42's Chadwick Boseman is James Brown

[mrvlknight21]

I have nothing to say other than I live about 40 minutes away from a statue of James Brown in downtown Augusta.

10 minutes for me.
Unfortunately I have not seen this yet. I would have loved to gone to the premiere party which was here in Augusta (Boseman, Ackroyd, and others were here for it).

 

[DarKush]

Not all of them. Brian Grazer and Tate Taylor are American.

But they are furious nonetheless.

I wonder what the black posters here think about white people telling this black story? Or any black story? That blog site "Shadow and Act" gets upset whenever white people start to tell black stories. They would be enraged if Martin Scorsese did a film about Marvin Gaye or Jimi Hendrix or Steven Spielberg did a film about Jesse Owens or Jack Johnson.

As an Asian American, if white people started to tell our stories, I would be fine with it as long as they respect the Asian culture. I have no problems with Martin Scorsese directing Silence, because well...it's Martin Scorsese and the main protagonists are white anyways, even though the film is set in Japan. I didn't care much for 47 Ronin, because it didn't look good to begin with. I was fine with the Last Samurai being directed by a white director, because it was a really good movie.

I think that's the key part that you said, 'if' they respect the story, or rather the history and the culture and can acknowledge and accurately depict how racism has affected black life in America. And I think that's very difficult to do for some white people.

Plus there is a whole history of whites negatively depicting blacks that has to be contended with as well. Or ostensibly making a story about black history or a 'black' issue but making the main characters white.

I for one was turned off by Tate Taylor's comments regarding The Help and his desire not to depict things like lynching, saying that everyone knew about those things, and compared it to the scene where Viola Davis is forced to use an outhouse or something in 100 degree temperatures, or something to that effect. I thought it was a dismissive answer. Everyone doesn't know about those things and it makes a Civil Rights-era movie less salient if you aren't depicting the very real dangers black people faced during those times. Dangers that could be magnified by speaking or acting out. My leeriness regarding The Help kept me away from Get On Up.

 

[MadVillainy]

I know this movie wasnt great, but Im still surprised Boseman has basically been forgotten when it comes to the best actor race.

Him as James Brown is still one of the best performances Ive seen this year and he's pretty much being ignored

But good for him at least getting Black Panther (he was my top choice)

 

[Dr. Evil]

I know this movie wasnt great, but Im still surprised Boseman has basically been forgotten when it comes to the best actor race.

Him as James Brown is still one of the best performances Ive seen this year and he's pretty much being ignored

But good for him at least getting Black Panther (he was my top choice)

It's because the film got released way too early. It might have had a chance if it had been released now.

 

[MadVillainy]

Damn shame.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Damn shame.

Yep. If any black actor is getting nominated this year, it's going to be David Oyelowo for Selma.

 

[chamber-music]

I thought this film was ok. Standard biopic stuff with a strong central performance like Ray, Bird, Walk The Line, La Bamba, ect.

I like that they didn't sugercoat Brown as some sort of saint.

I had a hard time seeing Lafayette from True Blood play a different character. Nice Aloe Blacc cameo

It was better than Andrea 3000's Jimmi Hendrix biopic film.

 

[RockSP]

I thought this film was ok.

Just watched this a few days ago. Yeah okay at best. Boseman did a good job, though.

 

[Alien Anal]

Yeh i found this movie to be a bit average and boring at times.

My dream would have to be Richard linklater directing a Kurt Cobain bio pic with unknown actors. Sigh.

 

[Hypestyle]

... Well I guess the DVD release is being put off until maybe February, Black History Month.. I hope that there are lots of music-based extras on the release.

 

[MadVillainy]

The DVD comes out January. Check Amazon

 

[Asr]

Just saw this. Have to agree, Chadwick Boseman was amazing! Can't say I was really all that familiar with James Brown already (well aside from his biggest hits, obviously) so I didn't know anything about him, but Boseman really delivered everything—from the repressed anger & other emotions (especially when he became suspicious of other people) to the voice to even the dance moves. And the way he broke the 4th wall was actually done well too.

Boseman was pretty much the only good thing about the movie though (well and some of the other actors too). The directing was terrible—the film was never sure of what it was trying to do, and holy crap the editing was atrocious. It was so bad that whoever edited the movie should never be allowed to work in Hollywood again! Things jumped around way too much chronologically that it was impossible to follow the sequence of events, and there were cuts that made absolutely no sense, like when Brown "broke up" with the band but then in the next scene they were all performing together. Or when he broke up with his best friend but then in the next scene there they were together! WTF was up with that?

It was at least an interesting movie to watch but even Boseman's amazing performance didn't really save it from being a slightly less-than-mediocre movie. Definitely an Oscar nom-worthy performance from him though.