- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
88A good film in many ways, but its best achievement is the casting of Jamal Woolard, a rapper named Gravy, in the title role.
-
83Notorious makes the death of Biggie Smalls look like a tragic mistake, instead of the outgrowth of a culture devoted to selling the fantasy of who's the biggest man.
-
80Layering his film with the songs that made his subject an icon, Tillman is aware that Biggie connected with his audience because he told stories others instantly understood. Notorious does that, too.
-
80Though there was little surprise by the end--how could there be?--Notorious,' a movie about the life and death of rapper Christopher Wallace (a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G., a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. Biggie), still managed to stun, unsettle and move me.
-
80Engrossing biopic, throbbing with style and attitude.
-
75Much closer to Scorsese than "Scarface," Notorious gives a heartfelt yet clear-eyed sendoff to the late Brooklyn rapper Christopher Wallace.
-
75Angela Bassett is great as his strict, single mother; The soundtrack is great, of course, and the ending features moving archival footage of the streets of Brooklyn after Wallace's murder.
-
75What gives Notorious its staying power is what happens before AND after its hero's death.
-
75The director is a cinematic equivalent of his subject, but a man who was able to reach middle age and examine that culture's good and bad points with a clear, detached mind.
-
70For a man apparently making his first film, Woolard carries the movie like a pro. Cross your fingers that this is no fluke, for this guy could be a real comer.
-
70Surprisingly and pleasantly unflashy, a straightforward picture that makes a distinction between classiness and bling.
-
Through it all are the rhymes and the music, hugely enjoyable in their own right, and the long, large shadow of Biggie.
-
70A rock-solid biopic with a foolproof rise-and-fall storyline and a warmly nuanced performance by Jamal Woolard.
-
63It's the spirit that Biggie Smalls, born Christopher Wallace, put into inventing himself and his music that ignites Notorious, a biopic that sees the flaws in the man but can't help accentuating the positive.
-
It's an engaging enough story, crisply told, and the lip-synced music scenes in the studio and on stage are brought off in high style.
-
63Notorious is like a piece of well-crafted bling. It looks good, and facets of it shine, but behind the gilded facade there's not much there. And what is there can be troubling and retrogressive.
-
63After 110 minutes of the "n" word being deployed with abandon, Biggie vows to renounce it. And just like that a deluxe episode of "Behind the Music" turns into an evening at church.
-
63It's not bad enough to walk out on but neither is it good enough to walk into.
-
60Notorious settles into a curious comfort zone; it's half pop fable, half naturalistic docudrama. Not a bad movie, but nowhere near as strong as its soundtrack.
-
58Notorious suffers from biopic-itis, that regrettable tendency to reduce complicated lives to a greatest-hits assemblage of melodramatic highs and agonizing lows.
-
50Notorious excels at showcasing Wallace's music and his magnetism as a performer: It fares less well at giving that music a proper context.
-
A fawning bio-pic.
-
50Notorious isn't, not even remotely.
-
50Bassett as Voletta is her usual captivating self.
-
50What the picture doesn't do is make sense of the world it tries to depict, or even, truly, depict it. Biggie -- and, for that matter, Woolard -- deserved better.
-
For anyone looking for something as real or engaging as Biggie's music -- or a good introduction to it -- will be disappointed by this mediocre celluloid life-after-death.
-
50Juicy, revved-up, semi-satisfying biopic.
-
Notorious, despite its bigger-than-life subject and habit of dripping sex sweat at the most unexpected moments, is rather square.
-
50Like a drunk on a bender, Notorious seems to have given up even trying to moderate its dependence on cliché.
-
50The movie leaves us with the sense that, twelve years after Biggie Smalls's death, a lot of people are trying to extract whatever profit or pride they can from the chaotic life of a young man who was, as he well knew, a work in progress.
-
30Absent the actual music, Notorious would be a lot worse.
-
Cloyingly, Biggie narrates his tale from the grave. It's a device that feels irksome and condescending.
prev
next
Page:
- 1
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 11 out of 17
-
Mixed: 3 out of 17
-
Negative: 3 out of 17
-
AlexH4A boring passable film on one of the most convtroversal figures of his time, Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G.
-
antwianf6
-
JamesS7I thought derek luke did a great job playin Puff but Gravy was to shluby to play big,he had no star apeal to me.It was entertaing I liked it.