Release Date: January 29, 1997
Production Companies: Polygram Filmed Entertainment/Interscope Communications
Over the years, I had done done some research on the career of Tupac. When I was a kid, I remember seeing that he had new albums being released after his death. I had read that he had recorded a lot of music prior to his murder, which explained that he had multiple albums coming out. But back in 1997, I recall he had two movies come out (three if you count “Bullet,” but that was filmed a couple of years prior and was shelved for those two years before its release). While I am aware that the films were shot prior to it, I also learned he had quite the work ethic at that time. He not only recorded a lot of music but also filmed multiple music videos, some of which were alternate versions of some songs, and also filmed a couple of movies.
Many people close to him have said interviews, like Outlawz members and other fellow rappers like Bad Azz (RIP), that he knew he wasn’t long for this world. With that said, I am going to talk about this film, “Gridlock’d.”
I recall seeing TV spots for it and hearing about it on Entertainment Tonight sometime in late 1996. It was released in early 1997 and while it wasn’t exactly a hit, it had some positive feedback. Personally, I didn’t watch this movie until years later, like maybe it was the early-2000s when I rented it from Hollywood Video (man, I just feel old referencing that). I think it was just that one time I had watched it but I recall seeing bits and pieces of it on Showtime here and there. I recall enjoying it but aside from some scenes, I had very little recollection of the film itself.
So the story goes like this. Spoon (Tupac) and Stretch (Tim Roth), along with a friend of theirs (and sometimes lover) Cookie (Thandie Newton) come home from a party with a bunch of drugs and alcohol. The trio are a jazz/poetry band and also drug addicts, by the way. Cookie ends up overdosing and taken to a hospital and it gives Spoon a sign that he and Stretch should kick the habit. Throughout the film, the duo try to find clinics so they could detox, but along the way, they come across a crime boss named D-Reper, (Vondie Curtis-Hall, who also wrote and directed this film).
Because this movie is a crime comedy-drama, there are a lot of comedic elements to it but it wasn’t overt that it needed to be over-the-top or goofy. Granted, comedies come in different shapes and sizes. Some are goofy, some are subtle, I could go on. With that said, aside from “Nothing But Trouble,” this may probably have been the only comedy that Tupac was in where he was the lead. I think he did fine in this role as a drug addict trying to clean himself up. He and Tim Roth had good chemistry in this film. The two worked well with another. Also, with this being a comedy, while some situations they were in were serious enough, there were some bits that made things less serious. It’s really hard to describe, but when some scenes have a quick zoom closing on one character before another cut or when a character tries to reach the two leads and the camera zooms out and goes through a window while you see the two leads in the foreground and the other character in the background talking on the phone. Being that this was Vondie Curtis-Hall’s directorial debut, I can see he implemented some style into his direction. Now that I think about it, he had directed “Glitter” and “Waist Deep.” I had never seen the former (but I had heard a lot of negativity surrounding it) but I had seen the latter though it’s been a while. I may have to see that one again and probably cover that one, too.
I felt that this was an underrated film. It didn’t do too well when it came out. Being that Tupac’s death helped with album sales, you would have thought that this film would have done better. Then again, despite seeing some ads for it way back when, I don’t recall there was a lot of promotion for it. It was released by Gramercy Films, which was connected to Polygram and they weren’t that high on the top film distributers. I know that Gramercy and Polygram were later acquired by Universal, but even there has not been any more up-to-date DVD releases of this one. The DVD I watched this had non-anamorphic widescreen, which meant I had to adjust the screen to help the picture fit. It’s better that seeing the screen dead center between the black lines from top to bottom and left to right.
But still, it’s an entertaining film.
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