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Notorious

  • 2009
  • R
  • 2h 2m
IMDb RATING
6.7/10
47K
YOUR RATING
Jamal Woolard in Notorious (2009)
Jamal Woolard stars in the chronicle of rapper Notorious B.I.G.'s life.
Play trailer2:36
22 Videos
72 Photos
Period DramaTrue CrimeBiographyCrimeDramaMusic

The life and death story of The Notorious B.I.G. (a.k.a. Christopher Wallace), who came straight out of Brooklyn to take the world of rap music by storm.The life and death story of The Notorious B.I.G. (a.k.a. Christopher Wallace), who came straight out of Brooklyn to take the world of rap music by storm.The life and death story of The Notorious B.I.G. (a.k.a. Christopher Wallace), who came straight out of Brooklyn to take the world of rap music by storm.

  • Director
    • George Tillman Jr.
  • Writers
    • Reggie Rock Bythewood
    • Cheo Hodari Coker
  • Stars
    • Jamal Woolard
    • Anthony Mackie
    • Derek Luke
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.7/10
    47K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • George Tillman Jr.
    • Writers
      • Reggie Rock Bythewood
      • Cheo Hodari Coker
    • Stars
      • Jamal Woolard
      • Anthony Mackie
      • Derek Luke
    • 114User reviews
    • 99Critic reviews
    • 60Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 9 nominations total

    Videos22

    Notorious: Theatrical Trailer
    Trailer 2:36
    Notorious: Theatrical Trailer
    Notorious: Teaser Trailer
    Trailer 1:15
    Notorious: Teaser Trailer
    Notorious: Teaser Trailer
    Trailer 1:15
    Notorious: Teaser Trailer
    Notorious: Behind the Scenes Footage
    Trailer 2:31
    Notorious: Behind the Scenes Footage
    Notorious (2009)
    Clip 0:40
    Notorious (2009)
    Notorious (2009)
    Clip 0:32
    Notorious (2009)
    Notorious (2009)
    Clip 1:15
    Notorious (2009)

    Photos72

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    Top cast99+

    Edit
    Jamal Woolard
    Jamal Woolard
    • Christopher 'Biggie' Wallace
    Anthony Mackie
    Anthony Mackie
    • Tupac Shakur
    Derek Luke
    Derek Luke
    • Sean 'Puffy' Combs
    Momo Dione
    Momo Dione
    • Record Executive at Party
    • (as Mohamed Dione)
    Dennis L.A. White
    Dennis L.A. White
    • Damion
    Marc John Jefferies
    Marc John Jefferies
    • Cease
    Menyone DeVeaux
    Menyone DeVeaux
    • Hot Girl #1
    Christopher Jordan Wallace
    Christopher Jordan Wallace
    • Biggie (Age 8-13)
    Ricky Smith
    Ricky Smith
    • Wally
    Amanda Christopher
    • Keisha
    Angela Bassett
    Angela Bassett
    • Voletta Wallace
    Jasper Briggs
    • Damion (Age 8-13)
    Cyrus Farmer
    Cyrus Farmer
    • Selwyn
    David Costabile
    David Costabile
    • Mr. Webber
    Julia Pace Mitchell
    Julia Pace Mitchell
    • Jan
    Red Café
    • Primo
    • (as Jermaine Denny)
    Naquon 'Nino Brown' Jackson
    • Nino Brown
    Naturi Naughton
    Naturi Naughton
    • Lil' Kim
    • Director
      • George Tillman Jr.
    • Writers
      • Reggie Rock Bythewood
      • Cheo Hodari Coker
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews114

    6.747.4K
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    Featured reviews

    5sofiadesigns

    A movie for Biggie fans

    That should have been the title of the movie. Everything about this movie glorified Big..... if he was a nerdy student - he's gonna the nerdiest student.... if he was a drug dealer - he was gonna be the biggest drug dealer - complete with him sitting in a dark room with that one light that shines down on the table (classic).... if he didn't know anything about Tupac's murder - then he's gonna appear as if he was absolutely oblivious to that entire situation.... not to mention one of the supporting characters in this movie, Kim.... if Kim was gonna be a ho - she's gonna be the dirtiest ho ever.... If I didn't know any better, I would assume the only way she came up was by f'king Biggie.... This is a one-sided, shallow view of a person's life. Biggie fans want to remember his legacy flawless and that can be understood. Sure why not? This movie was made for you..... It's a story told as though a mother is speaking of her lost son who could do no wrong.....

    Recommendation: Why not learn who Biggie was by beefing up the content of the supporting cast.... his first baby's momma for starters, and what about other artists that he interacted with? We could have seen a more developed, well-rounded and truthful character. Possibly even learn something about him that hasn't already been discussed in magazines or on TV....
    7theoutlawtorn1080

    powerful, but typical biographical fare.

