Summer Movie Reviews: Now With 100% More NWA

Straight Outta Compton 5/5

I was so fascinated by the story going on. I was passingly aware of the story beforehand, I had never sat down and read up on it or anything, but to see it fleshed out was enthralling.

Its a great history lesson. Even if you aren’t a fan of the music, there is no reason you should not be a fan of the film and the way it has presented what times were like.

The movie goes from documentary to bio-pic and back. What I mean by that is you see a lot of gritty, serious reality of the time period and then you might get a scene that feels more like a movie.

I’m really not comfortable saying anything in the movie is really dramatized. From we know about police conduct at the time to how rappers party to how they all went their own way felt very genuine.

The performances are all terrific. It focuses on Ice Cube, Eazy E and Dr. Dre, and all three leads are phenomenal. They each have a terrific scene at the start of the film introducing you to their situation and it sets the tone so well. The best performance to me came from Ice Cube’s son playing Ice Cube. From the little things like mannerisms to the impressive range he showed despite never having acted in a movie before is astounding.

There are some great cameos towards the second half of the movie where you get a bit of a glimpse into the rappers from the early 90’s that also came to prominence.

It is paced very well and there is some terrific humour to help break up the movie at times when its dealing with some real serious subject matter. I can’t recommend the movie enough.

Previously:

• Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation 4/5
• The Man From U.N.C.L.E. 3/5
• Fantastic Four 1.5/5
• Pixels 1.5/5
• Trainwreck 2/5
• Ant-Man 3.5/5
• Inside Out 5/5
• Ted 2 3/5
• Terminator: Genisys 2.5/5
• Jurassic World 4/5
• Entourage 3/5
• San Andreas 3/5
• Mad Max: Fury Road 5/5
• Avengers: Age of Ultron 4.5/5

To come this summer/year:

• Hitman: Agent 47, August 21
• Pan, October 9
• Goosebumps, October 16
• James Bond: Spectre, November 6
• The Peanuts Movie, November 6
•  The Martian, November 27
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens, December 18
• Before We Go, September 4 (or something?)