DVD Review: ‘Notorious’

The Movie:

This movie didnt appeal to me at all even though I was a big fan of Notorious BIG, but after watching it my tune has definitely changed. Although this biopic doesnt play on the negative and the positive of the situation with the east coast/west coast issue, you do get a good feel of pretty much how things were going on at least 1 side of it. It paints a picture of Biggie being just an innocent bystander in the whole situation and we all know that cannot be true.

The roles in the movie were cast perfectly as everyone gave fantastic performances in their roles. Jamal Woolard plays Biggie so flawlessly you almost feel like the entire movie was made with Mr Wallace portraying himself. Also Naturi Naughton from the group 3LW does an amazing job as Lil Kim in the film, look for it to launch a rap career for the one time R&B singer.

My only gripe outside of the oneside nature from this film are the casting choices for Sean Combs(P. Diddy) and Tupac. Now, I dont know if they purposely cast someone in the role of Tupac that didnt look like him, have the same swagger and just comes off as cheesy but Anthony Mackie definitely did not pull off the role. Also although Derek Luke somewhat looks like Mr Combs, I just see him as a lot of other characters and didnt buy him as the hip hop mogul. They would have been better off casting someone less known or recognizable.

Overall this is a great biopic with a story that is gripping and inspiring. I will definitely watch it again, and you should go out and pick this one up.

The DVD:

I snagged the 3 disc special edition which contains a digital copy of the movie as well as the directors cut of the film. The 2nd disc has some great bonus features like the Making of featurette, some never before seen BIG performances, deleted scenes and a really cool feature about the lyrics of Notorious BIG. Definitely snag the 3 disc if you go out and buy this one.

Overall: 4 out of 5