For my previous article on the lead and investigation, click here.
A couple of months ago, there were news reports that there was a lead on the murder of Tupac Shakur. After 27 years, an arrest was made, but is it really resolved?
I have seen videos on YouTube from DJ Vlad and The Art of Dialogue where people had been interviewed, including the suspect who had been arrested, Duane Keith Davis, also known as “Keefe D.”
Keefe D is a member of the South Side Compton Crips. There was a lot of connection with the Crips getting involved in the 1996 Vegas shooting of the late Tupac Shakur. For nearly 30 years, there had been a lot of speculation as to who was involved. Some have said it was Suge Knight. Some have said it was Orlando Anderson. Some have also said it was P. Diddy.
Based on personal speculation, I have seen my share of videos from DJ Vlad and The Art of Dialogue, where some people have spoken about it, one of whom was Gene Deal, former bodyguard to P. Diddy. A recent video had discussed this as it was uploaded around the time of the arrest.
While Gene Deal made some valid points, I have also seen some videos where Keefe D was interviewed and if you listen closely, it’s implied he admit involvement. Maybe he didn’t open fire but he was connected.
However, I came across this video today.
I had read articles and watched videos on the subject, but this one right here has some information I had not heard before. I wasn’t aware of the connections Keefe D and Orlando Anderson had. I heard that Anderson was Keefe D’s nephew. It was also known that Suge Knight had a lot of Bloods working at Death Row Records. Not as talent but as security and also did other work.
There is also a lot of speculation that P. Diddy ordered the hit on Pac. Because of the widely-known beef between Pac and Biggie, it escalated a lot during 1996, especially after “Hit ’em Up” came out. Some comments on some videos believe P. Diddy will be next but probably won’t get a sentence or anything because of how loaded he is, especially since he is the head of Bad Boy Records. In that Gene Deal interview, he believes that no one at Bad Boy was involved and that the shooting was done in house at Death Row. Because the Bloods and Crips conflict was still a thing during the 1990s, it could have been some issues with Suge and his boys with the Crips.
In my opinion, sure, the arrest was made and some justice was served but I don’t think that it’s completely resolved. I had said in my other post that Orlando Anderson was killed two years after the shooting happened, before he could be taken to court. Keefe D may have been involved but there could have been other things there. The P. Diddy stuff still seems plausible after nearly 30 years. There was talk about a $1 million hit on Suge and Pac. This video talked about it.
But overall, with the arrest being made, maybe justice had been served, but now I wonder if Biggie’s murder will be solved after all this time. I mean I had read that some crooked LA cops were involved but maybe there was more to it than met the eye after all this time.
Production Companies: Fox Searchlight Pictures (Later known as Searchlight Pictures after Disney acquisition)/Bad Boy Films/By Storm Films/State Street Pictures/Voletta Wallace Films
Wow. It had been quite some time since I had last seen this. I recall seeing this on opening weekend at the start of 2009. So it’s been a little more than 14 and a half years since I had last watched. Not to say I didn’t have chances of revisiting it, but after doing my re-review on “All Eyez on Me” (the film), it was a given that I would revisit this.
Back in the late-2000s, I remember hearing that a movie on Biggie Smalls (or The Notorious B.I.G.) was in production. I know that as a longtime hip-hop head that I would see it because up to that point, aside from an MC Hammer movie done for VH1 (which was in 2001, the early-2000s), there had not been any biopics done on rappers. I knew I was going to see it anyway, especially since my younger cousin, who was about 12 at the time, wanted to see it.
It’s crazy to think that Biggie had quite an impact and legacy after his untimely demise. He had only recorded two albums (though for the second one, he died weeks before its release). He had a crew of his own, Junior M.A.F.I.A. (it stood for “Masters at finding intelligent attitudes”) whom had released an album of their own. He also was known for getting the East Coast back on the map in the rap world as up to that point (the 1990s), the West Coast was getting big with the likes of Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound, Too $hort, E-40, etc. I can go on, but the point I am making is that even though the East Coast originated hip-hop, during the time of Biggie’s rise, the West Coast was at the top of the rap game but Biggie helped bring it back to the East as well.
So it was no surprise that a biopic about him was made. Plus, this was the first one to get a theatrical release.
Before I get into my review, let me just say this – I can’t say that I was the biggest Biggie fan out there. Now don’t get me wrong. The man ripped the mic well. He was good at rapping and had different topics he rapped about. He was popular. I have listened to his albums, “Ready to Die” and “Life After Death,” and his two posthumous albums, “Born Again” and “Duets: The Final Chapter.” But what has always gotten in all my years of listening to hip-hop, when looking at Top 10 or 20 lists, you often see Biggie and Tupac at the top of the lists. Again, Biggie was popular and sure knew how to spit, and he does earn the respect he was given as an artist, and I say this as someone who lived to see his career up to his untimely death, it just feels like when it comes to rap legends, it’s always either Tupac or Biggie at the top over everyone when there are other artists to consider legends. Hell, I remember an old coworker (who was much younger than me) asking me who I chose between Biggie or Tupac, but I had to school him on other artists, many of whom he had never heard of. Part of me wonders if it’s because they’re deceased, but I never ever denied that Biggie had a good flow and storytelling. So a biopic on him was in order back in those days. I still wouldn’t consider him to be one of my top favorite artists, but I did like his music even when he was alive.