    when i first heard notorious b.i.g. at 13, i was immediately blown away. his flow was some of the best i have ever heard. when he passed away, it left a hole in the hip hop community that will never be filled again. this film takes a look at his life story. the film looks at his relationship with his mother, and the streets. two totally different worlds that biggie is deeply in love with. he starts out as a loving mamas boy and grows to a greatly respected drug dealer and extremely talented rapper. his skills blow away everyone in his neighborhood and soon catches the attention of an aspiring c.e.o. by the name of Sean "puffy" combs. Combs starts his own record label, Bad Boy records, and immediately signs biggie. from there its a roller coaster ride as biggie takes the hip hop world by storm. and mo' money mo' problems as his beef with tupac takes a tragic turn that changes the hip hop world forever. newcomer jamal woolard makes his big screen debut, and shines as biggie. he has a natural charisma that captures biggies essence in every way. angela bassett plays voletta wallace, biggies mom, and her performance is great as always. the rest of the cast does a surprisingly good job, playing their roles as real people, and not caricatures of famous people. this film ran at around 120 mins and felt real and i had a great time watching it. this film brought back so many memories of my teens and made me realize how much the world misses the notorious b.i.g.
    Jaysdatruth

    I loved it

    The Movie was way better then I thought. The actors/actress in it resembled each person in everyway possible. The little kim character was on point even the way she spit those lyrics in the bedroom. According to Naturi Naughton who played the role of little kim she never rapped before but you couldn't tell the way she flowed. When she performed in that lacey outfit towards the end you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between her and kim. The biggie character played by gravy was also on point as well. The voice, build and complexion was spot on. When the faith character sung "I remember" I couldn't believe how great she sang, and it didn't look like she was lip sycn-ing at all. I really enjoyed the movie and it brought me back to those great times in college when I was hooping for Suny Farmingdale.

    I was disappointed about one thing and that was the drama aspect. Nothing surprised me about it, because everything in the movie we already knew. It wasn't one thing in the movie that left anything to the imagination. It was very predictable because I already knew he sold drugs, he went to jail, then got discovered by puffy, he blew up, then he died. So probably 15 minutes into the movie I pretty much knew what would happen next. I still loved it and the music in it.
    8jessmix

    Never was a fan until now

    Back in the 90's as a teen, I never really got in to Biggie's music or lyrics. I never knew the correlation between he and all these artists like "Puff Daddy" Faith Evans, Lil Kim all came up together. I never understood how the East Coast West Coast feud got started.

    This film gave me a new respect for Christopher Wallace. His intelligence and how he tied that in to his passion for music and lyrics. He had a dream as a child and in the end he achieved that dream of not just becoming a success as a performer, but a success as a father to his children, a good son to his mom, and a good man to himself.

    I love that line in the move "If you wanna change the world, First you've got to change yourself"

    Inspirational film, even if you're not a fan of his music or hip hop, you can still appreciate the story behind this man.
    8lil_hockey_star_02

    Great Movie For Biggie Fans

    MY girlfriend and I went to see this opening night and I was a little worried about the director and first time actor Jamal Woolard but it turned out to be a great film. Now i am a Biggie fan so you may think this is biased but it was a well done movie and showed you the life of biggie and how he made it. There is a couple things that i thought were not so good about the movie like go more in depth his younger years so we learn more about him and also go deeper into the feud with him and pac. But other than that Jamal Woolard gave a great performance as well as the rest of the cast. Now my girlfriend doesn't even like rap and she liked this movie so i would suggest it to anyone. I am surprised about the bad rating but i guess people hate on the best rapper of all time too much lol

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    Related interests

    Emma Watson, Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, and Eliza Scanlen in Little Women (2019)
    Period Drama
    Lee Norris and Ciara Moriarty in Zodiac (2007)
    True Crime
    Ben Kingsley, Rohini Hattangadi, and Geraldine James in Gandhi (1982)
    Biography
    James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Sharon Angela, Max Casella, Dan Grimaldi, Joe Perrino, Donna Pescow, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Tony Sirico, and Michael Drayer in The Sopranos (1999)
    Crime
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    Drama
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    Music

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Christopher Jordan Wallace, who plays twelve-year old Christopher Wallace, is the real-life son of The Notorious B.I.G. and Faith Evans.
    • Goofs
      The coffin for the Notorious B.I.G's body is obviously too small; thus there's no way that Biggie or the actor for that matter would've fit in there.
    • Quotes

      Sean Combs: We can't change the world unless we change ourselves.

    • Alternate versions
      The unrated cut features seven minutes of extended footage as well as an opening sequence involving the "Impala SS" killer.
    • Connections
      Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Last Chance Harvey/Notorious/Paul Blart: Mall Cop/Hotel for Dogs/Defiance/Che (2009)
    • Soundtracks
      Born Again (Intro)
      Written by The Notorious B.I.G. (as Christopher Wallace), Easy Mo Bee (as Osten S. Harvey), J. Dub (as Jeffrey Leon Walker) and Harve Pierre

      Performed by The Notorious B.I.G.

      Courtesy of Bad Boy Records LLC

      By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing

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    FAQ21

    • How long is Notorious?Powered by Alexa
    • Is this a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious"?
    • What are the songs in the trailers?
    • What are the differences between the R-rated theatrical cut and the unrated cut later released on DVD?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 16, 2009 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Untitled Notorious B.I.G. Project
    • Filming locations
      • New York City, New York, USA
    • Production companies
      • Fox Searchlight Pictures
      • Voletta Wallace Films
      • Bystorm Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $20,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $36,843,682
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $20,497,596
      • Jan 18, 2009
    • Gross worldwide
      • $44,420,671
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 2h 2m(122 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • DTS
      • Dolby
      • SDDS
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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