Notorious B.I.G. Bigger Than Life (2007)

Director:

Peter Spirer

Writers:

Adam H. Miller (writer)
Peter Spirer (writer)

Release Date:

11 September 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

The greatest rapper to ever pick up a mic - with his velvety flow and unparalleled rhyme style he captivated everyone from Jay Z to Tupac...

Plot Keywords:

Acronym In Title | Character Name In Title

Cast

50-Grand	...	Himself
Easy Mo Bee	...	Himself
The Notorious B.I.G.	...	Himself (archive footage)
Todd Boyd	...	Himself
Hawk Burns	...	Himself
Michael Bynum	...	Himself
Matteo Capoluongo	...	Himself
Cheo Hodari Coker	...	Himself
Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs	...	Himself (archive footage)
Common	...	Himself
Timmy Davis	...	Himself
Chico Delvec	...	Himself
Diggaman	...	Himself
E-40	...	Himself (archive footage)
Sticky Fingaz	...	Himself
Schott Free	...	Himself
Gdub	...	Himself
Jay-Z	...	Himself (archive footage)
Dre Kyles	...	Himself
Keith Lewis	...	Himself
Henney Loc	...	Himself
Tony Magnetic	...	Himself
Method Man	...	Himself
Derrick Parker	...	Himself
Slim Pickens	...	Himself
Raekwon	...	Himself (archive footage)
D.J. Rogers Jr.	...	Himself
Hubert Sam	...	Himself
Ousmane Sam	...	Himself
Twan Tarrel	...	Himself
King Tech	...	Himself
Rob Tewlow	...	Himself
Voletta Wallace	...	Herself (archive footage)
Witchdoc	...	Himself

Also Known As:

Biggie Smalls: Bigger Than Life (USA) (working title)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Aslan Productions

OK for casual viewers but lacks anything different in the content while the lack of any music is mystifying and annoying

I'm not sure who this film is aimed at because it doesn't seem to do enough of anything to aim for a pretty slim audience – specifically those who have heard BIG's music but know almost nothing about him. I say this for several reasons. Firstly in terms of the content of the film, there isn't a whole lot here that took me by surprise. They have gotten lots of "less-famous" people together to be the talking heads and, although Puff etc are notable by their absence, they are not really missed. However, those that are there do not have massive insights to deliver and they end up saying general things when really what we wanted was fleshing out, little anecdotes, little personal things that are too small to become history but are still important. Sadly there isn't much of that here and what we get is just the stuff that the vast majority of people will have seen and heard before me. This is not to say that it is without value because it is still interesting and there are some good contributors in there as well as some video I had never seen before, just that it will hold limited appeal to those who already know the basics (which is a big chunk of the target audience for this I'd guess).

On the flip side of that, those completely unaware of BIG will find little here to make them find out more. The film doesn't really do a good job of showing us why he is considered the best that ever did it. Of course it doesn't help that they couldn't get hold of any music – and I mean any. Pretty much we get very brief moments in the studio but that's about it – I have no idea why but you'll feel this gap a lot more than you the lack of Puff or Faith Evans. This leaves though who have a passing interest and even for this audience the documentary is only "OK". There are better documentaries around this subject and this film doesn't do much to make itself stand out as something you should make an effort to see.

Generally when the film is interesting it is mostly because BIG is interesting, not that they have put it together well. OK some contributors are good and it does do a solid job of covering a lot of ground but there are lots of weak aspects that really needed to be done better than they have been. OK for casual viewers but anyone who knows a bit about the man will find little of interest here while everyone will feel the lack of music.