Movie Info:
Writers: Cheo Hodari Coker
Director: George Tillman Jr.
Cast: Jamal Woolard, Mohamed Dione, Derek Luke, Dennis L.A. White, Marc John Jefferies, Menyone DeVeaux, Ginger Kroll, Ricky Smith, Christopher Jordan Wallace, Amanda Christopher, Angela Bassett, Jasper Briggs, Cyrus Farmer, David Costabile, Julia Pace Mitchell
Rating: R
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Release Info:
Theatrical Release: January 16, 2009
DVD Release Date: April 28. 2009
Online Availability: Amazon for $20.99
I’ve long been a fan of rap and hip hop. I used to listen to a lot of the early rap artists with my best friend. NWA, Run-DMC, Snoop, LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, Biggie Smalls (Notorious B.I.G.), Tupac, and even one hit players like Coolio were part of the music I grew up listening to. I grew up in a very small, Midwest town, where many of the locals preferred country to rap, but there were definitely a few of us who used to kick it with all the hottest, latest jams.
The Biggie-Tupac, East-West rap war was highly publicized. I listened to both Biggie and Tupac, each having a unique flavor to their raps. They grew up listening to the old school raps and hip hop sound emerging during their youth. My NWA was their Kurtis Blow. Despite not growing up in the inner city, I could relate to their lyrics, and Biggie was able to spin some shit, for sure.
Like everyone else who listened to rap/hip hop music, I was stunned when not just Tupac, but Biggie were both gunned down. The reason for Biggie’s death still seems to be a mystery. I won’t even try to delve into the details of what went wrong with the investigation into his death or why the case has still not been solved. I will tell you that his death left a gap in the hip hop world that still has not been filled. There will never be another rapper like the Notorious B.I.G.
The impact of B.I.G.’s death on the hip hop world could be felt in all the genre’s fans. When Puffy (sorry Diddy — you’ll always be Puff Daddy to me) made a tribute, “I’ll Be Missing You”, with Biggie’s widow, Faith Evans, the world, whether they cared about rap/hip hop or not, reached out to the Notorious B.I.G. and his family. Loss is something we all can understand, so his death really touched the lives of people across the world.
The movie Notorious was developed by those who knew Biggie the best; his mother, Sean Combs, Faith Evans, and many others collaborated to make as accurate a story on the events of his life, to help keep the legacy of B.I.G. alive, but to also show how his life unfolded to his fans who may have only known surface details without being able to delve too far into his private life. I happen to be one of those fans.
The casting was fairly decent for Notorious. Jamal Woolard looks, sounds, and acts like B.I.G. He was a nice casting choice. Biggie’s own son, Christopher Jordan Wallace plays young Christopher Wallace (Biggie). The son of B.I.G. and Faith Evans, you can definitely see a family resemblance. CJ Wallace looks a lot like his father, and the youngster is talented. He could have a bright future ahead of him. Supporting actors were decent, but not spectacular. The cast was good and so was the story, but I don’t really see this as the best movie of 2009. I’d watch it again, but I don’t see it winning a bunch of awards.
That’s okay, of course. As a biopic, Notorious works. As the story of Christopher “Biggie Smalls” Wallace’s life, the movie works. Fans of B.I.G. are going to enjoy this movie and those who may not know anything about him or his life, can still get something from it, too. I only have one complaint. There are some very weird transitions (or flips) between scenes. They are hard to explain other than to say it flips from scene to scene sometimes nearly in the middle of the action. It didn’t happen just once, but more than a few times. By the end of the movie I was irritated by this. If I look past this, I did enjoy the movie.
The Notorious Plot
At the start of the film, Christopher Wallace/B.I.G (Jamal Woolard) is at a party in Los Angeles, California celebrating the launch of his new CD. In L.A. are B.I.G’s close friend Sean “Puffy” Combs (Derek Luke) and his wife, Faith Evans (Antonique Smith). The scene moves from Biggie sitting around enjoying himself to Biggie and an entourage, including Puffy, getting into a vehicle to drive away from the party.
When the car rolls up to a light, part of the entourage, Lil’ Cease, (Marc John Jefferies), who is Biggie’s cousin, flirts with women outside their vehicle. As he’s hitting on the ladies, a black Impala pulls up beside them and fires a shot into Biggie’s car. Just one shot.
The scene shifts to the early 80s. Young Christopher Wallace (Christopher “CJ” Wallace, Jr.) is a shy yet intelligent boy. He is picked on by his classmates for being chubby, smart and wearing glasses, amongst other things. Chris is the only child of Voletta Wallace (Angela Bassett), and it quickly becomes clear that Chris’ father has nothing to do with him.
As a preteen, Chris isn’t allowed off his porch stoop. His Mama is strict and Chris is smart, so she wants him to be something. He spends his free time thinking up hip hop lyrics and writing songs, getting inspiration from emerging hip hop idols like Kurtis Blow. One day, Chris decides it is time to leave the stoop. His friend D-Roc (Dennis L.A. White) gets him into selling crack, a very profitable business in the mid to late 80s.
The scene shifts to the older, teen Chris, played by Woolard. Teen Chris has let his grades slip. He’s a bit of a smart ass in class. His mom has no idea he’s selling drugs, so he hides all his bling in a sealed trunk on the roof of his building. He puts it on before heading out to hang with his friends and sell. Chris has pretty much dropped out of school, and gotten his girlfriend Jan (Julia Pace Mitchell) pregnant. Everything comes to a head when his mom, Voletta kicks him out after discovering he’s knocked up Jan and he is selling drugs. By now, it’s 1990.
