DVD Review: Notorious (Three-Disc Edition + Digital Copy): Angela Bassett, John Ventimiglia, Charles Malik Whitfield, Marc John Jefferies, Aunjanue Ellis, Derek Luke, Anthony Mackie, Antonique Smith, Kevin L. Phillips, Dennis White, Jamal Woolard, Naturi Naughton, Julia Pace Mitchell, Christopher Jordan Wallace, Michael Grady, Danny Elfman, Jr. George Tillman, Steven Rosenblum, Dirk Westervelt: Movies & TV
DVD Review: Notorious (Three-Disc Edition + Digital Copy): Angela Bassett, John Ventimiglia, Charles Malik Whitfield, Marc John Jefferies, Aunjanue Ellis, Derek Luke, Anthony Mackie, Antonique Smith, Kevin L. Phillips, Dennis White, Jamal Woolard, Naturi Naughton, Julia Pace Mitchell, Christopher Jordan Wallace, Michael Grady, Danny Elfman, Jr. George Tillman, Steven Rosenblum, Dirk Westervelt: Movies & TV
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In music terms, Brooklyn’s Christopher “Biggie Smalls” Wallace was a hip-hop superstar to rival Oakland’s Tupac Shakur. In movie terms, however, 2Pac has long overshadowed B.I.G. with the films he made as an actor and the documentaries that followed in the wake of his similarly-unsolved murder. George Tillman Jr. (Soul Food, Men of Honor) aims to correct that imbalance with Notorious, the authorized biography of the larger-than-life New York rapper. Produced by his mother, Voletta Wallace (played by Angela Bassett), and record producer Sean “Puffy” Combs (Derek Luke), Tillman presents Biggie as a bright child who grew up to be a drug dealer before finding his true calling on stage, only to be cut down in the prime of life. In his feature-film debut, Jamal “Gravy” Woolard captures Biggie’s complexity–the loyalty to his crew, the disloyalty to his ladies (including Lil’ Kim and Faith Evans)–but struggles to make him as sympathetic as the figure that emerges in Nick Broomfield’s Biggie & Tupac, simply because the script relies too heavily on the usual musical-bio clichés. Fortunately, several bright spots elevate the scenario, such as Anthony Mackie as Pac, Christopher Wallace Jr. as young Biggie, and Woolard’s rapping, which segues seamlessly into B.I.G.’s (the soundtrack mixes original tracks with remakes). If Notorious isn’t a failure, it isn’t a triumph either, but Tillman has crafted it with love and respect, and only a stone could remain unmoved by the real-life funeral footage at the end. –Kathleen C. Fennessy
Stills from Notorious (Click for larger image)
Great Music Biopic For the Hip Hop Genre,
By Rubin Farr “jedi4q2″
(USA) -
This review is from: Notorious [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)
Saw this when it was in theaters, and was pleasantly surprised it did not disappoint. What put this film over the top was the excellent casting; the characters of Biggie, Faith Evans, Lil Kim, and even Tupac and Voletta Wallace (played by Angela Bassett) made this a believable account of what happened between these intersecting lives that left such a mark on musical history, and ultimately, a tragedy. You really felt for young Christopher as he grew up in the 80’s admiring the rising hip hop stars of the day, and perfecting his rhyming skills on the street, while trying to avoid the perils of drugs and crime. What I liked most about this film was the humanity they brought to his character, making him seem like more of a real person than a musical icon. He wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but he was trying to be a good person, no matter what obstacles life threw in his way. Ultimately this is a tale of a flawed individual, as we all are, who was lucky enough to raise himself out of the conditions he found himself in, and tried to make his mark on history, which ultimately, he did.
By the numbers hagiography,
By Turfseer (New York, N.Y.) -
‘Notorious’ is the story of Christopher Wallace aka Biggie Smalls who became one of the most popular rap artists in the 1990s until he was gun downed at the very young age of 24. Biggie is played by newcomer Jamal Woolard who does a decent job playing Wallace, considering he never acted before.
