Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

grantss A movie on the great James Brown, the Godfather of Soul and one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. We see his life, from boyhood, to initial steps as an entertainer, to success and later life.Great biopic. Directed by Tate Taylor, who directed The Help, and starring Chadwick Boseman (who played Jackie Robinson in 42) as James Brown, this is an entertaining, absorbing look into the life of one of the greatest stars of the 20th century, a man who created a genre of music (funk) and influenced several others.Excellent performance by Chadwick Boseman in the lead role. Very convincing, capturing incredibly well the energy, swagger and determination of James Brown, plus his on-stage theatrics. The film's hairstylist and make-up artist deserve heaps of credit too, considering the (quite accurate) transformations they put Boseman through.Part of what makes the movie so great is the music, and the live performances to go with it. Very well done.Not perfect though. Starts pretty disjointedly and non-engagingly. Takes a while to get into the movie (but once you do it is a great journey). Even once it does get going, there is still a degree of roughness around the edges. Tate Taylor seems to paint with broad brushes, as the smaller detail sometimes seems overlooked or bent for dramatic purposes.Comparisons with Ray and Walk The Line are in order, and Get On Up is not quite up to the standard of those two movies, largely for the reasons mentioned above.This all said, a great movie.

MovieHoliks 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.

Allen Williams Chadwick Boseman does an amazing job playing James Brown...His performance deserved an Oscar Nod...But what I loved even more was the story...I never realized the kind of trials and tribulations the real James Brown had apparently gone through...James brown always came off like this untouchable super star without a care in the world...And I guess in someways...He was...But there was so much more to him than I ever dreamed...And this movie showcases it all in the most professional and respectful way...Normally, I don't like it when characters in movies do what is known as "Breaking the 4th wall"...But the filmmakers even handled that with class and gracefulness suitable for The Godfather Of Soul... From start to finish...This was an amazing film...And that's all there is too it...

Wizard-8 "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.