Get On Up - Review

Get on up is the chronicle of James Brown’s rise from poverty to become one of the most influential musicians in history, well it could have been.

Tate Taylor coming off hot from his last film ‘The Help’ brings us his latest rendition with ‘Get on up’. Taylor had all the right ingredients to almost rope in the audience into a magical journey of stardom, yet he dragged us into the dark hole in which this film belongs to be buried within. With young Chadwick Boseman fresh from his Stella portrayal of Jackie Robinson, we are led into a sense of false hope believing and hanging on to the gasp of air that could lead you to believe that James Browns life shown on screen with an ‘M’ rating could actually suffice. The godfather of soul did not lead a ‘M’ rated life, so why show one to your audience? Yes, we all know that a medium of rating is key to a successful box office intake, yet, are you really doing the man of the hour justice or simply bleeding of his well-known story… This film simply proves to be the latter.

The film however is not all bad, I mean the badly dubbed lip syncs really make you feel like the movie is flowing… wait, no it doesn’t! Let’s face it, we go to the movies to be entertained and we as an audience want to see what the super star really got up to in his prime time, we want: Sex, Drugs and soul - Not an arrogant forsake able portrayal of an all-time legend.

The film at times is a little hard to follow with a Tarantino wannabe like story mode of chop and change, here and there, where and near. To put it simply the flow did not impress nor did it keep audience members awake, with an older gent in the row next to me falling asleep, to a snoring freedom away from the abyss that was provided on the silver screen.

All in all, I’m sure there was an element of respect paid to the Soul brother himself, yet if he saw this film in the flesh, I’m certain he would detest. You may want to wait for this one to release on DVD and save yourself the $20 and the vicious agony that is laid upon your eyes.

I give this film a 4/10 and a WE WANT THE FUNK!!

Reviewed by Mase Shaw - Follow Mase on Twitter @MaseShaw