Movie Review - Straight Outta Compton

So here I'm reposting my most recent film review (originally from Facebook), which just so happens to be the 50th film review I've ever written. Yeah, I know Straight Outta Compton came out two months ago (at least that's when it arrived at my town). Please excuse the lateness, as I've been pretty swamped with school work and thus haven't had a whole lot of time for movies since. Enjoy!

That's right fellas, I'm pleased to announce that this is my 50^th movie review! I'd like to thank all of you guys for helping make it this far in four years. Thanks for reading, supporting, and not blocking me out from your newsfeed! So let's celebrate with a review of Straight Outta Compton.

Straight Outta Compton is a musical biopic about the late-80's-to-early-90's pioneering gagsta rap group N.W.A. It follows the group from their inception all the way to Eazy-E's death (spoiler alert!). While it does cover a lot of ground and contains a multitude of subplots (hence the two and a half hour length), the main focus is that of the members' relationships, mainly between Eazy-E, Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre. And despite (or possibly because of) having the latter two rappers as producers, this film is a surprisingly raw and honest telling of history, displaying all the nastiest little details. Right away the movie grabs your attention and establishes a dreary mood with a scene depicting one of the main characters getting involved in a drug bust. At times the plot seems a bit formulaic, but it's never uninteresting. It just slows down a bit halfway through once the group splits up; that's when all the subplots begin splintering out.

By far the best part of this movie is its acting. Our three leads – O'Shea Jackson Jr. as Ice Cube (i.e. his dad), Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E, and Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre – all do an amazing job in addition to being great lookalikes. I was especially impressed by their ability to convincingly rap all the classic N.W.A. songs. During their performance scenes it is easy to forget that these guys aren't the real thing. Paul Giamatti also does a good portrayal of the group's manager Jerry Heller.

Overall, Straight Outta Compton is more or less what you'd expect. Imagine a daytime soap opera that had lots of violence, profanity, and nudity, but wasn't lame or corny and had brilliant acting, and you've got an entertaining biopic that even non-hip hop fans will be able to appreciate. And is it any surprise that the soundtrack kicks ass?

Rating: three and a half out of five.