7/10

The latest musical biopic takes us inside the story of the most accomplished soul singer or all time, James Brown. First of all, Chadwick Boseman is the only guy who could’ve done the iconic singer any kind of justice in playing him. There are parts in this film that would come off comical if any other actor played him, but Boseman does the kind of preparation for a role that makes you think you are actually watching the deceased singer. Boseman did great in last year’s biopic on baseball player Jackie Robinson, but i think he turns in a more dramatic performance as Brown. The movie doesn’t make James Brown out to be a hero and i greatly appreciate that. They paint the whole story including some of the terrible decisions he made along the way with cutting band members pay, drug abuse, and spousal abuse that doesn’t ever hide away from what he put her through. Besides the performance of Boseman, there is a great ensemble cast of Dan Akroyd, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Lennie James handing in a heartfelt performance as James best friend who always stood by him. The musical numbers that were really sung by Boseman are complete with a great list of Brown’s best in his catalog. This is one of those films almost where the music takes center stage and everything else comes second. In a running time of 2 hours and 10 minutes, i would say that musical performances account for an estimated 30 minutes of this movie. That is shocking because usually you only get short clips here and there of the actual singing. That is the one thing i wish Walk The Line would’ve done a little more exclusively. The makeup work is excellent during all stages of James Brown’s age. It’s almost eerie towards the end of the film when Brown is older because you swear this footage had to be taken from actual James Brown concerts. Tate Taylor’s film isn’t as concerned with narrative and more concerned with the life of sin and glory of Brown’s telling. There are some weird parts with the narration that didn’t seem to make sense. The story goes forward and backwards without ever really staying set on one particular era. It’s done in a way i have never seen, and i think it could’ve been done with a little more explanation. The problem with this type of shooting is that you get invested in one timeframe only to have it skimmed over before moving on to something else without explanation. Brown also starts breaking the 4th wall by looking and talking to the camera midway through the movie. This happens without explanation and is something i didn’t care for or understand with how the films pacing had already been set. This is of course the only problem i had with the film as i felt the overall cinematography was done very well with excellent shooting locations, great costume work, and dialogue that finally made sense in a musical biopic. The thing i really feel bad for with this movie is that it came out on the same weekend as the biggest movie of the summer, Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s unfortunate because i feel that both films should be seen by the public. It’s hard enough to get one good film in a weekend, but to have two great films can push for the audience to spend a little more for a powerful double feature. Overall, Get On Up packs more drama than Jersey Boys and as great of a single performance as Jamie Foxx’s in Ray. That alone should be worth a viewing, but it’s the toe tapping electric feel good energy of the film’s soundtrack that will put the soul back into everyone’s Ipod’s. Get on Up is can’t miss.