Notorious B.I.G.

I watched this movie with great expectation. Besides the hype surrounding it, for someone who embraced hip hop for many years being influenced by the like of Biggie Smalls, Nas & Tupac to mention a few, it only made sense for me to want to watch this movie.

From the beginning i could not seem to get over the way in which B.I.G was portrayed as this smart, lovable young boy because it made me look at him in a whole different light that i initially thought. I feel his son played the part well (though he did not have much to do). The story line is pretty straight forward and there are a few surprises concerning the emotions the characters invoke in you and make you understand them more deeply. The acting was not bad, i actually like the guy who acted as Biggie, he made the character quite interesting and lovable. The rest of the cast were not too bad either: Puffy, Faith Evans and the guy who played Biggie's manager were good too (don't expect any Oscar winners though!)

From a neutral point of view (without being a Notorious B.I.G or Tupac fan) i really felt that they tried to explain the beef between the artists with a more lenient view of Biggie. When watching the movie i couldn't help but think how much Biggie was the 'bigger man' in the beef and that Tupac simply caught a fit at the wrong people. Then i had to ask myself a few questions about that. The movie makes you want to take Biggie's side on the whole issue. I don't know if this is true but i felt that it was rather unfair no matter how much of a nice guy Biggie was. In watching this movie its hard to see it any other way than that the beef was Tupac's fault. It's up to you to believe it or not.

All in all it was a good effort, nothing too memorable but a story worth knowing especially if you want to know more about some of the most critical times in Hip Hop. Biggie fans will undoubtedly love this.

when i first heard notorious b.i.g. at 13, i was immediately blown away. his flow was some of the best i have ever heard. when he passed away, it left a hole in the hip hop community that will never be filled again. this film takes a look at his life story. the film looks at his relationship with his mother, and the streets. two totally different worlds that biggie is deeply in love with. he starts out as a loving mamas boy and grows to a greatly respected drug dealer and extremely talented rapper. his skills blow away everyone in his neighborhood and soon catches the attention of an aspiring c.e.o. by the name of Sean "puffy" combs. Combs starts his own record label, Bad Boy records, and immediately signs biggie. from there its a roller coaster ride as biggie takes the hip hop world by storm. and mo' money mo' problems as his beef with tupac takes a tragic turn that changes the hip hop world forever. newcomer jamal woolard makes his big screen debut, and shines as biggie. he has a natural charisma that captures biggies essence in every way. angela bassett plays voletta wallace, biggies mom, and her performance is great as always. the rest of the cast does a surprisingly good job, playing their roles as real people, and not caricatures of famous people. this film ran at around 120 mins and felt real and i had a great time watching it. this film brought back so many memories of my teens and made me realize how much the world misses the notorious b.i.g.

When a musician reaches a certain level of fame in their career, many companies will seize on the opportunity to cash in. One of these ways is through a film biopic of their life, which gives old and new fans a chance to explore the depths of their idols and see a more interesting side of them that they hadn't previously been aware of. Notorious (based on the life of rapper Notorious B.I.G) is one such example, and while it is an enjoyable and compelling piece, it is perhaps more suited to the rapper's new fans rather than his die- hard ones.

The story focuses on the life of Biggie Smalls (AKA the Notorious B.I.G) from his early beginnings as a New York drug dealer to his early success when he signs on to Bad Boy Records to his personal relationships later in life to his untimely death by an unknown assailant. The story is one of the film's major problems, as while it goes over his life's important events, it often just skims through them, without going into much depth. The most detail the film goes into about his life is his womanising. It's surprising that the film has been called hagiographic, as it does show the ugly side of this, as he is very passive about it, eventually cheating on his wife because of it, who (quite rightly) throws him out of their house, and it gives both the film and its title character the conflict that it otherwise lacks, and is the most engaging part of the film because of it.

The rest of the film is more standard, as it shows us many of his life's highlights in brief portions, which while interesting to those who may not be familiar with the rapper, isn't as exciting if you already know the story. It also doesn't help that the film clearly alters history for its own ends. Bad Boy Record head Puff Daddy (who also produces the film) is suspiciously portrayed more hagiographically than BIG himself, many of BIG's problems aren't perhaps as accurately as they should be (i.e. the drug dealing and firearms charges aren't as severe as they would be in reality) and you can't help that the film has a overtly negative view of the West Coast rap scene, mainly that of Suge Knight & Tupac Shukar, leading to many set-pieces (mainly one which describes why Tupac turned on Biggie) that even those who have reservations towards Suge and Tupac (I have my own) won't buy.

The film still manages to be quite an enjoyable ride though, as the pacing is good and a lot of the acting is great, particularly that of Jamal Woolard as the title character. Apparently he put a lot of preparation into the role (i.e. learning the songs word perfect, researching his character), and it clearly shows, and fits perfectly into the role because of it, and brings more appreciation and depth to the rapper than the film itself. All the other actors are pretty good too, with the exception of Anthony Mackie as Tupac Shukar, who while good, doesn't bother to attempt to look (only bearing the slightest resemblance) or sound like Tupac, something even more distracting considering Jamal's accuracy to his role or how one of Tupac's songs plays on the radio at one point, making the differences even more obvious.

However, despite its faults, Notorious isn't an overall bad film. It's just a very flawed biopic that is worth watching, but mainly for those who are unfamiliar with the subject, as it gives the viewer the basic facts about the star, to perhaps create new fans in the process who will look more in-depth afterwards. But for those who are die-hard fans, the film is still pretty good for what it is. Perhaps it doesn't go into as much depth as one likes, and certain details about the film have either been altered or fabricated, but it is still an entertaining, engaging and perfectly watchable film that is occasionally very detailed and you'll be treated to some fine acting, especially from Jamal Woolard who was clearly born to play the Notorious B.I.G, and it also has the very upbeat and positive message of following your dreams. It's quite good overall and is worth watching, but it may still take a while for the definitive story of the Notorious B.I.G to be made, even though this is a good first stab. Just don't confuse this for the Hitchcock one.

MY girlfriend and I went to see this opening night and I was a little worried about the director and first time actor Jamal Woolard but it turned out to be a great film. Now i am a Biggie fan so you may think this is biased but it was a well done movie and showed you the life of biggie and how he made it. There is a couple things that i thought were not so good about the movie like go more in depth his younger years so we learn more about him and also go deeper into the feud with him and pac. But other than that Jamal Woolard gave a great performance as well as the rest of the cast. Now my girlfriend doesn't even like rap and she liked this movie so i would suggest it to anyone. I am surprised about the bad rating but i guess people hate on the best rapper of all time too much lol

The Movie was way better then I thought. The actors/actress in it resembled each person in everyway possible. The little kim character was on point even the way she spit those lyrics in the bedroom. According to Naturi Naughton who played the role of little kim she never rapped before but you couldn't tell the way she flowed. When she performed in that lacey outfit towards the end you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between her and kim. The biggie character played by gravy was also on point as well. The voice, build and complexion was spot on. When the faith character sung "I remember" I couldn't believe how great she sang, and it didn't look like she was lip sycn-ing at all. I really enjoyed the movie and it brought me back to those great times in college when I was hooping for Suny Farmingdale.

I was disappointed about one thing and that was the drama aspect. Nothing surprised me about it, because everything in the movie we already knew. It wasn't one thing in the movie that left anything to the imagination. It was very predictable because I already knew he sold drugs, he went to jail, then got discovered by puffy, he blew up, then he died. So probably 15 minutes into the movie I pretty much knew what would happen next. I still loved it and the music in it.