Rapper Tupac Shakur was a revolutionary, a controversial, brilliant artist cut down in his prime, who only became more iconic after his death. The son of a Black Panther, a high school chum of Jada Pinkett Smith, and a vanguard of West Coast gangsta rap, Shakur endured, and produced, far more in his 25 years than most ever do, and his life story has been overdue for the biopic treatment, especially in light of the films about his rivals and contemporaries such as “Notorious” and “Straight Outta Compton.” After a long gestation, “All Eyez on Me” arrives in theaters, directed by Benny Boom, but this disorganized biopic isn’t quite worthy of its subject’s remarkable life.
Playing the part of Shakur is newcomer Demetrius Shipp Jr., who looks eerily like the rapper, channeling Shakur in a performance where actor and real person ultimately meld together. Especially once he gets into his performance flow, the physical comparison is uncanny, in his bobbing, lanky-limbed dance movements and head-swiveling delivery. In recreations of television interviews, Shipp nails the energetic, motor-mouthed cadence of the outspoken Shakur.
But the film surrounding Shipp is rough going. “All Eyez on Me” gets off to a very bumpy start, as it skitters wildly around from life event to life event, dates, locations, and story-framing devices pummeling the screen. We’re given a flash forward to Tupac onstage in front of adoring fans, then a prison interview that serves to guide us through his childhood and early career. It’s just lazy screenwriting to plop in an interviewer to interject names and places rather than establishing these facts in the script, and the seams are painfully obvious.
“All Eyez on Me” only finds its legs in the second half, as Tupac becomes caught up in drama with Death Row Records, Suge Knight, and the East Coast-West Coast rap beef.