Not even the actors could save this movie

Rating: 3/10 (24 July 2016)

The story of NWA is so diverse and interesting, all of these portrayed artists are very different from each other and highly talented. Even if you took away their background & heritage there would be still a lot of oddities and interesting anecdotes to tell us about. Instead the movie is as formulaic and stereotypical as it can be. I would have been able to look past that and enjoy it for what it is: a mediocre attempt of rap group biopic of the early 90s except that is were its weak point is. The wardrobe, lingo, streets, mannerisms it's all wrong. Very wrong. At a pool party you get a close up of a woman shaking her giant booty in a g-string. Let me tell you in the early 90s you had high cut baywatch style bikinis, yes. But no lady showed up to a pool party in a g- string, big asses were not really considered attractive and nobody danced by staying in place and bouncing their booty. Perreo dance styles that made it into hip hop culture appeared in the early to mid 2000's.
The only redeeming part of this movie are the actors which come very close to the characters they portray, except of course when they speak. In that regard only Ice's son did a somewhat good job by shutting his mouth and talking through mimics like the real Ice would when he was fronting.
For someone who lived the era, who knows how South Los and Socal looked like, who has seen it up close this movie is painfully wrong. There are other things wrong too like the story being too drawn out and the pacing being weird. (It felt in many scenes like there was a build up, hinting that there was something significant going on and then it flattens out, really weird!)
Altogether its a bad movie and I could not recommend it, not even to the die-hard fans. As a fan of the music and the artists the wasted potential is really imeasurable, a big disappointment.