Get on Up (DVD REVIEW)
Get
on Up
DVD
Review by Kam Williams
Boseman Impersonates the Godfather of Soul in James Brown Biopic
In 2013, Chadwick
Boseman successfully channeled the spirit of Jackie Robinson in 42, a powerful
biopic about the Hall of Fame great who made history when he integrated Major
League Baseball in 1947. In Get on Up, the gifted young actor impersonates
another legend, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown (1933-2006).
Unfortunately, this
revisionist fairytale works better as a jukebox musical than as an accurate
recitation of the late crooner’s checkered past. The problem is that Brown
simply is hard to portray sympathetically, despite his overcoming abject
poverty and a dysfunctional childhood on the road to
superstardom.
Yes,
he was abandoned by abusive parents (Viola Davis and Lennie James) at the home
of an aunt (Octavia Spencer) in Augusta,
Georgia who did
her best to raise him in the absence of a father figure. Nevertheless, James
dropped out of school in the 7th grade, took to the streets, and
spent several years behind bars for an armed robbery committed at just 16.
Upon parole, he made a foray into
showbiz after joining the Famous Flames, the first of numerous R&B groups
he would headline over the course of a career marked again and again by bad
break-ups due to disagreements he had over salary with disgruntled sidemen.
Brown would also have further run-ins with the law, ranging from repeated
arrests for domestic violence against three different battered wives, to
embezzlement, tax evasion and bankruptcy, to another three years in prison for
illegal drug and weapons possession, assaulting a police officer and resisting
arrest.
Somehow, Tate Taylor (The
Help) has figured a way to put a positive spin on the tarnished legacy of this
terribly-flawed figure. Rather than have the film unfold chronologically, the inventive
director has crafted an oft-confusing flashback flick which jumps backwards and
forwards in time in dizzying fashion with no apparent rhyme or reason.
That scattershot approach
ostensibly enables Get on Up to sidestep the more tawdry episodes on Brown’s
resume without appearing to leave gaping holes in his life story. Consequently,
the movie sits on solid ground during gyrating Boseman’s lip-synched, onstage
performances of such James Brown hits as “I Feel Good,” “It’s a Man’s World,”
“Super Bad” and “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud,” but not so much
whenever it shifts its focus to its morally-objectionable protagonist’s poor
people skills.
A nostalgic indulgence
which, like the cinematic equivalent of a fluffy fanzine, eschews serious criticism
of a flawed icon in favor of a pleasant parade of his most memorable
classics.
Very Good (2.5 stars)
Rated
PG-13 for sexuality, drug use, profanity and violence
Running
time: 139 minutes
Distributor:
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Blu-ray/DVD
Combo Pack Extras: Deleted, extended and alternate scenes; full and extended
song performances; On Stage with the Hardest Working Man; Long Journey to the
Screen; Chadwick Boseman: Meet James Brown; The Get on Up Family; Tate Taylor’s
Master Class; and feature commentary with director and producer Tate
Taylor.
To
see a trailer for Get on Up, visit:
To
order Get on Up on Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack, visit:
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