Re-review – “All Eyez on Me” (2017 film)

Release Date: June 16, 2017

Production Companies: Summit Entertainment (In association with Lionsgate Films)/Morgan Creek Productions/Program Pictures/Codeblack Films

For my original review on this film, click here.

I knew it would come to this. After doing my series on Tupac’s films, there was this itch that made me do this… again.

I’ll be blunt – I was not a fan of this movie when I saw it in theaters in 2017. I know a lot of people didn’t like the film, and there are some people who did like it. That’s fine and all, but I wasn’t one of those people who liked it. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t any redeeming factors to it, though. However, for the most part, there were a lot of issues with this film.

When discussing biopics of films, more often than not, there may be some inaccuracies to the story. There are also some factors that may have been omitted from the film because really, at the end of the day, they are films, not documentaries. I could say that there were inaccuracies in 2009’s “Notorious” and in 2015’s “Straight Outta Compton.” It’s been years since I have watched those two, though, so I may need to revisit them (and maybe cover them).

When I had heard that a Tupac biopic was in development back in 2016, I was not surprised. It was a given that a film on him would be made. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was done to ride on the coattails of “Straight Outta Compton” because of how successful that film was. Really, for someone who lived a short life, he has quite a life story. You could talk about his upbringing, his acting career, his music career, his run-ins with the law, and the impact he made (even before he died). This film tried to do all of that but it fell flat on many levels.

Because the negatives outweigh the positives, I will talk about the negatives first.

The narrative tried to cover all sorts of aspects of Pac’s life, whether it was his upbringing with his mother, Afeni, who was a Black Panther, to taking acting classes, his friendship with Jada Pinkett, his time with Digital Underground, etc. I could go on about everything this film tried to do. Many of the scenes felt like clips of certain aspects and then moved onto the next aspect. For example, you had the part of the release of “2Pacalypse Now” to Dan Quayle talking about Pac to Ayanna Jackson and the rape charge, to getting shot at the New York recording studio. Oh, and it’s important to know that for the majority of the film, it was framed around an interview with an journalist trying to get Pac’s life story, and then came his time in Death Row, which was basically the second half of the film.

Speaking of the stuff with Ayanna Jackson, I found it really weird how in the scene where she and Pac were making out at the club that “Honey Love” by R. Kelly and Public Announcement played in the background. Yes, it was a popular song but knowing what we know now about R. Kelly and the fact that this subplot talked about sexual assault, it’s really weird. Was it intentional? Good question.

Another nitpick I had, and I know I wasn’t the only one who felt this way, was that in a scene where he is performing “Ambitionz az a Ridah” and “Hit ’em Up,” he also performed “Hail Mary.” Okay, being that “Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory” came out not long after his death, he never had the chance to perform any of the songs from that album. In fact, he recorded that album a month before he was killed.

The other problem I had was how the Death Row chapter was handled. Sure, it covered the bases of its unsafe working environment, such as Suge Knight and his fellow Bloods beating down people at the Death Row headquarters to even this dinner scene.

In my last review on this film, I talked about how it all of a sudden felt like a gangster movie with the ominous music played in the background. Now I recall some violent scenes in “Straight Outta Compton,” and I know that some biopics don’t have to cover everything that actually happened, but when I saw this in theaters, I was like “what kind of movie am I watching now?”

Then you have parts where Dr. Dre and Faith Evans were shown. Okay, I know Dre was one of the co-owners of Death Row at that point but he was only scene twice and forgotten about. Faith Evans, however, that was mostly done to not only recreate a photo that she did with Pac and to try to cover more of Pac’s beef with Biggie (who was played by the same guy who played him in “Notorious”) but it was never mentioned again after that.

What was also distracting was that in the climax, and yes, the scene in Las Vegas where…well, you know where I am going with this. Anyway, I will give the producers credit for having the scene shot in Las Vegas but then you have some more up-to-date businesses in the Hershey shop on the strip. I know this because I had visited Vegas more than a month before seeing this film in theaters and the store didn’t open until 2014 while that scene took place in 1996.

Then you have this bit.

As covered in my post about the murder investigation, I noted that there was security footage of the beat down that happened in the casino. While I don’t mind that they recreated that for this scene, what’s distracting is that the security footage is the real deal. That’s right. That footage that you see here is the real footage of what happened that night.

Oh, and when you saw Snoop Dogg on screen, it was clear that the real Snoop dubbed his voice for the fake one. That was so distracting.

I feel like I am repeating myself but the film’s biggest problem is that it tried to cover so many bases but it felt like vignettes of some events and onto the next. If anything, Pac’s story could work as a miniseries. And yes, I am aware of the “Unsolved” series and how that one allegedly covers it better (not to mention that the guy who played Suge Knight returned in that), but I need to find a way to watch it. However, this film felt almost like those biopics produced for VH1, Lifetime, and BET. There are some examples of shoddy biopics done for those networks. Don’t even get me started on the one about Aaliyah. However, I kind of gave “Surviving Compton” a pass as the real Michel’le (pronounced “mee-shell-lay”) had some input on the film and also narrated it. That’s another one I need to revisit.

On the positive side, however, I have to give Demetrius Shipp Jr. some credit for trying to portray Tupac as best as he could. He had the look and I could see that in some scenes when some interviews were recreated, he did what he could to help replicate those scenes. Also, Danai Gurira did a good job at her role as Afeni Shakur. That’s about as far as I could go with the positives on the performances. I also liked the use of some songs on the soundtrack, especially the use of “Blackberry Molasses” but 1990s R&B group called Mista (which had a young Bobby V in the group). From what I had read, it was one of Pac’s favorite songs before he died, so I guess someone wanted to use the song as kind of a tribute.

I know I left some information that was mentioned in my old review but you could read that if you want to. I also forgot to mention that a couple of Outlawz (E.D.I. and Young Noble) were in this movie and they played themselves. They didn’t really do much. They had no lines. They were just there. I don’t even think they were advisers for the film, either.

So where do I stand with this film now that I have revisited it after six years? Well, it’s still not a good movie. I maintain the positives that I stated in 2017 and they still stand. However, I maintain the negatives. My mind has not changed for the better, but it has changed for the worse, though. I feel like maybe a Tupac movie can work if someone really does his story justice. Maybe not a movie but rather a series. If there is “Unsolved,” which I heard works, then a movie centered on his life can work. Hell, I think it’s time for me to check out that Wu-Tang series.

1.75/5