Review of Get On Up (2014) by Brandon E — 07 Aug 2014

As an avid fan of hip hop (good hip hop). I believe it is only right and mandatory to be a fan of James Brown. When you listen to the golden age of hip hop when sampling was used a lot. The music of James Brown was heavily used to provide the energy and set the tone for the genre. From Funky drummer to The Boss, nearly every song from James Brown has been sampled. When it comes to a sampling from a JB song, not only will the instruments and backgrounds would be sampled but also Brown himself. The shouts and high notes from Brown alone were used to sample an entire song. A quote from the movie is that "James Brown only makes James Brown music, you can't put it in any other genre". Yes the music can be categorized as funk and/or R&B but, the sound and voice could never be duplicated. Still to this day, you can listen to a song and feel the high energy from the beat breaks and signature energy that Brown has added to every song. As the precursor to Michael Jackson, James Brown was truly in his own league.

Much like Michael Jackson, Brown has led a pretty interesting life. He was always the person that I was interested in figuring out what molded him into the Godfather of soul. I do applaud the concept of setting this film as a non conventional film. The film has a non-linear structure, it constantly goes back and forward in time, there are moments where Brown breaks the fourth wall for a narrative and also some surrealist moments as we look into the mind of Brown. It was a great concept since this is a bio for such an interesting artist. However it felt very disjointed when the film kept switching through the years. This film does this to an extent where it felt like just a bunch of scenes put together without any purpose. Usually if a film has a nonlinear setup it is done to hype up the payoff. Since this is a bio and the scenes are just showing certain moments in Browns life. We already know the payoff. Now I understand that certain scenes were key moments in his career. However there were other moments that were not needed. This caused a drag, this film really shouldn't be 2hr 12mins. This film definitely had that moment when you think the film is over, then it keeps going on. I also would've enjoy the film if it was rated R. I know James was into some heavy ish, why not show that. The direction felt too clean at certain times.

Chadwick Bozeman did a good job as James Brown. Kudos for mastering the moves and voice of James Brown. There are moments when he is talking when I can't understand him and thats a good thing. It's like that old Eddie Murphy bit when it's hard to understand James Brown. When he's singing the song, he obviously is lip synching. The first thing I thought about this once I saw the lip synch was the initial idea to cast Murphy as James Brown. Despite the fact that Murphy is in his 50's, I'm sure he could pretty much nail the performance in this movie.

This film does show how Brown was an icon in the music industry. As previously mentioned Hip hop was greatly influenced in this artist. This film shows how he promoted himself, and also promoted black empowerment during the harsh times in civil rights.

The film has a good concept. Obviously if there would be a biopic on JB it definitely couldn't fit the conventional biopic structure. The music is great, there are some great scenes and performances. However it feels convoluted and it drags.