When Biggie is caught selling drugs, he’s put into jail, and he serves a two year sentence. Coming home, he is no longer into Jan, though he is happy to see his new baby girl, T’yanna (Taylor Dior). Chris makes up with his mom, and stays with her. In the meantime, he goes back to his drug selling ways, and meets Lil’ Kim (Naturi Naughton), a girl he starts sleeping with.
D-Roc and Lil’ Cease get Biggie into record a demo, which he calls “Microphone Murder” and luckily, it’s placed on a young record producer’s desk. That man is Sean Combs (Derek Luke), who works for Death Row records. Combs only asks that Biggie stop selling, and promises to get B.I.G. exposure, as he sees him as a much needed, standout voice from the East Coast. After a run in with the police, which almost throws away Biggie’s dreams, Biggie gets serious. Seeing the potential in B.I.G. D-Roc goes to jail in his place.
The story evolves through Sean’s falling out and firing from Uptown Records, the formation of Bad Boy Records, Biggie being signed, and his mom’s diagnosis of breast cancer. Biggie also meets the beautiful and talented Faith Evans, whom he marries, despite the story implying that he was kind of with Lil Kim prior to their marriage. Biggie records his album, Ready to Die, which hits the hip hop world like a storm and the movie chronicles the rise, his rap feud with his former, good friend Tupac, his infidelity, the birth of his son CJ, and the downfall that led up to his death.
Storyline/Plot: 
Replayability:
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Directing:
Audio/Visual:
We received a Fox screener for our review of Notorious. Generally, in cases such as this we do the studios a favor and do not put a number rating on the quality of the screener. This is because a screener is not usually representative of the final shelf quality. As we do not know what will change we prefer to offer an idea of what you will get rather than a firm answer. The screener quality did look relatively decent. The colors were sharp and the level of detail was high. The anamorphic widescreen setting worked well for this film. When it came to audio you can expect a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, which works well for the film. Considering the basis in music, the sound is incredibly important. Based on the screener, things should work out for the final product. Along with standard English audio there are subtitles in English, French, and Spanish.
Bonus Features:
Notorious is available in a movie only DVD, a three-disc set, and Blu-ray. We are technically reviewing the 3-disc set, though we only received the screeners for this. In this set, the first DVD is the main feature along with some commentaries, the second disc is all special features along with trailers for The Secret Life of Bees, Gospel Hill, and Slumdog Millionaire. The third disc is a digital copy.
On the first disc available for the theatrical cuts of the film are two audio commentaries. The first commentary is with the director, screenwriters, and the editor. If you want the filmmakers track this is the one for you. There is a lot of information to process and most of it is pretty interesting. If you want to know how things were done in the film, this track should give you a good idea of how things went.
The second commentary is not as informative in the ways of the film, though it does shed plenty of light on movie vs. reality. The second commentary includes Voletta Wallace, Wayne Barrow, and Mark Pitts. The second commentary feels more conversation based and does not always offer the same level of information that you will find in the first. Still, it’s good to hear from Biggie’s mom and others that knew him well.
The second disc is all special features. Details are listed below:
“Behind the Scenes: The Making of Notorious”: This 30 minute behind the scenes is a decent look at what went into making this film. I found the casting information particularly interesting, as this was one of the most important decisions that could be made for the film. It was nice to see the high level of involvement that the people in Biggie’s life had on the film, as well.
“I’ve Got A Story To Tell: The Lyrics of Biggie Smalls”: This is pretty much just what it sounds like. You get a chance to learn more about Biggie and his music from friends and the people that loved him.
“Notorious Thugs: Casting The Film”: Again, the title says it all. This is nine minutes worth of casting information. This section includes both interviews and audition footage.
“Biggie Boot Camp”: This seven minute featurette shows what the actors had to go through to learn more about how to play the parts they were going to play. This is shorter than some of the other features, but it’s worth watching. These actors had some pretty big shoes to fill all around, so it’s nice to see that a lot of training was involved to see that they did their roles justice.
“Anatomy of a B.I.G. Performance”: This shows what it was like to shoot the concert scenes. A lot of detail went into filming the scenes perfectly. To show how important these scenes were, they offer some comparison shots from the movie to real life.
“Party & Bullshit” The smallest feature in the bunch, at only four minutes, is a an uncut, not finished viewing of one of the performances. Despite the fact that it wasn’t officially ready, things were shaping up incredibly well.
“The B.I.G. Three-Sixty”: This is one of my favorite special features. This interactive, virtual tour takes you to the corners of Wilshire and Fairfax. You get the chance to see a few video clips about what happened and where. This one won’t be for everyone, but I found it terribly interesting.
Things wrap up with ten deleted scenes that last for around twelve minutes. Many of these are just extended scenes that offer little in the way of new content. All in all, it’s easy to see why they were deleted.
Bonus Features:
Bottom Line:
While fans of B.I.G. and rap are going to be drawn to this more than any other group of moviegoers, anyone can enjoy this story from rags to riches to heartache. Biggie Smalls was one of a kind, in the rap world, and the day he died, rap/hip hop lost a unique voice and rapping style. Fans of B.I.G. will never forget him, but luckily we have his legacy of music to remind us of how great he truly was. If you are a Biggie fan, pick this up no questions asked. Otherwise, you might want to rent this one first.
Overall Rating:
Technorati Tags: Movie, DVD Review, Notorious, Rap, Music, Life Story, Biggie, Notorious B.I.G., Sean Combs, Lil Kim
