Review of Get On Up (2014) by Orlando O — 08 Feb 2015

Get on Up is a biographical film that tries to pay the homage to the "godfather of soul" singer James Brown. Although, the film fails terribly cause of how the narrative structure is portrayed which made caring or having any emotional impact to the character difficult. I am not a fan of James Brown or even find his music at all good.

The best thing the movie had to offer was the two main leads Chadwick Boseman and Nelsan Ellis both giving great performances as James Brown and Bobby Byrd.

The film has that annoying narrative structure that shows the main events and life situation of James Brown. From his earlier years, when his father and mother left him to getting in trouble with the law in his teenage years. After being sentenced for years, Brown comes across Bobby Byrd who is running gospel ceremonies in the prison. Bobby managed to get James out and slowly starting their music crew.

Screenwriters Jez Butterworth and John Henry Butterworth structured the movie with a frustrating narrative that ran constantly back and forth from the 1993 to 1939 with brief moments of the character that tried to have some kind emotional impact. It was difficult to even care for the character; yes there were moments when James Browns mother neglecting and abandoning him. The scene was brief and there was no sense of any connections with no development in the characters. Plus there is a few moments when James Brown tells the audiences on how he is feeling in a certain situation which felt unnecessary cause it was hard to even care for what he had to say.

Get on Up was a dull biographical drama film that was boring and uninspired for watching what claims to be the godfather of soul in music.