75
Has been called an exploitation of a tragedy, but in fact it's an expose of tragic exploitation.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
Broomfield's shaggy p.o.v. always troubles -- blurring the lines between tabloid and serious reportage, morbid curiosity and hard facts, objectivity and amusing, quasi-amateur stuntsmanship.
75
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
Broomfield conducts riveting interviews with a former LAPD officer, Biggie's fiercely protective mother and assorted hangers-on, but the actual thrust of his evidence seems almost irrelevant.
70
Deceptively rambling, shrewdly ragtag documentary.
60
This is Oliver Stone country, but Broomfield's self-effacing affect is more Woody Allen,
75
Chicago Tribune by John Petrakis
Those not well versed in the rap music world may be a little lost at times, but you don't need to know your Ice-T's from your Cool-J's to realize that as far as these shootings are concerned, something is rotten in the state of California.
12
This time out, Broomfield comes up with maybe enough halfway decent material for a 10-minute segment on a second-rate tabloid TV show.
40
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Overall, the film is occasionally interesting but essentially unpersuasive, a footnote to a still evolving story.
88
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Compulsively watchable and endlessly inventive as it transforms Broomfield's limited materials into a compelling argument.
80
A wily and dogged inquisitor, Broomfield cajoles and confronts a variety of witnesses, charting a web of intrigue that also involved the LAPD, the FBI, and assorted gangbangers and rogue cops.