Christopher Wallace [Jamal Woolard] is the legendary rapper from Brooklyn known as The Notorious B.I.G. – aka. Biggie Smalls. The film chronicles his life, from his time being a small time drug dealer on the corners to being the biggest rapper on the East Coast.

So I decided to go out and check out the movie. In the 90s I was a huge Biggie fan, and I knew a lot of the story and knew all of his songs. However, the only thing that this movie did right was press the play button. I found that I would’ve gotten the same amount of enjoyment from laying in the dark and re-listening to all of the albums – i.e. Ready to Die and Life After Death. The best thing about this movie is the soundtrack, and what is most interesting is that Danny Elfman did the score and it is most annoying when I have to hear the score during the film. Danny Elfman has done some of my favourite scores, most recently Wanted, Milk and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so it feels really odd to find him the most annoying part of the movie.

The acting in the movie really wasn’t anything to criticize since I doubt there was anyone who could do these roles without making it seem like a complete impersonation rather than someone really embodying the role given to them. However, with that said I think the best actor in the film was Anthony Mackie – who played Tupac Shakur. Mackie really seemed to get the character of Tupac right with the character always switching from playful to philosophical, which is something that you see not only in his interviews/videos but you also hear it in his music from track to track.

Voletta Wallace [Angela Bassett] was one of the most wasted characters of the movie. I think Angela Bassett is a viably good actress, I will always remember her as Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do With It [1993]. There is a proper biopic about a musician. I remember in news and public appearances seeing Mrs. Wallace and understanding what a strong character she is and then in the movie Angela Bassett made her look like one of the most inconsequential mothers in film. Other than throwing Chris out for drug dealing and then as soon as he started getting babies from every other woman she smiled for the children.

Other than the soundtrack I guess my favourite moment in the movie was when the funeral procession was going through Brooklyn and the film switched to some stock footage from the actual funeral and I felt a sense of nostalgia because I remembered that day watching it on TV. Seeing the footage of people on the sidewalk watching Biggie pass and then seeing them celebrate him by playing his music was a great thing and made me realize that I was more interested in seeing a proper documentary rather than this dramatization.

So in the end, if you are a huge Biggie fan and can’t help yourself go ahead and go see it. Otherwise, I doubt you will find much enjoyment from watching this movie. Just stay home and listen to the albums and that should be enough.

IMDB says 5.7/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 53%

I say 6.0/10