Straight Outta Compton (Trailer)

No one has really cared for any (theatrical) music biopics released in the last few years. It's not so much that they've been garbage. It's moreso that they're been mediocre, boring even. This happens for two main reasons. One, the artist's estate won't clear the rights for any of the music until they approve of the final cut. That's how we ended up with a PG-13 James Brown movie. Two, these movies don't usually involve top notch talent be it actors, directors or screenwriters.

Which is why I'm still hesitant about Straight Outta Compton even after seeing this trailer. Cube and Dre are the movie's executive producers, and they both have public images they sort of need to uphold. The N.W.A story is obviously an incredible one and an important one, but it does not end well. The entire group splits up and Eazy-E dies of AIDS. And there's so much to cover - the censorship issues, their dominance without radio play, the branding of gangsta rap, invasion of hip-hop into white suburbia, police brutality, LA gang culture, the LA riots, Eazy-E the mastermind, Jerry Heller the thief and eventually the number of careers it spawned. I'd like for the movie to be gritty, to be dark. This trailer is a little too shiny for me. It almost seems like a rags to riches story that cuts off before anything bad happens. And while getting Paul Giamatti to play Heller was a huge win, he's depicted as this mentor and confidante when he's clearly the villain. The still for the YouTube video alone looks so corny. They look like the Backstreet Boys in Raiders gear.

The cast is pretty much all new faces, which could be a really great thing. Of course, Ice Cube casting his own son in the movie is some Jayden Smith shit. The movie is produced by Cube and I get that they're friends, but you really couldn't do better than F. Gary Gray? And the writers haven't been a part of anything noteworthy.

As far as I'm concerned, it's a total loss for this movie if it ends being on the level of Notorious. Hundred bucks says they throw in a beats/headphones joke in there somewhere.