All Eyez On Me

ALL EYEZ ON ME

Director : Benny Boon

Year : 2017

Genre : Drama

Rating : **1/2

While it may have been made with a reverence and deep admiration for his legacy, there is something undeniably hollow about Benny Boom's long-awaited Tupac Shakur biopic 'All Eyez On Me'. Taking it's name from the title of Shakur's fourth studio album and framed around an interview the rapper gave to the press shortly before his murder in 1996, 'All Eyez On Me' skims through the key points in the life of the prolific and often controversial musician, from his volatile upbringing in 1970's Baltimore to his brutal death on the streets of Las Vegas. 

In the lead role, newcomer Demitrius Shipp Jr. delivers an electrifying performance as the charismatic yet egotistical Shakur while 'The Walking Dead' star Danai Gurira is utterly convincing as his former Black Panther mother whose battles with drug abuse provide the film with some of rawest emotional moments. However, while the performances from the majority of the cast are good, they are ultimately overshadowed by an exposition-heavy screenplay that desperately attempts to absolve Shakur of the numerous controversies that dogged his career (one of which is, rather shamefully, the molestation crime he was incarcerated for) and Boom's direction that lacks the verve or the flair seen in other recent rap music bio-dramas such as 2009's 'Notorious' and, more notably, F. Gary Gray's far stronger and thematically influential 2015 picture 'Straight Outta Compton'. Not to mention a running time of 140 minutes which somehow manages to feel both rushed and stretched - with far too little time spent on Tupac's formative years and far too much time spent on the violent actions that would ultimately lead to his assassination.

Fans of Shakur may get something from 'All Eyez On Me' but regular cinemagoers will quickly recognise the cliches and genre conventions the film so frequently falls into. Not worthy of the damning critical praise it has received yet not nearly as powerful as the man it attempts to portray, 'All Eyez On Me' is a well acted yet surprisingly bland documentation of one of raps most influential and incendiary voices.