Category Archives: Three Stars

Notorious (DVD)

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I have mixed feelings about some of these loosely “biographical” hip hop movies that have come out over the past few years. For the most part, they are fairly entertaining, however you can’t help but wonder how much of the movie is actually based on true events. 

Notorious is the story of rapper Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. Notorious B.I.G., a.k.a. Biggie Smalls.  The story follows Biggie from his grade school days all the way to the peak of his career then on to his untimely demise.  The story is your typical “young kid starts hustling in the streets, realizes he has a talent for rhyming, gets record deal and blows up” variety.  What sets this story apart from others like it, is the fact that many of the occurrences in the film were in fact true and highly publicized. While the majority of people only now about these events through various media, the movie does a good job recreating them and showing how certain things actually went down.

The depiction of Biggie’s life in this film is surprisingly positive.  Take that however you want it. Personally, I like Biggie, but I thought the portrayal they gave was a bit too positive for someone caught up in as much dirt as he was.  The actor portraying Big (Jamal Woolard) barely resembles him, other than being big and dark.  Vocally, he does a decent job of imitating Biggie, but at times he slips in and out of Big’s vocal range. He did do a good job of capturing Biggie’s appeal and charm. Even though he is, as self proclaimed “black and ugly as ever” you can’t help but like the guy.  Overall I thought he did a good job portraying as iconic a figure as Biggie Smalls.

Which brings us to the rest of the cast. Sean “Puffy” Combs (played by Derek Luke of Antoinne Fisher / Booby Miles fame) just seemed a bit miscast. I like Fisher and think he’s a great actor, but I don’t think he really captured Combs’ style and swagger very well.  I’m not a fan of Combs, but he definitely has a distinct confidence and arrogance that is all his own. It seemed he was too focused on making Combs appear to be sincere, which is fine, but there were quite a few moments that required him to bust out his ‘bad boy for life’ persona which just never really happened.

The other major character that merits attention is Big’s mother,Voletta Wallace (Angela Bassett).  While the role is a bit cliche also, Bassett does a great job portraying the no-nonsense, tough love Ms. Wallace.   This is probably her best role since ‘Vampire in Brooklyn’.  Ok I’m joking. Nothing can top Vampire in Brooklyn, but all jokes aside she is excellent in this film.

It’s hard to review a film like this without letting your feelings for the artist influence your perception.  All that aside though, Notorious is a decent movie that will keep you entertained the entire time…provided you are a fan of hip hop. Those with no interest in hip hop may be hard pressed to enjoy this film much, as that is the central focus of the entire movie.  With that said, you don’t have to be a hardcore fan to enjoy this, anyone who’s found themselves bobbing their head to a Biggie Smalls track can enjoy this film. Then again if you never have, you probably will by the end of the movie.

The Spirit (DVD)

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The Spirit is the latest movie movie to utilize the widely popular CGI backdrops made famous in films like Sin City and 300.  These two movies have one common thread, that is they are based on the graphic novels of Frank Miller.  The Spirit, however, is Miller’s take on the work of comic writer-artist Will Eisner.  It also marks Miller’s first solo foray into the world of directing. In Sin City, he co-directed with Robert Rodriguez. 300, while based on Miller’s original work, was directed by Watchmen visionary Zack Snyder.  How did Miller fare in his solo directorial debut?  Read on..

Let me start off by saying that despite the many visual similarities between the two movies, The Spirit is NOT Sin City 2. In fact, other than Miller having worked on both films, the two really have nothing in common other than a slightly similar visual style.  The Spirit is the story of a mysterious masked crime fighter of the same name (Gabriel Macht) with  amazing regenerative and healing abilities. He is pitted against his arch nemesis The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), as the two race to recover a missing package whose contents have the potential to doom the entire city. There are a few more details thrown in there, but that is pretty much the entire story.

I don’t have much experience with the source material other than reading a few issues, but let me just say that the movie version is definitely Miller’s interpretation of the Spirit mythos. While it isn’t exactly a bad interpretation, he takes a great deal of liberties with a lot of the characters, from their origins to their actual characteristics. This is actually quite forgivable, as Miller’s version seems more tailored for the big screen.  The problems arise in Miller’s overall presentation.

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Twilight (DVD)

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Before I begin with my review I just wanted to mention that I’ve never read any of the Twilight books, so I am unable to judge the fidelity of this film from its origins. As some of my regular readers already know, I am a huge fan of any story featuring vampires, but opted to skip this in theaters because it seemed more like a chick flick than an actual vampire feature.

To start, I’m calling Twilight your average teen romance. I felt that Twilight set the tone for its upcoming features, and after watching the first of five films (assuming they release one per book), I’m actually looking forward to its sequel. This franchise has the opportunity to put out some excellent films in the future, and it ultimately rests in the hands of director Catherine Hardwicke the producers (thanks NDO for the update) to make everything come together.

The sticking point for me was definitely the forbidden love relationship between Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). There are few films that cast members with chemistry as good at these two, and I think that their pairing was an excellent choice. Pattinson definitely is THE draw for the films female fanbase and is without a doubt the biggest part of this films success. I do acknowledge that Stewart is as important in her own right, but lets be real here, without Pattinson, its hard to imagine this film performing as well as it did at the box office.

Back to the story, I really liked how they portrayed the vampires as much more than just blood lusty monsters. The Cullen family portrayed as “Vegetarians” was an interesting take on vampire lore, and vampires living in daylight (and glittering in the sun) rather than being restricted to the nightlife was a nice twist. I’m curious to know if there are any actual weaknesses for these immortal beings, because it really seems like they have nothing to fear but being murdered by their own kind.

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