With all that being said, it’s time to talk about the film.
The story starts with a young Christopher Wallace (Biggie’s real name, by the way) at school with his friend talking about rapping and stuff. I also found out recently that young Biggie was played by Christopher Wallace Jr., who was Biggie’s real-life son with Faith Evans. I found that interesting that his son played his father as a child. Anyway, so it showed bits of him in childhood then into his teen years when he was pushing crack up until he started rapping and then his rise to fame and then everything that led to his untimely demise.
Biggie was portrayed by Jamal Woolard, who is a rapper himself and he captured the essence of the late rapper. He not only had the look but his voice was similar enough, but what really stood out was that it seemed he did his own rapping for the recreations of some songs or the scenes when he would freestyle. It didn’t sound like he was lip-synching over the real Biggie’s vocals.
So it was good to see that Woolard did his own rapping for this film. He was a rapper before he got cast, after all.
As for any other performances, I can’t complain when Angela Bassett is on screen as she did fine as Voletta Wallace, Biggie’s mother. However, I can’t say the same thing about Anthony Mackie as Tupac Shakur.
I must say this. When I went to go watch this in theaters and I saw who was supposed to be Tupac, I was like “Huh? Him?!” Okay, yes, while he may be known for portraying Falcon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but because it was 2009 when this came out, I mostly remembered him as Poppa Doc in “8 Mile,” who got roasted to bits by Eminem in the climactic rap battle scene. Even when he was in 2013’s “Pain & Gain” I still saw him as Poppa Doc. It doesn’t help that he didn’t feel like Pac in the scenes he was in.
But aside from that, I like how the storytelling also paints Biggie as a not-so-good person. While he may have been beloved as a rapper, he was definitely no saint. He not only sold drugs but also treated women badly, especially the women in his life like Faith Evans and Lil’ Kim. Did I also mention that he wasn’t very faithful to both women? I guess what I said is evident of such behavior.
After this long since the first time I saw it, I have to say that it holds up for what it is, but when compared to other biopics, at least those released in cinemas, “Straight Outta Compton” still felt superior. I know I need to revisit that one because it has been a long time since I last saw it, but regarding “Notorious,” it’s miles better than “All Eyez on Me.” I won’t pretend that this film didn’t have flaws. I already mentioned Anthony Mackie’s performance as Tupac (which in a lot of ways is kind of funny in hindsight) but there were some parts that felt a little unnecessary. For example, one scene with Biggie and Lil’ Kim having a moment. I am sure it wasn’t meant to turn anybody on, but still, it was kind of disturbing. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Lil’ Kim was portrayed by Naturi Naughton, who was a member of the girl group 3LW (3 Little Women) back in the early-2000s. I just thought that was an interesting casting choice. I wonder if she did her own rapping in those scenes.
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.
It has come to this. I had covered all of Tupac’s other films, such as “Juice,”“Poetic Justice,”“Above the Rim,”“Bullet,” and “Gridlock’d.” So this had been quite a project for me. What separates this film from the others was that this was the first time I had watched it. That’s right. I had seen the other ones before, though “Bullet” and “Gridlock’d” had been once before and the first-time viewings were a long time ago. This one, however, I remember hearing about it. I had my chances but never got around to it. But with me doing this series of cover Tupac’s films, I had to watch it eventually.
Now that I have seen it, where do I stand with it?
Going into it, I had a feeling what I was getting myself into. While I hadn’t actually seen this movie before, I had read the plot synopsis and read that it was a crime drama about dirty cops covering up a murder. The plot involves detectives Divinci (James Belushi) and Rodriguez (Tupac Shakur) killing a drug dealer early in the film, only to find out he was an undercover DEA agent. The two crooked cops had to come up with the perfect alibi to cover up the murder. So they try to find some people to pin the rap on and also turn to a stripper named Cynthia (Lela Rochon), whom Divinci had an affair with, to help them out on this cover-up.
A lot of the movie has the plan fall apart as expected, but just how things fell apart kept me engaged. I had a feeling that Rodriguez, while dirty, was more sensible and wanted no part of the plan after a while. While I have seen plot elements like this before, I think they were executed well.
Belushi impressed me with his performance. His career has had its ups and downs, whether it was doing some unfunny comedies (I have seen some to which I can make an exception, however) and some serious films here and there. I do recall finding the 1988 film “Red Heat” with Arnold Schwarzenegger to be underrated and he did fine as the comedic cop as some comedic elements were more subtle than overt. In this film, however, he gave a chilling performance. His portrayal was rather terrifying as the film progressed.
