Straight Outta Compton (2015) Reviews

• Something Fishy Is Going On Here!

  Dan1863Sickles2015-08-23

  I've been writing reviews for IMDb for ten years, and I think something fishy is going on here. STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON is getting very, very high reviews from the vast majority of IMDb reviewers -- but the nine and ten- star reviews are all getting pelted with "negative" marks, earning scores of "1 out of 15" likes. So what's the problem? The problem is that this movie wasn't supposed to be a hit. The mass audience wasn't supposed to respond to the story of young black men facing oppression and coming out on top. The American people were not supposed to see the real truth about how their police treat minorities every day. Quick, let's bury the good reviews! Let's spawn a phony backlash! Let's discredit Dr. Dre and Ice Cube on the basis of things they did twenty years ago. Oh, and let's all get sentimental about Eazy E because he's dead, and young black men are okay once they're dead. The dead ones are no longer scary and threatening. The problem with this movie is that the people who made it actually dared to portray young, angry black men as heroic, not as criminals or predators. It's okay to glamorize white criminals, because Hollywood was built on that. From PUBLIC ENEMY to THE GODFATHER, white audiences have always loved to sentimentalize their own criminals. But you can't do that with black men who rap about crime, even when they aren't actually criminals themselves. When Cagney postures like a thug in some ancient piece of crap that's cool. But when black men do it today that's dangerous and irresponsible! There are very powerful elements in this country that are terribly frightened by this movie. They're frightened because this movie gets white audiences to see young black men as something other than dangerous criminals. The scenes of NWA being roughed up by police are a terrible threat to the powerful elements in our society, who stay in power only by keeping white people scared of black men. They can't tolerate the idea of black male victims, so they instantly start a media backlash portraying the victims as criminals. I say this is a good movie, a powerful, exciting film that presents a side of American life that is almost never seen on the screen. I know I'm not going to get many likes for this review, but what the hell. I've got enough already.

• Hey losers, stop posting 1-star reviews.

  ajmalfait2015-08-23

  Ignore all the 1-star reviews because the people posting them are total losers. You can tell by their vapid criticisms. Too graphic, gimme a break. Semi-pornographic, really? There were a few scenes with nudity, far from gratuitous unless you consider all nudity gratuitous. As for violence, there was barely any hard-core violence, certainly not enough to distract from the main storyline. Quite simply, if you loved the music, you'll love the movie. Solid acting and solid script. I'm not sure how historically accurate it is, but that's beside the point. It's a movie, not a documentary. To those who continue to spout their bile about this film, get a life. No one cares about your pathetic moralizing and thinly veiled racism.

• Don't Listen to the 1 Star Reviews

  nianikaila2015-08-25

  Everyone one here who complains about the movie don't know what they're talking about. This movie is reality! Police brutality, growing up in the hood, the extravagant lifestyle of singers/rappers is all there. Someone complained about this being vulgar and not appropriate for kids? No duh, it's rated R. Even though it was a long movie, I didn't want it to end. You really felt what was going on in the movie. When they were angry, you were angry. When they were sad, you couldn't help but to feel that as well. Don't listen to the people complaining, and calling them "selfish". They're probably just upset at how the police were portrayed, which was the reality for N.W.A. The movie is amazing. Watch it. This movie was extremely enjoyable, and despite the length, it felt like it went by in the blink of an eye.

