Fresno Beehive

Fresno Beehive

Critics, hip-hop community not sold on Tupac biopic

By Joshua Tehee

jtehee@fresnobee.com

June 16, 2017 12:22 PM

Demetrius Shipp Jr. stars as the rapper Tupac Shakur in the film “All Eyez on Me.”
Demetrius Shipp Jr. stars as the rapper Tupac Shakur in the film “All Eyez on Me.” Quantrell Colbert
Demetrius Shipp Jr. stars as the rapper Tupac Shakur in the film “All Eyez on Me.” Quantrell Colbert

The Tupac Shakur biopic, “All Eyez On Me” opened last night, just in time to coincide with the West Coast rapper’s birthday.

It was a decent pre-opening. The movie brought in $3.1 million in ticket sales, according to Forbes. That puts it slightly ahead of Disney’s “Cars 3.” Whether the film’s success will follow into the weekend might depend on how much the rapper’s fan base can overlook the reviews coming out.

They haven’t been great.

“All Eyez on Me,” is running at 42 (out of 100) on the aggregate review site Metacritic. It has 28% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer. Rolling Stone says the movie “less a biopic than a pop-up Wikipedia page.” Variety says it is “messy, hugely flawed, but fascinating.” Both agree that the film’s star, Demetrius Shipp Jr., manages to capture the later-rapper’s look (almost uncannily) but also his persona (the rage and swagger, the street smarts and the crazy-sexy-cool vibe,” as David Fear writes in Rolling Stone).

More interesting perhaps are the reviews from Shakur’s friends and those in the hip-hop community, who seem torn on the film. Jada Pinkett Smith, played in the film by Kat Graham, took to Twitter to dispute the film’s depiction of their relationship. Rapper 50 Cent did not enjoy the film at all.

For his part, Snoop Dogg, urges you to see the movie in celebration of #Tupacday and retweeted a review from L.A. Weekly.

For a local take, I’d trust Q97 DJ Danny Salas, who put out his review in a series of Tweets this morning.

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