While Tupac was one of the leads, I can’t say he was the focus for the most part. While he did fine in the role, there was not a lot of focus on his character. Most of the film’s plot focused on Divinci as it showed he was cheating on his wife and was also the one behind the plan. We didn’t know much about Rodriguez. Not to say Pac didn’t do well because these scenes showed that he had range. In fact, when you look at the two films that came out after his death, he didn’t play street thugs (“Poetic Justice” could be argued as he wasn’t a thug in that film), so he showed he had enough range to branch in some roles. Here are some examples:
One thing I will say about these scenes, and another that came after this one, is that it’s hard to watch when you know how he was killed. As a matter of fact, this movie was filmed in the summer of 1996. It wrapped up in August and then not long after that in September, he was murdered. It’s uncomfortable to see.
Another thing I should mention is that when I saw the opening credits, I noticed Dennis Quaid was listed. It took me a bit to finally figure out who he was in this movie. It was not until an interrogation scene that I had to look closely. Being that he portrayed a hobo, I could see how he was made up to look that way with the long hair and beard but then came when he had a haircut and shave.
I was at the edge of my seat for most of the film but the gripe I had was with the ending. I felt like not only it was rushed when filming but also had some rewrites. Another thing that I found confusing was that one prominent character was seen at the end all cleaned up and working again. This was supposed to be four months later. I don’t think that is enough time to get some skills back after being homeless and having mental issues. It would take more time to relearn such skills and a lot more time before one is ready to work again. Then you have the sudden ending. Maybe I should read the script to see how things went.
I would have to say that this is an underrated crime drama. The performances were done well. It had a good script for the most part and the overall tone didn’t feel too bleak. As for this being Tupac’s last film, because of his untimely demise, no one can know for certain where his career would have gone. There were rumors that he wanted to do a “Star Wars” film considering the first prequel was in development in the mid-1990s. There has been speculation that he was considered to play Mace Windu but then I had read that the original concept for that character was different. Like I had said before, this film and “Gridlock’d” were good examples of him branching out into different roles. While he was a dirty cop here, I wonder if he would have played a good cop at some point. No one will ever know.
Where do I stand with all of these films? Having watched six of his films for my series of reviews, I have to say that Tupac Shakur was indeed a talented man. I will admit that while I do like his music, I was never one of those fans who act like he is the single greatest rapper of all time and anyone who disagrees is wrong. I do admit that he left a mark on the hip-hop industry and there is a reason he is still talked about to this day. As for him as an actor, he was one of the better examples of rapper-turned-actors, though you could also say he was a rapper-actor who excelled at both. Yes, his more common roles were as street thugs when you look at “Juice,” “Above the Rim,” and “Bullet.” The other three films showed he had some range to do other types of roles. Yes, while I mentioned that “Poetic Justice” was debatable, he wasn’t a thug in that film. He was a mailman and for the majority of the film, Lucky was just someone who wanted to make a career in music. There was some depth to him that showed he wasn’t a one-dimensional character. Being that he had done six films, half of them he portrayed a thug and the other half were different roles. When you look at other rappers turned actors, whether it’s the likes of Ice-T, Ice Cube, DMX, etc., a lot of the time they played thugs but then there were times when they played different kinds of roles. The difference, however, was that Pac had an acting background prior to becoming a rapper. With “Juice” being his first film, the promotion for the film didn’t say anything like “starring popular rapper Tupac Shakur” or anything like that. If anything, “2Pacalypse Now” was released mere months before “Juice” was released. Plus, he wasn’t on the soundtrack to promote his music, either. So I think if he had lived, it’s possible he could have done more in acting.
That’s it for the series of Tupac films, but there is a side of me that may want to revisit something. Something I was not a fan of but I have the itch, even though I thought it was not a great biopic. I may get to that soon.
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.
Production Company: New Line Cinema/Village Roadshow Pictures/Clipsal Films
When looking at Tupac’s filmography, I know people would often think of “Juice,”“Poetic Justice,”“Above the Rim,” and then you have two that came out after his death, “Gridlock’d” and “Gang Related.” However, there is one that not a lot of people know about and that is “Bullet.”
There is kind of an odd history regarding this film. I remember hearing about it sometime in the late-1990s or early-2000s. I had looked it up but I wasn’t sure if I got it mixed up with the 1996 action-comedy, “Bulletproof,” which starred Damon Wayans and Adam Sandler. I do, however, remember that it was listed on local TV listings for it to be shown on local channels in the after-hours like around 2 a.m. when no one is likely awake, or when shown on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. Some information had said that this was given a limited theatrical run. I could have sworn I may have seen a trailer or TV spot at some point. I will say that this was released not long after Tupac’s death, but this wasn’t like “Gridlock’d” and “Gang Related,” which were released in 1997, months after the fact.
