Notorious is the biography of Christopher Wallace, also known as Biggie Smalls, The Notorious B.I.G. Biggie started off as just a little fat kid who loved hip hop. He would write rhymes in his spare time and dream of making money. He lived at home with his mom and they were very close. His father was out of the picture. As a teenager, he got into drug dealing on the streets of Brooklyn and served time behind bars when he was caught with drugs and guns. While in prison, he constantly worked on his lyrics. When he got out he tried making it big with producer Sean “Puffy” Combs. The rest of the story is history. It’s about the life and death of The Notorious B.I.G. This was a really interesting movie since it happened in the 1990s when I was a young kid. It started off really strong but then it the later years it becomes evident that friends of Biggie put this flick together. It leans totally biased towards him. It’s still not a bad movie though.
Jamal Woolard plays Biggie and I don’t think they could have picked a better actor. The dude looks, acts, raps, and talks just like him. He even breathes like him. It’s that “fat guy with something stuck in his throat” kinda tone. He nailed it. If they picked someone that couldn’t pull the part off then it wouldn’t have been as good of a movie. Derek Luke played Puffy and it didn’t exactly fit like the Biggie part but he wasn’t that bad. Another good performance was Anthony Mackie as Tupac Shakur, although he wasn’t in the film too much. I pretty much felt like I was watching a Behind The Music on Biggie’s life. You see all the inside stuff that wasn’t as public as his rap war like his relationship with his mother (Angela Bassett), his first kid’s mom, his fling with Lil’ Kim (Naturi Naughton from 3LW), and then his marriage to Faith Evans (Antonique Smith).
It was weird reliving the East Coast/West Coast stuff. Rap really isn’t like that anymore. I never was a big fan of the music but I do like some jams from the 90s and I remember when things were getting out of control with rappers shooting other rappers. I don’t really remember Biggie and Tupac being that great of friends though but the movie showed them as close friends while they were gaining popularity. When Tupac is shot, he blames Biggie and his crew so that started the whole rap war. Then when Tupac is killed later on in another shooting, the shit hits the fan. The one thing I didn’t like was the fact that whoever wrote the screenplay pretty much cleared Biggie of any involvement even though it was never proven. It was definitely a one sided tale. Basically you watch it and blame Tupac for the whole shitstorm of violence.
In the end the movie is about a man who tries to do good but he’s just in a bad scene. He wants to be a good father, he wants to be close to his mother, and he wants to be famous. But he keeps screwing things up by cheating on his wife, fighting with his “Moms”, and getting involved in a violent scene. In the end, it all catches to him. He’s on top of the world but there’s nowhere else to go but down. I recommend checking this out, especially if you were of a decent age when the real events went down. That always makes it so much more interesting to watch.
IMDB – 5.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 52%
Movie Wiseguys – 6.5/10