Rap fans will love it

Rating: 7/10 (30 November 2016)

It's a commonly agreed upon theory that the worse of a person you are, the better of a musician you would make. 'Straight Outta Compton' certainly does nothing to dispel those theories. There literally isn't a good-hearted, genuine person to be found in this movie. Every single character is deplorable, it's simply a case of to what extent. Now, that's not an insult to anyone, these people would be the first to agree that they are far from reputable characters. And the thing is that that's what makes 'Straight Outta Compton' so enjoyable.
With a long run time of roughly 2 and half hours there are certainly varying degrees of quality at different stages of the film. The ending is certainly the strongest stage. The emotional story line that develops is well told and certainly does tug at the heart strings. The final word spoken before the credits role will also bring chills to anyone familiar with the rap genre. There are portions earlier in the film that certainly drag, and can have you at times wondering whether certain things needed to be included in the story line, thus making the film so long. I think a very strong ending does a lot to cover up the earlier indiscretions, and fair play to them for that. If you need one segment of your film to be especially strong, you'd be crazy not to make it your ending.
It's certainly a film that will resonate for people who are fans of rap, but will it do the same for those that aren't? I'm not entirely sure on the answer to that. Whether the story is interesting enough to carry the average viewer, purely from a story line perspective, I think would be split about 50/50. I thought the actors all did a fantastic job portraying their real life characters and I was especially impressed by the sound they managed to create with some of the musical reenactments. Altogether, it's not quite as strong as I had hoped for, but it still remains a very solid, and at times excellent, film.