Now I had seen this one before but it was quite a long time ago. I can’t pinpoint the precise timeframe, but I think it was around the end of the 2000s to maybe the turn of the decade into the early-2010s. I remember kind of enjoying it, but now that I had seen it again, while I maintain those feelings, I can appreciate the film for its rawness and grit, and believe me, it definitely has a realistic feel of New York’s criminal underworld that I almost felt like I was watching an episode of the 1990s police drama, “New York Undercover.”
The film’s plot involves the titular character, Butch “Bullet” Stein (Mickey Rourke) getting out of an eight-year stretch in prison and suddenly he and his friend rob a couple of rich guys for drugs. Right from the jump, he also assaults another criminal to send a message to local crime boss Tank (Tupac Shakur). Of course, Bullet comes home and sees his family again, whether it’s his parents who want their newly-released son to do something with his life, a shell-shocked Vietnam veteran older brother, and a younger brother who is an artist with ambitions but chooses to paint on walls and stuff rather than canvas.
Now the film really doesn’t hold back on the grittiness. I am not from New York, so I don’t know how true to life this film is, but it feels real with some racial tensions. This movie does not hold back on the use of racial slurs and homophobic slurs but it isn’t like racism and homophobia are key elements to the plot. Plus, it was still the 1990s when homophobia was still a little more socially acceptable, but if you really think about it, it was also to show realistic sides of the criminal underworld. Besides, it’s not like the major characters (save for one who had a crucial role) were good people. Having watched a featurette on the DVD, it was said that Bruce Rubenstein, one of the writers of the film, based some of the script on some of his life experiences. I later found out that Rourke also co-wrote the script but used an alias for his credit.
To add to the overall gritty feel, there was very little lighting in many scenes. Even in some scenes where it took place in a bar or nightclub, there was some lighting but not a lot. There was also a fight scene that felt more painful to watch than be as epic as seeing a fight scene in a martial arts movie or even an epic final battle in action movies nowadays. Here is what I mean:
But then you also have this scene where it kind of goes Hollywood with its slow motion effects and wide angle shots with the gunfire. I am amazed that this scene didn’t feature civilian casualties, yet a scene earlier in the film took place in a drug den where some addicts were shot.
However, this scene in the climax actually stood out because it showed a kind of realistic end to the titular character, as well as a different side that didn’t want to see his brother get killed. I mean when I first saw it, I wasn’t sure if Bullet would make it, but it was unexpected.
When I watched the featurette, the director said something about how the movie itself about that there is some good in some people. Really, Bullet was not a good person. You weren’t supposed to root for him at all. It was like Caine in “Menace II Society” who was a criminal who was raised on the streets and had little interest in changing his ways but there was also a character who was worse than he was that he seemed like a saint compared to him. Here, it seemed that Bullet didn’t want to see his brother get hurt.
Another thing that I should talk about is Tupac’s performance. It felt like Tank was a cross between Bishop and Birdie. Tank was as crazy and intimidating as Bishop but was also as powerful and established as Birdie. Not to say Birdie was not intimidating but he was a little more subdued than Bishop. Here, it was like a cross between the two characters. It also amazes me how given that this movie was filmed in 1994, which meant that Pac was only 23 at the time of filming, it’s heavily suggested that he was playing someone older than his actual age. Then again, it’s implied about Ted Levine’s character being a Vietnam vet when he was about 36 or 37 when this film was shot. He was probably supposed to be older. Of course, he did well in his role as someone who is shell-shocked and suffers from PTSD, as well as how the character talks.
Overall, I can see that this is a movie that is long forgotten. Yes, I know we are about three decades removed from this film’s release but even at that time or after that, like in the 2000s, I doubt people around me knew of its existence. While I do think it’s good for what it is, I don’t think it’s for everybody. It’s gritty, it’s raw, it’s realistic for the most part and that may turn off some viewers. If you can handle that, then I would recommend it.
Production Companies: New Line Cinema (later acquired by Warner Media) and Medina/Pollack Entertainment
Here I am with another review/retrospective for my Tupac Shakur marathon. It’s weird to think that while Tupac was alive, he only did six films (not counting “Nothing But Trouble”) and I wonder if he would have done more if his untimely death didn’t happen. So many things to think about.
I had seen this movie a handful of times before. The first time being back in 2001 when I caught it on TBS. Granted, it was the TV cut, but aside from dubbing over profanity, there really wasn’t a lot censored as there was no sexual content at all and the violence wasn’t all that severe that it had to be edited. Although I will note that with the soundtrack, some songs were the clean versions, some of which were re-recorded songs with different lyrics. That’s about as far as I could go with my personal history with the film, except for maybe the soundtrack album but that’s a different topic altogether. Yes, I did see this movie a few times before and did enjoy it, but it isn’t something that I would call one of my favorites.
That isn’t to say that I don’t have some things to say about it, however. I did say I liked the film.
