\Tupac: Resurrection,"" is the latest installment of posthumous material from the slain rapper. The synopsis of the movie is essentially a recollection of Tupac Shakur's life, narrated by himself through a series of interviews and performances.
For those who are unfamiliar with Tupac, one of hip-hop's biggest and most controversial names, ""Resurrection"" will run as an extended ""Behind the Music."" The movie traces his experiences in his own words, resulting in a one-sided and occasionally contradictory account of his life.??
Tupac's story begins in Brooklyn, where he was born and raised by his single mother, Afeni Shakur (the film's executive producer). Tupac recalls the poverty that surrounded him, and when he realizes it is a problem plaguing the nation and not just his neighborhood, it sounds like a moment of inspiration.
The story takes him through high school at Baltimore's School of Performing Arts, where he was privileged to experience things that otherwise would be foreign to a kid of his background. Tupac saw things in society that did not measure up and his education enabled him to put issues in the public light.
The best aspect of the film is that the viewer can hear Shakur express his motivations in his words, citing the dire needs of the inner city as inspiration for his songs. His interpretation of ""thug life"" was about standing up and not accepting the fate that poverty forces upon a person. At one point, he uses a great analogy about the unresponsiveness in society and the evolution of rap music.
Hearing Tupac reminisce on his own life is quite the stunt, and director Lauren Lazin does a commendable job of piecing his interviews together to create a cohesive story. The movie is full of stock footage of the streets, splicing in scenes of performances and pictures of the star with friends and acquaintances. It is an amusing fact that the ""Thug Immortal"" was at one time a teen wearing capris and a tank top, lip-syncing with friend Jada Pinkett over Will Smith's ""Parents Just Don't Understand.""
The movie fails to flow Tupac's theater days into his immersion in gangsta rap, however, merely using his relocation to California as a segue to rapping. It would have been interesting to see how his demeanor transformed over those few years as he joined up with Digital Underground, eventually releasing his solo ""2Pacalypse Now"" and taking the reigns of '90s hip-hop. The world lost a rare talent with Tupac, and this latest remembrance provides fans with a direct connection to the thug poet.
