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First off, let's get this out the way: this is not a "hip hop" film. It's not about the history of hip hop, or "being true to hip hop," or nailing the cadence of Big's flow, or a searing indictment of Puff's materialism in the late 90's. That's not what the movie is meant to be.
Nor is there any new pertinent information about Big's murder, or who did it.
I mentioned this in The Lesson, and I'm going to mention it here: there will be some on this site, and some in the "hip hop community," who will be upset with this film, simply because it's not raw, uncut documentary footage of Big, Puff, Kim, and company from way back then. That's too bad.
I thought it was good. Tended to go from episode to episode in Big's life, but that's okay. I thought Jamal "Gravy" Woolard was damn good as Big. And yeah, "but he didn't get Biggie's cadence down" or his voice wasn't as deep as Big's when he rapped, but that was beside the point. Because the essence of the Big that's here is the charismatic Big, the one who charms everyone around him, from Jan to Voletta to Kim to Faith. The best parts of the film are when we see Big's charisma, whether he's acting cool and calm when Jan tells him she's pregnant, whether he's talking shit to Kim and later encouraging her to rap, or whether he's spittin' game at Faith... I mean, you just GOT it, and I think that was the point...
As to the question of why there was no focus on Charli Baltimore, or why we didn't see The Lox (or Ma$e DAMMIT!), the focus of the story here is Big and, specifically, the women that Big deals with the most... the ones who appeared to have the most influence and effect on him... during a Q & A afterward, director George Tillman and co-writer Reggie Rock Bythewood talked about whether or not to include Charli Baltimore, and whether including her was really important, and they decided not to include her, because you got the point with Big's other random indiscretions (including one that will most likely get loud applause and cheers from the sistas in the audience)... the point of the film wasn't necessarily to include each and every person in Big's life, or include each and every song that Big performed...
Now, the main problem I had with the movie was that the script is very on-the-nose. Reggie Rock Bythewood talked about having misgivings about doing the rewrites on the script when it was offered, because he felt that Big was "an unlikeable guy." So he found a through line and decided to tell the story of Big becoming a man. Which led to obvious moments where he would say something to the effect of, "hey, I'm just trying to be a man," or "yo, I'm a man now." Er. Also, during the Q & A, Derek Luke said he spent some time hanging with Puff, and said that Puff is still distraught over losing Big, and that Puff also felt that had the media not continuously thrown gas on the East Coast-West Coast flames back then, that both Big and Pac would still be with us. I mention that because I personally would have liked to have seen the film go at the media a little more for its role in the beef and the ensuing deaths.
And of course, since Puff was involved with the project, and Voletta Wallace is one of the film's producers, you'd think that they wouldn't be portrayed in any kind of negative light... and you'd be correct. It appears that the only people in the world of this movie who had flaws were Big and Kim. Faith was almost saintly and righteous in her quest to make Big a faithful man. And as mentioned, Kim was young, dumb, and in love with a man who told her that "I got you," and when he broke that promise she acted out, including one cringe-inducing scene where she's onstage performing her verse of Get Money and glaring angrily at an offstage Big every so often.
Moving on, let's talk about the other performances. I thought that, given the limitations of the script, both Angela Bassett and Antonique Smith were okay as Voletta Wallace and Faith, respectively. Antonique is such a dead ringer for Faith that I kept forgetting that she was an actress playing Faith. I thought that Derek Luke, even though he has no facial resemblance to Puff, did a fantastic job co-opting Puff's demeanor, his attitude, and, most hilariously, his dance moves. I have to say that as much as I usually dig him, Anthony Mackie was not convincing as Tupac -- or, at least he wasn't convincing to my lady friends whom I saw the film with, as evidenced by the audible sighs and visible eye rolling that was going on.
I also really liked Naturi Naughton's performance as Lil Kim. She nailed Kim's rap cadence (even though I just mocked everyone's complaints about Gravy's accuracy), got nekkid a couple three times... *thumbs up* (sorry ladies, but I gotta look out for my PTP fellas here), and did a nice job -- again, given the limitations of the script -- showing a young girl who fell in love with a charismatic cat and suffered the consequences. I thought she did her thing.
It looked like the film was shot with HD cameras, but I'm not sure, as a lot of the film had that grainy look to it. Wasn't too excited about it, to be honest.
So. Should you see this on the screen, or should you download/cop the bootleg? I will say that if you're looking for a gritty rap tale of how one fat dude became one of the best rappers ever (in many people's opinion), then I'd say stay at home. But if you're looking for a somewhat entertaining flick about the rise and fall of one of rap's most charismatic figures, then run out and see it (which you should probably do anyway... I mean, for all the talk of Tyler Perry-this and Wayans Brothers-that, there shole are a lot of bootleggin' and downloadin'-assed motherfuckers -- mainly in GD -- who STILL won't put their money where their mouths are when it comes to work by other black filmmakers)...
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Your battleship has sunk
I wish Grandma could see us...
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