It was not until now that I found out that this movie was not only directed by the late Jeff Pollack, who had directed other films (I know I’ve seen one other one, “Booty Call”), but he also co-produced and co-wrote this film. If he had a lot to do with this film, something tells me that this was a project that he wanted to get off the ground. I had read that during the production, Allen Payne (“New Jack City”) was considered to play the lead role but Pollack turned it down in favor of Duane Martin, who played the main character, Kyle-Lee Watson.
So the plot goes like this. The film starts off with two teenage basketball players playing on the rooftop of a building and one guy wants to show that he could jump high enough to touch the backboard of a basketball hoop, he does so but breaks through and falls to his death. Given how dimly let the setting was, it has hard to tell where the two friends were, unless you play close attention to a skylight nearby in a wide-angle camera shot. Then it turns out was a dream (or flashback) when Thomas Sheppard, or as he went by, Shep (Played by Leon; he has a full name but was just credited by his first name), woke up. It turned out he was the one who survived and then it cuts to another scene at a high school basketball game. The gist of the story involves Kyle-Lee Watson, who is a star player on the team and hoping to get a shot at playing at a university, causing a loss for the team because he often hogs the ball, leaving other players and his coach to confront him about it. We then find out that Shep started working as a security guard at the school.
Over the course of the film, Kyle comes across other people and is torn between who he should align with for influence for his future, which includes local gang leader, Birdie (Tupac Shakur), who has quite an influence and clout on the streets that he can make things happen. Oh, and Kyle’s old friend Bugaloo (Marlon Wayans) is the one who introduces Kyle to Birdie. While the narrative primarily focuses on Kyle, there is also focus on Shep, who still deals with pain over the loss of his friend, and also his familial relationship with Birdie, who happens to be his brother.
So basically, while basketball is the aesthetic for the plot, the real story is about connections and choice. Throughout the film, you can see that some of the negative influences can lead to negative consequences, as well as a positive influence being close by but not realizing it until a certain point.
What’s interesting is that while some elements aren’t fully explored, it’s possible that Pollack went for some elements to be interpreted. For example, one scene had Shep encounter a homeless man named Flip (the late Bernie Mac) and the two knew each other. It’s implied that the two had history from their school days and that Flip had played basketball. It didn’t get fully explored but it’s implied and left for interpretation. So while things aren’t fully explained, when you go back and watch it again, things start to make more sense.
Unlike “Juice,” Shakur’s performance as Birdie is a lot more subdued than as Bishop. What sets them apart is that Bishop wanted power and respect but was also a scared young man deep down, while Birdie is already a respected (and likely feared) gang leader who has the kind of influence that if someone does what he says, they’ll do it and will order a hit on someone if the person crosses him. Yes, Bishop was terrifying in some scenes, but Birdie has that air about him that while he may seem respectful at first, he is more dangerous than he initially lets on and it showed as the film progressed.
To establish Shep and Birdie’s relationship, this scene showed a lot of Tupac’s acting ability. It was one of the best scenes in the film. It also established the two characters’ personal faults.
The film also provided some comic relief in some scenes with Wayans and Mac, especially with the two being comedians. It didn’t hurt to have some funny bits in a serious movie.
I also have to talk about the basketball scenes. It was clear that Pollack knew what he was doing when directing and editing the scenes but you had some quick cuts and close-ups during bits when one shot would change and then a shot of a basket being made. Whether there was a wide-angle shot, a close-up, or a quick montage, the editing made those shots feel intense.
Here is a good example of that. It was the film’s climax, by the way.
Because this came out at a time when “hood movies” were more prevalent, a lot of the time there was a soundtrack to come out with the film. You could say that some films were used to promote music soundtrack albums back in the day. Hell, it was often shown in the production credits on the poster and some of the time, trailers and TV spots would have a list of artists on the soundtrack. This film was a good example of that as it not only had some songs to go with the setting but also had one of the hottest labels at the time, Death Row Records, to promote their music. Not to go into the soundtrack fully because I would rather go into it in another post, but for a movie set in New York City, there was a lot of West Coast rap in it. I know that Death Row did the soundtrack, but with that being mostly a West Coast label, it seemed a little out of place. Yes, there was some East Coast rap in the film but not on the soundtrack album. That’s just my opinion, though.
I think I appreciate this film more now than when I watched it before. I didn’t say I didn’t like the film. I liked the film okay but it seems that whenever I watch it more times, I can appreciate different aspects about it. This film is no exception. I know that it’s been nearly three decades since it came out but with this film having a low budget, it barely doubled the amount. Yes, I know that ticket prices were lower in the 1990s but this film was not that big of a hit. Not saying it needed to be, but even when I talked about with people I knew back in my teens (in the early-2000s), some people said they had never heard of it. I mean I wouldn’t rate it too high but I still like the film okay, if fine. A lot of the basketball scenes were done well. The story actually worked when looking at the perspectives of the three main characters.
After 27 years, it seems that the unsolved murder of Tupac Shakur may finally draw to a close. It’s crazy to think that after all this time, this whole thing can be put to rest. But why did it take so long?
