Review: ‘Notorious’

Melissa:

For those of you that do not know… I grew up in a very small town in Illinois where rap music reigned supreme. Tupac, Notorious B.I.G, Bone Thugs & Harmony and Lil Kim were just a few “must haves” that you heard every Friday and Saturday night while cruising the strip. (From the Pizza Hut to the McDonald’s… sometimes we would even loiter in the Walgreen’s parking lot… ooohhhh).

Having grown up listening to Notorious B.I.G., I was expecting to somewhat enjoy this movie. I mean, the man was shot to death at the height of his career, not to even reach his mid-20’s. There has to be a good story here…right?

‘Notorious’ is the story of Christopher Wallace (played by Jamal Woolard), a kid from Brooklyn who falls in with the wrong crowd. Not only is he discovering that he is a good drug dealer, but that he is a good rapper too. It becomes a matter of making money or giving it all up for a chance at the music industry. I think it’s safe to say that we all know what he did! The story takes you through his street dealing, prison, womanizing, and to his finding love with Faith Evans (Antonique Smith). It also takes you into the East coast vs. West Coast war that eventually led to his death.

Jamal Woolard makes a good Christopher Wallace. He really had the character of Notorious B.I.G. down. The only problem was, it seems like that is the only character that they really concentrated on in casting. The casting for this movie was horrible.

Derek Luke did not carry the persona of Sean “Puffy” Combs well at all. Sure he was smooth like Diddy, but he lacked that powerful presence that Sean Combs possesses. When Sean Combs walks in a room, you feel that presence, that power… the sensation that he owns everything and everyone in that room. I mean, this guy is a big chunk of the music industry. Luke did not convey this in the slightest.

Anthony Mackie was a horrible Tupac Shakur! Sure he had the kind of hyper personality trait of Tupac down, but here is a question. Wasn’t Tupac Shakur a sexy ladies man? Tupac was a poet, an actor, a rapper… but amongst all of those things, he exuded sex appeal. They put some guy acting like a skinny spazz in the roll of a buff, sexually charged rapper. How is an actor like that suppose to play the guy who made women’s knees weak with his shirt off and rapping to “How Do You Want It?”. I’m guessing the reason that they played Tupac down is that this is a bias story based on the life of Biggie Smalls. Might as well play the enemy down right?

I can also see where Lil Kim is mad. The acting of Naturi Naughton was decent, but she didn’t rap quite like Lil Kim. Plus they made Lil Kim out to be just some dumb, easy girl that let Biggie treat her like crap. Heck, I’d be mad too! They gave her character no respect.

The story didn’t flow well either. I was bored through half of the movie. It was choppy and, to be honest, seemed like it was just throw together. I get the impression that they knew that they would make money off of this film, so other than casting Christoper Wallace’s role, they just threw a movie together. They didn’t have to try, because people are going to go see it anyway. Well, if you ask me… don’t.

[Overall: 1.75 stars out of 5]