Notorious, this film is an awesome effort. Casting was great with a few exceptions. Jamal 'Gravy' Woolard was an excellent choice to portray B.I.G. Angela Bassett as Ms Wallace was perfect as always. They hit the nail on the head with portrayals of Faith, Jan and also Derek Luke as Puffy. However, portrayals of Lil Kim and Tupac suffered grately. In all fairness though, I can't come up one single person that I felt could've accurately played these roles as they are huge, nearly impossible shoes to fill. No disrespect to N'taturi Naughton or Anthony Mackie as they did great but still came off lacking. They are very unique personalities that are extremely difficult mimic with 100% accuracy. Not by any fault of their own but more so doing the best with what they had.
In critiqing the film as a whole, one should keep in mind there are three sides to the story (Big's and Puffy's, Tupac's and the truth). However, this is told from Biggie's and Puffy's cleaned up angelic point of view which hold some discrepancies from what was said by them in interviews and what the film says happened. One thing is the fact that in an interview after Pac was shot and robbed, B.I.G. said he was not packing (carrying a weapon) that night in the studio but, he is clearly seen concealing a gun as to aid in the defense of Tupac when Cease told him Tupac
was being attacked downstairs. In another interview Biggie talked as if they remained upstairs as someone brought Tupac in and sat him down but in the film he raced to the elevator to go down to the lobby of the studio. Once again interviewed, Biggie said when Tupac was brought in the room and seated, he was irate and accusing everyone there of setting him up to be shot. Then goes on to offer that Tupac could've been delirious from gunshot wound to the head. That rubbed me the wrong way as it seemed an attempt to distract attention and place it else where. If claiming innocence, what would be the reason for suggesting an anecdote for a theory someone "might" have? Jumping the gun w/ unwarranted explanations suggests an err of guilt imo. I'm no expert but in all the televised interviews I saw with Biggie and Puffy, the visible nervousness, awkward body language and facial expressions told me something the direct opposite of what came from their mouths. All I've just explained leans toward their innocence hence the way they told Biggie's biographical story with this film. They may be very well telling the truth but remember, that's only 1/3 of the story. The way their story came across as far as the production and the accuracy of basic elements, the film was indeed very good.I commend their impressive effort.
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