I can tell you what I remember where I was at the time of this happening. I was in fifth grade, so I was about 10 years old. Even at that age, because I was exposed to hip-hop early, I remember that Tupac was at the height of his career. Now granted, I didn’t pay too much attention to what had happened at the time like his beef with Biggie, as well as the controversy surrounding Death Row’s working environment. But I remembered that “All Eyez on Me” was a hot seller and many singles came from that album when it was released in early 1996.
Of course, a lot of people know what happened. He went to Las Vegas for a Mike Tyson fight and he, along with Marion “Suge” Knight (the owner of Death Row Records; pronounced “shug”), were riding along the street and then shots were fired. It wasn’t until much later, like in my teens, when I found out more details of what led up to it. I had watched documentaries like “Tupac: Resurrection” and “Welcome to Death Row.” It had been a long time since I had last watched them, but I recall there was a lot covered in them. One thing that I learned when I was in my teens was that Orlando Anderson, a Crip from LA, had gotten into a fight with Suge and some of his entourage in a casino while Tupac walked away from the chaos as shown in security footage at the time. Then when Suge and Pac left the hotel, that’s when it all went down when they stopped at a red light and a car pulled up beside them and then someone opened fire on them.
For nearly 30 years, there had been a lot of theories surrounding the unsolved murder. Many have speculated that Suge Knight had Tupac killed. Some speculated it was someone connected to Orlando Anderson. Okay, let me get into that for a bit. I mentioned that Anderson was a Crip. Suge and some of his boys were Bloods. In fact, back then, it was well known that Death Row had a lot of people with gang affiliations working for them. Sure, I could talk about some of their talent like Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, Daz Dillinger, Nate Dogg (RIP), and others in that crew because they were affiliated with the Crips. However, it wasn’t just talent, as Suge had some guys who were Bloods working as security as well as working other jobs for the label. Given Suge’s reputation, he probably got into some stuff with some Crips which caused them to follow Suge and his crew to Vegas. According to an article from National Public Radio, Anderson was a suspect in the case but was then killed in a gang-related shootout in 1998.
Another speculation was that Sean “P. Diddy” Combs (who was called “Puffy” or “Puff Daddy” at that time) had something to do with it. Tupac was in a widely-known feud at the time with The Notorious B.I.G. (aka Biggie Smalls), who was signed to Combs’s record label, Bad Boy Records. In fact, Tupac had done the well-known diss track, “Hit ’em Up” with his crew, The Outlawz, at that time where he boasted about sleeping with Biggie’s wife and R&B singer, Faith Evans, along with dissing others connected to him like Junior M.A.F.I.A., among others. Their feud was the result of a shooting that took place in a recording studio in New York in late 1994 when Biggie was recording music and Tupac, who was Biggie’s friend at the time, went there to meet up with him but was then cornered, robbed, and then shot by some people, according to an NPR article. Pac thought Biggie had set him up.
So where do I stand with this? Personally, I would hope that this would draw to a close after nearly three decades. I had watched videos from vladtv and The Art of Dialogue that talked about this subject. One thing that stood out from a Vlad video was one guy implying he knew more but wasn’t going to say who the shooter was. Many murders have gone unsolved and have taken a long time to finally solve them. Hence why they are called “cold cases.” While the investigation may take a long time, give it weeks or months, I just hope that not only does the case end but also that Biggie’s murder could finally be resolved. I remember when I watched the “Biggie and Tupac” documentary that there was a lot of speculation that it was a couple of crooked LAPD cops who were connected with Death Row who had something to do with it but to this day, it is still unsolved.
After 27 years, it’s finally time to put it to rest. It may have taken a long time but at least we are finally getting somewhere.
Production Companies: Columbia Pictures, along with A New Deal/Nickel
Here is the second part of my Tupac Shakur movie marathon. What’s weird is that this coincided with some news about a lead involving Tupac’s unsolved murder and that I am doing this a few days shy of this film’s 30th anniversary since its release. Probably would have been more appropriate to wait a few days but I have some more to cover. As for the other subject regarding his unsolved murder, I will touch on that in a different post.
I wanted to talk about this film. I will do “Above the Rim” next as I am doing them all in order of release. I may also do a re-review of “All Eyez on Me” and possibly cover documentaries, but I am getting ahead of myself.
Although the poster for this only features Janet Jackson and she received top billing, this is very much a Tupac movie because he was one of the leads and later on when the film was released on DVD (back when VHS was going out of style and people converted to DVD) that he was featured on the cover art with his name on there. It has been a thing for more than two decades now. Then again, this was at the time when Janet Jackson was still huge and Tupac, while popular enough, he only had “2Pacalypse Now” and the year this film came out, “Strictly 4 My N.*.*.*.A.Z.” was released. I will note that I was rather iffy about writing it out fully but bear in mind that the term for that album was an acronym for “Never ignorant, getting goals accomplished.” Anyway, he may have had singles like “Trapped,” “Brenda’s Got a Baby,” and “I Get Around” up to that point but he hit his stride when he came out with “Me Against the World” and of course, “All Eyez on Me,” and I mean the album with that name.