• A great movie

  andreasi-152872016-12-04

  When reading other reviews about this movie, I really get frustrated due to the lack of understanding about what this movie is really about. A lot of empty reviews only giving 1 star due to "explicit sexual content, and black men who does not respect the law". What people does not seem to understand is that this is a movie about the rise, and fall of the biggest rap group ever, how they evolved and what power, money, and fame can to a man (and in this case, his relationship to his friends). As much as anything, this movie really is a lot about the abuse that a lot of black males experienced from the police in the 80's (which is still a very relevant topic). Personally I am a big fan of N.W.A, without that being the reason I am rating this movie 9/10. It is a really interesting true story about some of THE great rap artists of our generation. Great performances by actors who looks a lot like the original group, as well as Paul Giamatti. Great directing, the movie has a really nice action curve, keeping things interesting throughout the movie, and really gives the public a good insight of the life of some of the biggest stars in the world during the 80's/90's. This is the first time i have ever written an review on IMDb, even though I have a lot of strong opinions about movies, but I really had to come to this movies defence. This is one of those movies I am really expecting to see a 8,3 star rating or something similar, and it really frustrates me to see a lot of people giving this movie unnecessary hate. GREAT MOVIE, if you like N.W.A, it is really worth your while, and if you are not, it is still worth a watch just because of the really intriguing true story that "Straight Out Of Compton" is. 9/10 movie 11/10 will watch again

• Rhymes of The Ghetto

  mhikmetaltug2015-09-20

  "Straight Outta Compton" has the similar taste of the other Music business,Wall Street business and the merchandise business movies which could easily satisfy and inspire the young audience to live their Katharsis of being a successful man or woman in the future, like the depicted successful people in these biographical genre movies. Because of theming this advantageous fact, usually these kinds of movies reaches the box office success in a short time (The Recent Example is The Wolf of Wall Street ). In addition to that, if you choose real biographic characters who live in ghettos and climbing the huge wall of the world's top in a while, definitely sell. Especially to young needy teenagers and young people eager to try everything to break the societies pressures and taboos. The expectation on the box office is important of course. "Straight Outta Compton" will possibly gain the success on box office.But some effectiveness' can make the audience feel uncomfortable about watching it again or remember it as their one of all time favorite classic. At least I will criticize the defectiveness that I have determined after I watched the movie until the end. The Subject of the biographic approach of Rap All-Stars is a perfect and unique idea. The originality can't be questioned. However the catharsis that I have mentioned before could not work for all cinema audience, I found the directing, acting and narration superficial.This was not the first biographical movie that has disappointed me with its narration and process of progression. And I think that won't be the last for sure.That's another argument.The main point is some biographies made by commercial concerns and cosmetic structure, harms them sometimes.This is the Rap Music's fathers' story,the action scenes could be more efficient on the contrary of matching some action b-movies, the classical and vigilant music agent profile played by Paul Giamatti, gave me the feeling of the same type which I ran across in other Music based movies.The actors who play the role of The Rap creators are good. The lack of the Katharsis begins with their shallow depiction, so that I definitely think that Dre or Ice Cube or Eazy E's lives depiction with other characters and crowded casting had created that mess and caused the defectiveness. Because almost 2 and a half hour movie isn't enough to depict the whole family of rap's beginning and the depiction of separate lives of them could make a better order in the narration. Linked to that criticism of the shallow narration, the documentary trace additions which would be a good idea on a biographical Movie, was used ineffectively in my opinion. For Example The Rap's born documentary series on VH1 would be watchable for all kinds of documentary lovers, so I believe that in the movie this magazine coverage documentary style is used by showing the social struggles of the Rapper's since their youth, the police's tough attitudes to the Black Citizens in their Neighbourhoods and putting the actual footage of the fights and plundering in the ghettos. However the idea of Half magazine and half crime narrated documentary style using in a movie, is very hard job and I realized that some parts were good adopted from this kind of E! or VH1 documentaries but some parts seemed weak because of several things that make the distinction between Documentary Movie and Cinema Movie, which would cause dead ends on the narration of Cinema Movie. For instance the lack of voice narration as a result of the director's obligation of staying out of magazine words, the time-lapse difference between a documentary and a movie,the slow timing usage to tell the story in the movie on the contrary of a rushing biographical documentary and doing it with telling the audience the story of at least 5-6 rap stars in such a slow occasion, had killed the spirit of the "Magazine-Documentary- Biography" triplet style depiction. But I still believe that "Straight Outta Compton" could easily be the first and unique example of the future styles of direction and maybe could create a new unique genre as well.