Review of Get On Up (2014) by Janice P — 02 Nov 2016

There might be a genuinely good film hiding in here, but the filmmakers have done a great job of trying to cover it up.Chadwick Boseman makes a, sometimes, uncanny James Brown and Viola Davis turns in a, as usual, wonderful performance as his mother, but the film itself seems to pull one too many punches.

This is most noticeable with a subplot involving Brown abusing his wife. It's a big deal for all of 3 minutes until it suddenly...isn't a big deal anymore. Scenes come and go with little dramatic impact and the film seems to build to nothing.

At times it feels as if this was shot as an R rated film and edited to a crowd-pleasing PG-13. Something feels tampered with.