All Eyez On Me Review

I just saw the movie All Eyez on Me in theaters the other night.  Going into the movie, I didn’t think it would be that good, due to all the bad reviews it got online, but it turned out to be a pretty good biopic.

The movie was pretty straightforward, and seemed to be accurate and detailed on the life of Tupac Shakur.  The soundtrack was great, and the movie flowed along pretty well, even though it was a little bit too long.  The one part of the movie that I thought went by a little too fast was when Tupac was first introduced into the music industry.  It only really showed when he was brought into Digital Underground, and it also didn’t really focus on any of his musical inspirations.

One great aspect of the movie was how the director made sure to get all of Tupac’s important relationships of his life into the movie.  The director even made sure to make his relationship with Jada Pinkett Smith an important part of the movie.  I felt like they did a great job portraying the relationship between Tupac and his mom, and showed the struggle he went through with her, but it seemed like they over-dramatized some scenes she was in.  Like the scene where she just got out of the jail Tupac was in and she walked back to the taxi, very, very slowly, and she dramatically signed a paper a guard gave her, now that was a little much.

I feel like the movie definitely shows the true side of Tupac though.  They weren’t trying to make him look like a superhero or anything, they showed his good side, and his bad side.  Another thing they did was they showed what actually happened with him and some of his big controversies, like the rape charges against him.  The director made sure to show what actually happened, and how the justice system was corrupted against Tupac.

Tupac’s relationship with Notorious B.I.G was another important part of the movie.  I like how they included Biggie a lot in the film, and how they made sure to show what caused Tupac to be enemies with Biggie.  They showed this in a scene where Tupac was in jail and in the jail’s courtyard, then he hears Biggie’s song “Who Shot Ya?”  This is where Tupac then thinks that Biggie set up the shooting and jumping of Tupac at the hotel Tupac was shot at before going to jail.  When Tupac thinks Biggie did this, he made sure to diss him and create a beef with Biggie when he got out of jail, and that’s exactly what he did when Suge Knight bailed him out.

The reason why showing Tupac’s beef with Biggie was important wasn’t just due to how it was a big part of Tupac’s life and career, but it also caused Tupac’s death.  People think that because Tupac made that diss record against Biggie, people in Biggie’s crew shot him when he was in Las Vegas.  There are many other theories to why Tupac was shot dead, but that’s definitely a big one.

All Eyez On Me was a great biopic, considering how many things the movie had to show or include since Tupac lived a very interesting life.  Although the movie is long, it definitely keeps you entertained, and it’s like you’re watching Tupac play himself, since the actor who plays him, Demetrius Shipp Jr., looks JUST like him.

Movie Grade: 7/10