Sorry, this movie sucks

Powerful

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

A chronicle of James Brown's rise from extreme poverty to become one of the most influential musicians in history. Get on Up is a film that i truly respect not just as a biography about a very talented singer but also packs one strong performance Chadwick Boseman, Viola Davis, Dan Aykroyd and Lennie James. It shows James Brown's life as it truly was with both the good side and the bad side with very interesting characters, pacing and some great songs playing in the background and it's really sad to see the film have such a low score here on IMDb with a 6.9 this definitely deserves at least a 7.7 or a 7.9 everyone did one hell of a job and gave some amazing performances.

Chadwick Boseman might not be perfect but hell, James Brown was unique so who could ever recapture his essence? His dance moves are on the button and only once does his strut look more like Prince than JB. The storyline may not be as fleshed out as 'Ray' (one or two clichés) but the soundtrack is great and the classic concerts faithfully recreated. We learn (like we didn't already know) that JB was a flawed human being but we see the torments of his early life so when he abuses his partners and cheats his musicians we are almost (I say almost) sympathetic. In the end he was one of the world's greatest showmen and band leaders, but finally pushed his band to breaking point and I applaud them for going solo (and making some stupendous records without him in the various JBs/Maceo/Wesley incarnations)

I recently saw the Jimi Hendrix biopic, "All Is By My Side", which was only about a small part of his life so not sure you can really call it a complete biographical portrait- plus, none of his music was included, which made the film feel a little short-changed. With "Get On Up", a biopic about legend James Brown, you don't have either of those problems. Mick Jagger produced and Tate Taylor ("The Help") directed this biopic with Chadwick Boseman ("42") in the lead role. Like with Andre Benjamin as Hendrix, Boseman doesn't really look like JB, but he does a great job capturing his essence, and certainly has his moves down. And like with another biopic "Ray", "Get On Up" does not sugar-coat Brown, but portrays him in a not-so-great light a lot of the time. One of my fav. Brit actors, Lennie James, is good as JB's father, which sheds some light on his violent tendencies, as well as Viola Davis as Susie Brown, JB's mother. Brandon Mychal Smith was also good as Little Richard, who had a small but key role in mentoring Brown in his early success. And Dan Aykroyd was awesome as Ben Bart, the President of Universal Attractions Agency who eventually becomes JB's business partner. Fred Melamed had the funniest scene in the film when he gets up and physically demonstrates why Brown should stay out of business decision-making! LMFAO!! Craig Robinson, Allison Janney and Oscar winner Octavia Spencer also star.

"Get on Up" didn't really set the box office on fire when it was released to theaters, and I think I have some idea as to why. Before I get into that, I should point out that it's far from the worst biopic ever made by Hollywood. Actor Chadwick Boseman does give a very good performance as James Brown, successfully convincing the audience that the Godfather of Soul had both a good side and a much darker side. Some credit for that also has to go to the script, which does not whitewash the legend's sometimes questionable behavior; the first real scene of the movie depicts the event that landed Brown in jail in 1988. And the movie, despite running over two hours long, is never boring; every scene is interesting in one aspect or another. And of course, there is the music, which is of course wonderful to hear.Yet despite what I wrote above, at the end of the movie I felt somewhat unsatisfied. The movie doesn't go into depth with Brown in some key aspects. We learn almost nothing about his marriage and his children, his jump into sudden fame and fortune is never really depicted (the movie suddenly jumps ahead several years!), his relationship with Aykroyd's character isn't given that much more depth, his problems with the taxman are mentioned in one scene and then it NEVER mentioned again, and his 1988 arrest is shown but it's never detailed what exactly happened afterwards. It's also confusing that the organization of scenes (the movie doesn't always play in order) doesn't make sense, like when Brown is suddenly reunited with his long absent mother.So what do we have here? Well, it's a movie that will appeal to some people, but not all. If you sit down to watch the movie simply to be entertained, you may find it accomplishes that. But if you really want to learn about the Godfather of Soul and what shaped him and made him tick, you would probably be better reading a biography of the man.