Absent the actual music, Notorious would be a lot worse.
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10/22/09
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Notorious (2009)
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Reviews Counted:131
Fresh:65
Rotten:66
Average Rating:5.5/10
Consensus: A biopic that lacks the luster of its subject, Notorious is generic rise-and-fall fare that still functions as a primer for those less familiar with the work and life of the hip hop icon.
Theatrical Release:Jan 16, 2009 Wide
Box Office: $36,652,959
Synopsis: The dramatic retelling of the life, improbable rise, and violent fall of rapper Christopher Wallace (aka the Notorious B.I.G.), NOTORIOUS plays like A STAR IS BORN set to a rattling gangsta snare.... [More]
Starring: Jamal Woolard, Angela Bassett, Derek Luke, Anthony Mackie
Director: George Tillman
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Reviews for Notorious
Though it never quite devolves into pure hagiography, the film's central tale of crack dealer made good is sometimes a little too hokey for its own good.
08/30/09
Notorious is a tribute the rapper's contribution to pop culture.
07/07/09
You've heard of laundering money? Well, this film biography of rapper Notorious B.I.G. has all the earmarks of--not monetary but morality cleansing.
04/21/09
While it's now less a case of race than class in black film, Notorious seems to still be taking tabloid cues more from alien ghetto underclass drama and what's come before, rather than bringing new and improved insight to the table beyond the cool music.
04/11/09
[An] intermittently entertaining but thoroughly conventional Biggie biopic.
03/13/09
What might have been an African-American gangland epic with a killer soundtrack treads safely as a run-of-the-mill biopic.
03/13/09
Notorious is a pretty standard biopic, and is probably largely compromised. If you've never seen Nick Broomfield's excellent 2002 doco Biggie And Tupac, you'd be better served hunting that down instead.
03/13/09
While the script provides ample illustrations of Wallace's tough life, there is not enough focus on what set the recording star apart from his peers or why he became so incredibly popular so quickly.
03/13/09
There is little here to attract anyone but the core fan-base.
03/06/09
A big, bad bundle of biopic cliches, a glitzy whitewash filled with wince-inducing dialogue and propelled by a smug, from-beyond-the-grave voiceover.
03/02/09
Like Violet Kray producing a film about her twin sons. The movie doesn't ignore its subject's shortcomings, but it sentimentalises them and becomes increasingly incoherent as it proceeds.
02/19/09
The inclusion of real-life footage and re-enacted YouTube clips is an interesting idea, but with each awkward stab at a new shooting style, Tillman Jr moves closer towards disgracing his subject with yet another hack job.
02/19/09
A swaggering delve into the life of the biggest of all rappers.
02/19/09
It isn’t the most subtle movie, with characters constantly spelling out the big message – in order to change the world, you first have to change yourself.
02/19/09
A hagiographical whitewash.
02/13/09
Now in blows the myth of the myth: a brashly entertaining biopic.
02/13/09
This team have smoothed over the details of Biggie's rags-to-riches ascent, they haven't succeeded in making it terribly interesting.
02/13/09
This film by George Tillman Jr is less about the street politics and more about the slushy soap opera going on at home.
02/13/09
This is Hollywood hagiography at its most patronising and preposterous - a product, as well as a celebration, of a diseased, materialistic culture.
02/13/09
Latest News for Notorious
January 30, 2009:
While it's now less a case of race than class in black film, Notorious seems to still be taking tabloid cues more from alien ghetto underclass drama and what's come before, rather than bringing new and improved insight to the table beyond the cool music. 
More...
January 29, 2009:
Notorious Writer Is Tougher Than Leather
"Notorious" screenwriter Cheo Hodari Coker has picked up a similar project: the film adaptation of Bill Adler's "Tougher Than Leather: The Rise of Run-DMC -- The Authorized... More...
January 22, 2009:
A relentlessly-unapologetic immorality play about a bona fide ghetto gangsta' apt to entertain even Joe Six-Pack.
More...
January 19, 2009:
Box Office Guru Wrapup: Paul Blart Segways Ahead of the Competition
This weekend the North American box office was on fire once again as four new releases all scored muscular debuts helping to drive the marketplace to the biggest January weekend... More...
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