When Straight Outta Compton came out in 2015, it was a huge success. And as things go with successful films, others see a “formula” that can be repeated in order to achieve the same result. It meant at the time that various hip-hop related films were announced that would also thought of becoming “unexpected hits”. One of them is All Eyez on Me, which looks at the life of rapper Tupac Shakur, who was shot in Las Vegas at the age of 25, at a time when there was a lot of tension between artists on the west and east coast
The film is a biopic that does not focus on a specific period in his life, but depicts moments from his childhood to his death. The means to link all these events together is an interview that the rapper did in prison, in which the events are covered by flashbacks. Tupac is played by Demetrius Shipp Jr. looks quite a lot like the late rapper and has clearly looked at the available images and also knows how to emulate his way of moving. That is not enough, however, to make All Eyez on Me a really good film.
The big problem is that although well-known events, such as the problems with his mother, the rape case, his rivalry with Biggie and his period at Death Row Records are all covered, they fail to to give the viewer insight into the person Tupac Shakur. He is present, but unfortunately the emotional bond, the insight into what it all does with him, is missing. The clearest example is his bond with actress Jada Pinkett, who appears at various moments throughout the film. The relationship that the two had when first meeting each other wasn’t well enough established, which means that later struggles don’t pay off. If you are unfamiliar with Tupac and what he has experienced then All Eyez on Me certainly gives a good overview of it, but as a complete package there are too many parts missing to make this a really good title. Tupac Shakur was a complex person and I would have liked to see that complexity here, but too much has been simplified.