The first 45 minutes of the film are the most interesting as it focuses on Biggie’s early career as a drug dealer. He’s constantly arguing with his mother (played by the always solid Angela Bassett) who finally throws him out of the house after he won’t give up his drug-dealing ways. Eventually he lands in jail where he starts writing rap lyrics which he eventually fashions into full-fledged songs in the recording studio. The era is ably recreated as we’re given a sense of how rap music developed during the 1980s and early 90s.
After his release from jail, Biggie starts building a reputation as a talented rapper in his Brooklyn neighborhood. He becomes a protégé of up and coming producer Sean “Puffy” Combs (one of the producers of the movie) who takes him under his wing. When Puffy is fired, Biggie goes back to drug-dealing only to find himself arrested again. This time however, a friend offers to take the rap on a gun charge and Biggie has a second chance to resume his career.
The rest of the movie chronicles Biggie’s eventual rise to the top. I was a little uncertain as to how Biggie actually got there. At one point he’s ‘paying his dues’ playing college gigs at places like Howard University. The next thing you know he’s got a number one hit record.
If one is to believe the screenwriters, despite Biggie’s involvement in the violent world of rap music, he was really a big Teddy Bear at heart. He’s a character who can basically do no wrong. Even though he cheats on the three women he’s closest to (the mother of his child, his wife and Lil Kim, fellow rap artist and lover), they all forgive this Teddy Bear despite his boorish behavior.
Notorious lacks a central external antagonist who Biggie is pitted against throughout the movie. If there is an antagonist, it’s got to be Tupac Shakur, the West Coast rapper who had a falling out with Biggie after he was shot outside a NYC recording studio. There are few dramatic scenes between Biggie and Tupac in Notorious and the relationship is mainly fleshed out through the use of an off-screen narrator. While Biggie admires Tupac as a philosopher and activist, he also perceives him as a loose cannon. According to Biggie’s version, after Tupac was shot for the first time, he became completely paranoid and believed everyone was after him (including Biggie).
As Biggie tells it, he made attempts to reconcile with Tupac but it never really worked out. Meanwhile the media played up the “East Coast-West Coast rivalry” which may have eventually led to the assassination of both Tupac and Biggie. The ‘rivalry’ is explained through a montage sequence which made me feel I was watching a documentary and not a feature film.
The second half of Notorious mainly involves Biggie’s internal struggles, particularly in the area of becoming a more responsible adult. Again, if you believe the screenwriters, despite acting irresponsibly with women and immersing himself in the thuggish, materialistic world of rap music (an involvement in a world which eventually led to his death), Biggie managed to stay ‘above the fray’. The point is made that his second (and last) album revealed a more ’sensitive’ side and that he was turning away from violence right before he died.
One gets a feeling that the writers of Notorious have little information as to Biggie’s dealings in his behind the scenes business world. Certainly they offer no theories as to who did him in. Instead, we’re treated to all the histrionics of his volatile relationships with women (which basically proves that he was a ‘ladies man’ and nothing much else). By focusing mainly on his relations with women, we only get to see one side of Biggie and I didn’t feel this was a complete, rounded picture.
Probably the weakest character in the film is Puffy Combs. Since he’s one of the film’s producers, it’s not in his interest to suggest anything controversial about his own character. Thus, Derek Luke has little to do in this film except act the part of a glorified cheerleader.
Notorious touches on all the bases of Christopher Wallace’s life. For those unfamiliar with all the details, it’s a modestly interesting and somewhat entertaining story. Nonetheless, the filmmakers chose to place their protagonist on a pedestal. By doing so, they imply that Biggie was detached from the violent world which he was a part of. That somehow he was an unsuspecting victim who had nothing to do with his own demise. The truth was probably somewhere in the middle–that at times he could be Biggie the Teddy Bear and at other times, Biggie the Thug. Instead of a hagiography, Notorious needed to present more of a balanced portrait but it settled for an excessively sentimental and by the numbers treatment which earns it an average “3″ in my book.
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