I found the first half of Straight Outta Compton to be amazing. Shows NWA's issues with police brutality, Eazy hustling, Dre Djing with World Class Wrecking Crew & Alonzo Harris, Cube being the writer, Ren & Yella contributing, all the things going on that lead them to success, the FBI contacting them, them doing shows, their impact, DOC being a star, Above the Law doing their thing, ruthless....etc
After the first half of the move which was amazing the movie gets too ambitious and forgets what story it wants to tell. The era between 92-95 (and 96) after the group breaks up is just completely blurred.....it's just all over the place. There just seemed to be a bunch of scenes in the 2nd half that didn't contribute anything to the point of what the movie was trying to accomplish.
As much as I loved the scene with Ice Cube getting angry about his contract with Priority Records and taking a baseball bat and destroying the office.....it wasn't needed. They could have just taken out his interactions with the head of priority and had Ice cube go solo and be successful without showing us those priority scenes. They weren't necessary towards showing us the impact NWA had. After a while it just felt like oh, everyone has contract problems over and over again. Ice Cube's beef with Eazy/Heller needed to be shown, as did Dre's beef and Suge getting him and DOC out of their contracts....We didn't need Cube's priority beef.
How was Cube beefing with Priority more important than Dre Day/Real Muthafukkin G's Eazy & Ruthless vs Death Row Beef? That's legit mind boggling to me....
To me, Ice Cube's story could have damn near ended with him leaving NWA, dissing NWA & blowing up after going solo.....maybe have him connect with Dre at some point and how he's doing movies now (Friday....and he needed a Dre track for the soundtrack-Keep Their Heads Ringin", just something to let us know him and Dre were cool throughout the Ruthless/Death Row Beef....maybe a Let me ride video reference) and then bring him back in for the club scene meeting with Eazy where they had their final talk.
Dre meeting his wife Nicole wasn't a necessary scene either....like WTF? Why was that scene even there when Dre smacking Dee Barnes isn't......like it's really a total joke. There needed to be the honesty of NWA's misogyny, especially during the Efil4zaggin time period. I didn't expect this to be there but if Dre meeting Nicole is more important to an NWA movie than Dee barnes to the writers/directors then I feel like I'm being lied to....
They didn't make the best use of time considering how long this movie was. 2pac's scene wasn't needed either considering his run in 95/96 was after Eazy died (they also fukked the sessions up, had Pac recording Hail Mary in 1995 before recording California Love, that didn't happen like that....Hail Mary was recorded in 96. [the entire Makaveli album was recorded during a 3 day period in July of 1996, well after Dre left Death row) I know 2pac got out of jail in 95 but it was pointless when they didn't show things like the Ruthess/Death Row beef or Eazy in the white house (although they mentioned it)
The movie felt like the epitome of the phrase, "History is written by the victors." as opposed to the raw truth.....You can feel the guiding hands of it's executive producers, Dre, Ice Cube, Tamika Wright......it paints them in the best light but not the way that would make for the best story......meanwhile they completely assassinated Suge's character (made him look worse off while not taking the time to address many of their own flaws....I left the theater feeling bad for Suge, thinking he had every right to approach them for how they portrayed him in this movie) Even Tamika Wright looked competent lol
They showed Dre get pulled over n his Ferrari and caught on the highway but changed it around to make it look like he was just driving fast after a fight with Suge when in **reality** he was just racing his car, drunk one night.......he got home to his garage and couldn't find his remote....then the cops caught him. That lead to him violating his probation and having to do time in jail (5 months)......which made him reevaluate his life and the situation at death row and decide that he wanted to go a more positive direction. This was always the most interesting thing part of Dre's life to me.....how even though he didn't grow up being a criminal, the music industry changed him into something he wasn't.....he saw that he was headed down the path of destruction and changed.
In general, I feel like this movie gave us Andre Young and not Dr. Dre.....for a period from say 1991 to 1995 I feel like Dre lost himself in his Dr. Dre character (beating up Dee Barnes, partying out of control (beating people up), he assaulted a police officer in a new orleans hotel, he assaulted a record producer in 1992 breaking his jaw. (
http://articles.latimes.com/…/ent…/ca-2260_1_violent-reality)
He was convicted in both cases, received a fine, probation and a 60 day house arrest.... Dr. Dre also ended up getting shot in the leg.
They made it seem like Dr. Dre didn't initially revel in this Death Row lifestyle before finally realizing the error of his ways when shyt got too hot...........They made dude look like a saint during that era.....while giving Suge no redeeming qualities.
I hated the ending....in some ways they tried to tie it up like, yeah we're gonna get everyone back for an NWA album.....just felt like a typical cheesy hollywood ending when in reality Dre had a lot of regret for the beef with him and Eazy and how he was living his lifestyle but they didn't even show it.....they just put it all on Suge which was unfair to me.
The most telling/ironic thing about this movie was watching Dre make beats by himself and watching Ice Cube write Friday without DJ Pooh. I'm honestly good on biopics executive produced by the artists.......It's just not interesting to watch artist refuse to show their negative qualities and mistakes.
I think if the 2nd half of the movie was just Dre/death row beefing with Eazy/Ruthless...Dre getting out of control, locked up on the PO violation, then Eazy Dying, Dre realizing he let the industry ruin a good thing....I would have enjoyed it a lot more.....everything after the group broke up just felt sloppy. Maybe I'm too hard to please tho.....
Just a few thoughts.
Very well written. I like you're review.
tallking bout him and
ARE MAKING MUSIC...so SHUT THE fukk UP!
