All Eyez On Me

All Eyez on Me Story: An authorised biopic of the slain rapper Tupac Shakur leading from the time he got famous until his violent death.

All Eyez on Me Review: Saints and sinners, both have chinks in their armour. And when an ‘official’ biopic is made on these personalities, filmmakers often tend to deify them in the movie. That’s the case with All Eyez on Me; the official biopic of the slain rapper Tupac Shakur.

The film paints Tupac (Demetrius Shipp Jr) as a saint of the ghetto with the soul of a poet who did nothing wrong. There is no question that Tupac was a genius, justly deified in the rap world because of his music. He fused together firepower delivery, a devil-may-care attitude along with a strong sense of social justice in his songs; something never seen in rap music before. He made around 700 songs and went multi-platinum on album sales before he was shot and murdered at 25. But he wasn’t all saint. It’s cringe-worthy then, when the film tries to portray him as one.

Ambitious in the way it tries to tell the entire life story of Tupac, All Eyez on Me presents a bird’s-eye view of Tupac’s rise to fame and the key moments of his career. But it skips the moments which you want to see the method behind the rapper’s madness. The incident where a six-year-old kid is accidentally shot dead by a gun belonging to Tupac is glossed over. Even the gang connections he had in real life which often landed him in trouble, are not mentioned. The biopic shies away from his rough side that and only focusses on how Tupac was wronged by the society at large, and how his rise to fame, fuelled his demise.

Performance wise, the film is rather weak. Demetrius Shipp Jr only looks like Tupac. There’s none of the craziness of the rapper in him which we’ve seen in Tupac’s interviews and his songs. Another huge disappointment is Jarrett Ellis as Snoop Dog, who lacks the nonchalance we see in the real snoop; he only sounds like him, which is comical. Dominic L. Santana as Suge Knight is more a club bouncer than a sharp record executive. And the entire Biggie vs Tupac rivalry is given very little attention.

Since it’s Tupac, the music being brilliant is a no-brainer. However, unlike biopics on rappers in the past like ‘Straight Outta Compton’ or ‘8 Mile’, viewers who aren’t aware of the legacy of Tupac, won’t quite be able to connect with the film. But for fans of Tupac, it’s just the thrill of seeing something about their rap idol on screen. There are better unofficial documentaries on this subject. For those who believe in the controversy theory that Tupac still lives, this movie proves that he’s not among us anymore. Because if he was, this would have been a much better flick.