What also must be of note is that this film was also written and directed by the late John Singleton. I had seen a lot of his films, many of which I should cover here. With this being his second film after “Boyz N the Hood,” how does it compare? Well, let’s see.
One thing that separates this film from “Boyz N the Hood” is that this is less of a hood movie and more of a road movie. While the first 20 minutes are spent in the ghetto to give some insight to the major characters and their environment, much of the rest was spent on the road. Interestingly enough, the movie starts off with what feels like a different movie altogether as you see Billy Zane and Lori Petty doing some kind of cheesy scene, only for it to be a fake-out and show that it’s a movie within a movie as it’s shown at a drive-in theater. So this is a prologue where it shows the titular character Justice (Janet Jackson) and her boyfriend Markel (played by Q-Tip). I never noticed this, but while “Between the Sheets” from The Isley Brothers was played in the fake movie, you get a remix of “Bonita Applebum” by A Tribe Called Quest with a similar beat to the former while Q-Tip rapping his verse. Something tells me a deal was made with Q-Tip for that scene or someone wanted to include it. I put on the commentary but nothing was mentioned about the use of that song which just happened to coincide with Q-Tip’s appearance.
Anyway, so the prologue leads to some violence, particularly Q-Tip’s character’s death and sets up the plot. So Justice has been through a lot since her boyfriend’s murder and works as a hairstylist and writes poetry in her spare time. Many friends of hers tell that she should move on and try to meet a man. Of course, part of the plot involves Lucky (Tupac), a mailman who has a daughter with either an ex-girlfriend or just someone he had meaningless sex with, not to mention is a drug addict. Of course, something happens when the baby’s mother was in another room about to have sex while her kids are in the living room just watching TV, causing Lucky to take his daughter away from the mother. The main part of the plot is that Justice and her friend Iesha (Regina King) have to go to Oakland for some fashion event, while Lucky and Chicago (Joe Torry) have to do a mail run out to Oakland. Did I mention that Chicago and Iesha were together? It leads to the two pairs together on the trip.
While the plot involves some things the quartet endure along the way, such as changes in relationships, a lot of the movie has a genre mix of drama, road movie, and romance. When I listened to a bit of the commentary, Singleton stated that he wanted to do a “street romance.” It was written on the promotional artwork for this film.
The story itself does work and I could say that Singleton had an interesting story and script. A lot of the acting felt real, especially from Janet Jackson and Regina King. They did feel like people who grew up in the hood. I could also say that Joe Torry and Tupac Shakur did fine in their roles. Sure, a couple of characters were not the most likable, but I think Singleton was trying to go for a realistic feel. However, Tupac and Janet didn’t have the greatest chemistry in this film. I had seen this movie a few times before but watching it again after such a long time, it’s clear that their romance didn’t feel genuine. While they may have looked good together, there were things about their romance that didn’t click. I had read a lot of sources that talked about Janet not liking Tupac and also that Pac refused to take an AIDS test for a love scene. For many years, Singleton had covered it up by saying it was a hoax, but according to trivia on the TV Tropes website, the film’s producer Steve Nicolaides, as well as Pac’s brother Mopreme confirmed that there was some friction between the two leads.
I have to also say that I had noticed some actors in “Boyz N the Hood” had appeared in this. I had noticed a number of them in past viewings but in my most recent viewing, I had noticed more of them in here. I know this was a John Singleton film, so I guess he and some others called some of the actors and asked them if they wanted to appear in this film. There was also a line from Iesha about “Monster and Dookie,” a couple of Doughboy’s friends from that film. While I saw the guy who played Dookie in one scene, as well as the guy who shot Ricky at the beginning, I wonder if this film was set in the same continuity as “Boyz N the Hood.”
Overall, while this movie may not be as captivating as “Boyz N the Hood” was, I would say this movie is just fine. I liked some of the camera work and editing in some scenes. Janet and Pac did fine in their roles but their romance wasn’t that believable. However, I could say that I enjoyed it okay.
Production Companies: Paramount Pictures/Island World/Moritz-Heyman (later known as Original Film)
Hello, everyone. I am starting a different series at the moment. I am not done with the other one involving “The Hip-Hop Martial Arts Trilogy” that I did before where the next step was to cover the soundtrack albums. I will get to those. I am just on a bit of a break from that at the moment. So right now, my main interest is covering all of the movies Tupac Shakur was in, at least as a character because I am not sure about covering 1991’s “Nothing But Trouble,” which had him appear as a part of Digital Underground in one scene. Not sure if it really should count, unless I do a bonus post of a particular scene.
