Chadwick Boseman's acting, in my opinion, was excellent. I really, really, can't believe or understand why he and this movie didn't win an Academy Award. Maybe because I tend to lean more toward natural and believable acting roles than those of generally expected, predictable roles. All the actors were so good and I just watched it again on TV (CTRC) and still enjoyed it as if I was watching it for the first time. That's when you know a movie is good...that's the measuring tool. Plus James Brown's life was an interesting one, no doubt. He rose through the ashes and made something of himself, almost as if, it was just plain destiny. Even though he was treated so bad as a child, it made him the man he became and nobody can take that away...nobody.

Just want to start by saying that this really is a terrific picture. Well shot, well made, tells the Brown story to a T all the greatest hits and lowest points of his life. This film does feature a fatal flaw however. It is edited in the poorest of fashion. The way it jumps all about from year to year blows throw the point of being a distraction to being something that both detracts from and ruins an otherwise terrific movie. Classic case of someone being too clever for their own good. "Ray" and "Walk the Line" tell (for the most part) an in order, hit by hit tale of their subjects careers, with some flashback sequences. So this movie trying to do something different makes sense in that they are trying to separate themselves from "normal" music biopics. In doing so, they really failed everyone they were working with and I can't believe no one stepped in to make a more coherent movie of this great material and subject matter.If they ever come along with a "chronological" cut of this movie, I will happily give it 9 stars, and stop my day to check it out. As is, 5 and a hard but fair 5 for some of the worst editing of what could have been great movie that we will ever see.

There is nothing novel in the non-linear storytelling about Get on Up the biopic of James Brown also known as The Godfather of Soul and The Hardest working man in Showbiz. Then again he had to work in order to pay his debts such as to the IRS.Outside of the USA, Brown was not revered as other black pioneers in rock n roll such as Little Richard and Chuck Berry. It is true Brown was widely sampled and there are those hits like Get on Up and I Feel Good but they are the few that are memorable.Basically in the early 1970s the hits dried up and it was the touring the kept the money coming in. Not helped by his dalliance with Nixon and the Republicans.In the late 1980s Brown went to jail and this shocked people especially to those who became acquainted to him via his appearance in Rocky 4. However as a DJ said at the time, going to jail is not new for Brown, he's been to jail before.Director Tate Taylor starts the film at this low point in 1988 where he holds up a seminar taking place in the building he owns and he is upset that someone had used his own bathroom. It is all a bit bizarre, were the people not supposed to use bathrooms? Also my recollection of the time was the he was sent down for domestic violence.From there we go back to his impoverished childhood, his mother abandoning him for presumably a life of prostitution, he grew up in a bordello with an aunt and there is the eerie scene of the boxing match with blindfolded black kids with one arm tied behind their backs. The director manages to swing the disturbing scene around with a David Lynch like surrealism.Although the film shows her mother showing up after he is successful where he is almost embarrassed to see her although we see a later scene where he makes sure she is financially well looked after. In real life I think there had to be more to this relationship given she only died three years before Brown and his father also lived to a good old age.You see the early rise of Brown though The Famous Flames, his showmanship, going solo, his almost military style of keeping the band ship-shape. He wanted them to look smart, be punctual and play well or else they would be fines and that irritated his band members. You see Brown taking over his own management which brought him a lot of money but also a lot of back-taxes to pay. He also ripped of his band mates.I think Tate Taylor overstates his influence in rock n roll history even though his role in developing a style of funk in the late 1960s is important although he did this with with Bobby Byrd (Nelson Ellis) the co band member who stayed with him for years but split in the early 1970s which also coincided with the time when the hit records dried up.However despite the shortcomings of the film, the liberties with the truth and the sanitisation of Brown the film delivers thanks to Chadwick Boseman's energetic performance. He captures Brown's presence and stage energy. It is a wonder with all those dance moves Brown did for years that he was not confined to a wheelchair by middle age.

It is not possible to watch this movie without falling in love with the superhuman -- and yet ultimately all too human -- James Brown. Chadwick Boseman's performance is nothing short of stunning, magically inhabiting Brown from the golden years of his youth on through his broke-down later years.Remarkable. I want to go out and buy "Live at the Apollo."The cast includes great performances from Nelsan Ellis, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Craig Robinson, though I found Dan Aykroyd a little out of tune as Brown's long-time manager Ben Bart. Interestingly, the Hollywood Reporter has an interview with Bart's son Jack, who points out some inaccuracies in the film, most importantly that the emotion-laden funeral scene is completely fictional: Brown apparently did not attend at all.Small matter. Get On Up delivers a rich and detailed picture of James Brown, a brilliant performer and sadly troubled human being.