New Straight Outta Compton Movie Received Mostly Positive Reviews From Major Critics
Universal Pictures released their new drama movie, “Straight Outta Compton,” into theaters today, August 14th, 2015, and all the reviews are in from the top, major movie critics. It turns out that it did resonate quite well with most of them, getting an overall 71 score out of a possible 100 across 34 reviews at the Metacritic.com site.
The film stars: Aldis Hodge, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown Jr., and O’Shea Jackson Jr. We’ve added blurbs from a couple of the critics, below.
Odie Henderson from RogerEbert.com, gave it a great 100 score, stating: “It plays like a Marvel superhero movie had Marvel been run by Suge Knight.”
Scott Foundas over at Variety, gave it a 90 score. He stated: “If “Compton” is undeniably of the moment, it’s also timeless in its depiction of how artists and writers transform the world around them into angry, profane, vibrant and singular personal expression.”
Peter Travers from Rolling Stone, gave it an 88 grade, saying: “Straight Outta Compton plays better when it’s outside the box, showing us N.W.A power and the consequences of abusing it. Would the movie be better if it didn’t sidestep the band’s misogyny, gay-bashing and malicious infighting? No shit. But what stands is an amazement, an electrifying piece of hip-hop history that speaks urgently to right now.”
Lou Lumenick from the New York Post, gave it an 88 grade, stating: “One of the summer’s most entertaining and provocative movies.”
Richard Roeper over at the Chicago Sun-Times, gave it an 88 score, stating: “This is one of the better musical biopics of the last 20 years.”
Chris Nashawaty from Entertainment Weekly, gave it an 83 grade, saying: “Straight Outta Compton is a hugely entertaining film that works best if you don’t look at it too closely and just listen.”
Jim Farber from the New York Daily News, gave it an 80 score. He said: “No movie could capture all the alarming incidents and contradictions that make up the complete N.W.A. story. But in order to stress the group’s most righteous side, the movie downplays their youthful excesses as well as their flagrant sexism.”
James Rocchi over at TheWrap, gave it a 76 score, saying: “Even with the film’s mild flaws and arms-wide-open approach, it tells a powerful, engaging and compelling story of how America challenged and changed five young black men, and how they in turn challenged and changed America.”
Ann Hornaday over at the Washington Post, gave it a 75 score. She stated: “Straight Outta Compton reminds viewers not only who N.W.A. were and what they meant, but also why they mattered — and still do.”
John DeFore from The Hollywood Reporter, gave it a 70 grade, stating: “If the movie pushes most of the ugliest behavior off onto side players (like the notorious Suge Knight, played by R. Marcus Taylor), it does for the most part fulfill its mission, breathing life into the origin story of a group whose influence is still being felt.”
Michael Phillips from the Chicago Tribune, gave it a 63 score, stating: “When the songs themselves take center stage the movie works. What remains in the wings constitutes another, fuller story.”
Kenneth Turan over at the Los Angeles Times, gave it a 60 grade, saying: “Alternately riveting and wearying, up-to-the-minute relevant as well as self-mythologizingly self-indulgent — as much of a heroic origins story as anything out of the Marvel factory — Straight Outta Compton ends up juggling more story lines and moods than it can handle.”
Manohla Dargis from The New York Times, gave it a 60 score, claiming: “The partying is as bland as any all-purpose music video and feels more like another script signpost (and audience-pandering) than a serious attempt to get out what it means to be young, black, gifted, fabulously wealthy and much desired. Mr. Gray does far better when the story edges into heavier, more dappled realms.”
Finally, Joe Morgenstern over at the Wall Street Journal, gave it a 50 grade, stating: “With a running time of 147 minutes, the film not only runs low on energy toward the end — internecine battles can’t compete with the early excitement of gifted young kids making it big on a national stage — but turns ploddingly sentimental in its sudden focus on Eazy-E’s painful decline, and death, from AIDS.” Stay tuned. Also, get your favorite Movie stuff, and more by Clicking Here.