With that being said, I felt that this was the best place to start. So I may cover his films in order of release, which may mean I will cover “Poetic Justice,” “Above the Rim,” “Bullet,” “Gridlock’d,” and “Gang Related.” Yes, he was only six films, at least as a character, so here I go.
I was a little kid when this film came out but I first acknowledged its existence when it came out on video. I was about 6 years old when it came to video and I remembered seeing the display poster at Blockbuster Video back in those days but I was never sure what the movie was about. It wasn’t until about 2001 (at the age of 15) when I caught it on BET that I first watched it, or at least a good portion of it. Despite the censors of the language, the violence was still intact, and this movie got pretty violent (though not as much as “Menace II Society,” which is something I may need to touch on). When I was younger, being a hip-hop head as well, I had a fascination with “hood movies,” at least that what they were perceived as. It was more common during the 1990s that these types of films came out, such as “Boyz N the Hood,” the aforementioned “Menace II Society,” “New Jack City,” “New Jersey Drive,” “Clockers,” “Fresh,” etc. It was a common thing during that time when it came to black cinema. Even in the late-1980s at the turn of the decade, there were other examples like 1989’s “Do the Right Thing.”
I had seen this one a few times before, actually. In more recent times, things started to become clearer to me in terms of story.
Before I get into the film, I had heard on a video from a YouTube channel called Axiom Amnesia that a script had been written much earlier and the director Ernest Dickerson (who had later on directed “Bones,” another film I covered a while back) had wanted to do it in the early-1980s but with being greenlighted in the 1990s, it’s hard to imagine this with a more early-1980s (with some shades of the late-1970s) added into a story like this. I had also watched an interview with the main cast about the auditions and how it was hard to get certain parts and they were hired for the roles they ended up playing.
What’s interesting about this movie is that there is a genre shift about more than 1/3 of the way through, but there was a gradual buildup to the shift. Because when you really think about it, the whole plot was a coming-of-story about four teenagers whose innocence was lost after experiencing some unfortunate events brought on by one of the main characters. The movie went from sequences of the quartet skipping school and messing around to the remaining characters fearing for their lives after said unfortunate incident, especially since (SPOILER ALERT) one of them gets killed. Of course, there are also subplots, such as Q (Omar Epps) having aspirations to become a DJ. At the end of the day, they all want respect, power, in other words, juice, hence its title, but there is also a hidden message related to friendship in the plot.
When you really look deep into the characters, there is often some depth to them than what is displayed on the surface. For example, Bishop (Tupac Shakur) may have been the antagonist for the better part of the film, but there was also some pain and suffering deep down. The rest of them, like Q, Raheem (Khalil Kain), and Steel (Jermaine Hopkins) all getting involved in the mix that led up to that fateful point, and the chemistry between the leads was good enough that you felt like they were friends that had known each other for years.
Acting aside, I also have to admire the direction that Dickerson took with the camera work. Many scenes complemented the emotions of the characters, as well as the tones of said scene. For example, one scene had the camera moving around to give off Q’s feeling after witnessing a horrific event. Then you had this scene, and I could even talk about the performance from both Omar and Pac, because this is one scene that stood out when I saw it on TV back in the day.
Pac gave off a chilling performance that he felt terrifying in this scene. Then you have this scene, which was in the finale, that gave off a mix of action and horror, and for some reason it works.
It’s hard to imagine how dark things took when earlier on, you had scenes like this earlier in the film.
Something tells me I should read the script to see how it all went down and maybe watch it with the commentary. Like I said, the change in tones actually worked because when watching it again, many of the plot elements actually made sense. As I also said about the camera work, there was also a scene where you look in the eyes of Bishop, who was being hassled by the character of Radames (Vincent Laresca) and then what you see in the foreground goes out of focus to shift focus on Q and Steel.
As for other things, the soundtrack to this movie is still fire after all these years. It really adds to the environment of Harlem and the time period this movie came out in, even when you hear Bay Area (California) rappers such as Too Short and Pooh Man on the soundtrack. Even the R&B songs give off the vibe of the early-1990s. Speaking of music, I also saw a lot of cameos in this film. Queen Latifah played the emcee for the DJ competition. Treach (of Naughty By Nature) was one of Radames’s goons. Also, if you look closely at one scene in a bar, you will see Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith sitting there. This was when they were still EPMD. In fact, the soundtrack still holds up now that I must cover it eventually.
Another thing I found interesting was that this game actually had a scene where the first “Street Fighter” game was shown. This film was likely shot in either 1990 or 1991 (it came out at the start of 1992, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was originally slated for a 1991 release). This was also before the release of “Street Fighter II,” which helped popularize fighting games in that time.
This movie holds up after all these years. I may have seen it a few times but I still get chills seeing Pac as Bishop. Omar Epps went on to have a good career after this as he was in “Higher Learning” a few years later and then in the 2000s, he was on the doctor show, “House.” I would have to say a lot of this film with the message it conveys, as well as a lot of the technical aspects, and of course, the music.
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