Alright, just saw this, and I give it a floating score of 6.5 - 7.5/10.
The Bad Points -
Way too much idol worship of Dre, all of the major members get soft peddled a bit, but Dre is the most glaring. They make him way harder than he is reported to be in real life. He's beating dudes, running them off, even backing down Suge (and posse) all by his lonesome. Also no talk of his women beating ways, which was somewhat major fact and rumor during those years.
It can't decide if it wants to be a comedy or a drama sometimes. And when it goes for comedy it falls flat sometimes. And that's not to say that it's prefect at drama, as it's ham handed a few times in that regard too. This is due both to the newness of the actors to their craft, and the shoehorning of modern SJWarrior type writing into the script.
The casting runs from great to
. I had high hopes for Paul Giamatti, and came away with a very lukewarm opinion of him in this role.
He played Heller as sort of a wishy-washy guy with no force of conviction next to NWA, and with more comedic value. If you've ever seen Jerry Heller interviewed, he's anything but. He's a tough old music executive.
Giamatti should've been more "Deniro as Ace Rothstein", and less "John Candy as Del Griffith", to make an analogy.
Also, very little DJ Yella, and MC Ren. They were both good in their parts.
There were also a few historical scenes where they could've committed more and a darker way to the story telling, but it wasn't too bad.
The Good -
All the concert scenes, and most of the studio scenes range from very good to rock solid.
Most of the historically backdrop scenes are well thought out and done.
Not a huge problem with the casting of Ice Cube or Eazy.
The small, but pivotal role of Suge was handled well, with that actor doing yeomen's work in an easy to miscast part.
Also the minor characters were played well (e.g. Tupac, Snoop, etc....).
