, but the film does not beat us over the head with it. I also like certain subplots blend with the main plot. Like the natural romance between two young gay men, which was seen as no big deal to the story, and the story of a mother staying off drugs.

It is a good movie but when I saw it was both on Paramount Plus and in theaters, I could have stayed home to see it.

Not the best representation of Battle rap ..it's like a mixture of 8mile and what they thought battle rap was now .. decent storyline to keep you watching but I just wish there more realistic parts. To the naked eye I guess it seems so but from a person who is in battle culture it's very far fetched. Decent acting & kept my attention so I'll give it tht. I probably wouldn't watch it twice but it was ok for the first watch..a lot of new talent I'd like to see in the future as well as good guest appearances. Even tho this seems like a Netflix original I can see why it wasn't but overall this was an alright movie if your a Hop hop fan.

After finishing the book I was really excited to watch this movie, only to be left dissapointed. Now I will say, the ring battles and "On The Come Up" song were dope, but everything else just didn't satisfy me. Like there were so much important scenes and plot twist that this movie excluded out from the book. It also excluded out characters like Curtis, Shana, Grandma and Grandaddy, Kayla, Leah... the list goes on!!!! And also, I feel like putting Lil Yatchy in this movie was SUPER random XD.

One of those movies that surely aint bad, but isnt excelling in any way, shape or form either.

What we have here is a story of a young African Amercan schoolgirl who is struggling at school, but finds out she has got a talent for rap music.

What we get to see is a detailed portrait of the rise in success of her rap music career. In between we get to see several racism issues being highlighted.

The acting is okay. So is the direction. The story isnt terrible, but very predictable and that is my main complaint with this movie: it is lacking originality and it is lacking in true drama as well.

Not a bad movie, just too predictable and a bit lacking in spark and punch.