Straight Outta Compton - Movie Review

straight outta compton ayala malls cinemas

Although being too traditional and formulaic at times, 'Straight Outta Compton' gives a more energetic vibe to the music genre thanks to the gritty vibe by director F. Gary Gray. The rebellious approach is very much deserved to mirror the characters' personalities but it should have been more darker. Not that i'm complaining but the movie as a whole is very uneven for the most part so to give a uniform color to everything would create a tighter product.

Most of the biggest pulse was provided by the entire cast, notably young talents O'Shea Jackson, Jr., Jason Mitchell and Corey Hawkins who portrayed N.W.A major players Ice Cube, Eazy-E and Dr. Dre respectively. Jackson, in a very interesting casting, plays his father Ice Cube in a way that doesn't turned out to be more of an honor than a mimic to the said figure. Paul Giamatti was also present here, in a somewhat type-casted role yet again as a band manager with a shoddy wig. He did great here as expected.

While omitting certain facts can cause disruptions in a biopic, especially for N.W.A's controversial story which a lot of people are aware by now, doesn't really matter at all. The only nitpick I can point out is how Ice Cube and Dr. Dre (they are served as advisers/ producers in the movie) was presented on-film, and the fact that Eazy-E was given an unfair approach. Though some flaws can be seen in their representation here, they could have given more flaws especially for Dr. Dre which was presented here as a good samaritan.

'Straight Outta Compton' overall is "DOPE!", as the characters would quip repeatedly. It should've been better if a more brutally honest approach was given, but it was still an affecting and interesting biopic after all. Performances by Jackson, Mitchell and Hawkins were terrific, and the energetic direction by F. Gary Gray makes the all better.

The geek rates it 8.5/10!

'Straight Outta Compton' is rated R-16 by MTRCB and opens September 30 exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas!