{mosimage}This week we have another very different double feature, Notorious and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.
First up, Notorious.
I figured this would be another gangster rap movie like Get Rich or Die Tryin, not that I saw that. But this was actually a good movie with a great soundtrack. Now that all depends on if you ever liked hip hop or were familiar with the rapper.
This is the story of Chris Wallace, aka Notorious Big, aka Biggie Smalls. I grew up with him in middle school during the 90’s and the soundtrack brought back some memories.
The actor playing Biggie is really good and supposedly this is his first time on screen. Angela Basset also steals the show as his mother. Other charecters that show up are Faith Evans, Lil Kim, a young Puff Daddy before he became anything close to what we see him today, and Tupac. There’s also Biggie’s real life son that plays the kid version of himself, really well done.
From a distance this whole movie looks like a cliche and a stereotype of this genre, but it’s not. It’s closer to the music biopics like Ray and Walk The Line, without the cookie cutter story Walk Hard made fun of.
This movie will most likely get ignored and laughed at without anyone seeing it, but it’s actually a movie with a very positive message. It’s about gangster rap, but doesn’t glorify it. To be fair, it probably sugar coats it too much as Biggie did glorify it in real life.
Give this one a chance if you ever liked his music.
And opening this week, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.
I liked the first Underworld, but felt it tried cramming in too much too fast to be be a good movie. It was a very good attempt at a vampire vs. werewolf movie. I also wanted a lot more werewolf action. I figured the sequel would fix all that. Nope. I hated the sequel and gave up on the future sequels, if any actually were made.
What looked to be the worst of the bunch actually turned out to be the best. Dare I say, this was a great vampire vs. werewolf movie, the film I wanted the first and second to be.
It’s the best written, best acted, and most action packed of the three. It’s a well told prequel to Underworld. Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon) is great in this along with other great returning charecters from the other two films. One thing I was surprised by was that the main chick is not Selene, Kate Beckinsale’s character. She is Sonja, who in the later films is the elder vampire’s deceased daughter who Selene reminds him of. She would still be a good replacement for Beckinsale.
The movie itself is a horror/300/Lord Of The Rings hybrid. It’s a very fun movie, hope they make a sequel to this.
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