Big Let DOWN

lbenot

All the time, effort and money that went into making this movie represents nothing more than a lost entertainment opportunity. There probably won't be another movie made about James Brown and his unique music, and instead of using all those resources to tell a story that celebrates the origins and making and performance of his incredible music, we get a beginning-to-end mish-mash of rank stereotypical negativity: angry black-man abusive father, absent uncaring mother, obligatory scenes of racism, and the ever present non-stop bickering.

Even worse, this whole sad story is told via the ridiculous overuse of senselessly jumping back and forth from time period to time period. The movie begins in 1988 with one of the worst opening scenes (and dialog) in movie history. Another cheap and senseless effect was to have our lead actor (whose vocal inflections often channeled Chris Rock) repeatedly look into the camera and speak directly to the audience.

The performance scenes, which should have been the highlight of the movie, had visual production value (he did a reasonable facsimile of JB's dance moves), but were musically weak (even though I believe they were JB's original tracks) because they never lasted long enough to capture nor portrayed the repetitively driving funky "groove" that was THE signature sound of James Brown and his kick-ass band.

One bright and intriguing performance was the brief scene by the actor who played Little Richard. One can only hope when and if a movie about HIS life is ever made, the screenplay will be written featuring and celebrating the music, not simply the gimmicky, amateurish editing of cheap, stereotypical drivel, as was done here.

score 1/10

lbenot 20 August 2014

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3072198/