Cadillac Records
TriStar Pictures | Release Date: December 5, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
7
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
This movie is crowded and sprawling, and if it rambles sometimes, that's just fine. Like those big, boxy Caddies (and like Howlin’ Wolf, if he did say so himself), it's built for comfort, not for speed. It hums, it purrs and it roars. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
The ensemble is stupendous--howlingly great--and the music goes deep. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerGene Stout
The movie's biopic aspect is multiplied by the sheer number of players who made Chess the first family of Chicago blues, R&B and rock 'n' roll...That all of them were later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame attests to their enormous influence on popular music and culture. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
The film suffers at times from biopic-itis – the narrative unfolds with the requisite heartbreak carefully apportioned – but it's always eye-catching. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
It's an enjoyable ramble, with a feel for what made the early days of rock as wild as any that followed. Read full review
80
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Such an exhilarating, spirited piece of work that its embellishments and omissions cease to matter. Read full review
80
SlateDana Stevens
One of the strengths of Cadillac Records, written and directed by Darnell Martin, is that it's a movie about music by someone who genuinely seems to enjoy listening to music. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
In watching this film, it's best not to worry much about the film's fidelity to history but rather simply lean back and enjoy one great jam session on film. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneTasha Robinson
Mos Def makes a terrific Berry, all flash and confidence, and Wright offers a memorably soulful take on Waters, whether he's strutting, singing, suffering or all three. Walker's Howlin' Wolf is a deep-throated, pride-filled bear of a man who dominates the screen. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A satisfying combination of great songs and strong dramatic performances. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
The film's most memorable performance is by Eamonn Walker, who is scarily good as the singer known as Howlin' Wolf. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Has buoyancy to spare. It's filled with bumps and scratches. But in the manner of a nicked old LP, its gnarly surface and warps-and-all sound evokes real life. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
Anyone who likes pop music or wonders how bands like the Rolling Stones got rolling will enjoy the ride. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Cadillac Records is an account of the Chess story that depends more on music than history, which is perhaps as it should be. The film is a fascinating record of the evolution of a black musical style, and the tangled motives of the white men who had an instinct for it. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Cadillac Records may be a mess dramatically, but it's a wonderful mess, and not just because of the great music. The people who made it must have harbored the notion, almost subversive in a season of so many depressing films, that going out to the movies should be fun. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
The electrifying music helps camouflage the screenplay's hyperbole. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Cadillac Records bobs and weaves, strides and duckwalks, samples and smiles on the sounds that made urban Chicago such a blues melting pot. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The film features too little about Berry (an engaging Mos Def), who crosses over to great fame. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
There are plenty of small pleasures to be found throughout Darnell Martin's feature, but a compelling storyline featuring three-dimensional characters is not among them. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
It's a hell of a story, and Cadillac Records wants to tell it so badly that it threatens to warp the narrative out of recognition. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Brody plays Chess as a slightly crooked but well-meaning musical cheerleader without fully emerging as a character. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
There are certain films - let's call them Road Map Movies - that drive you directly from point A to point B to point C, with barely a stop for gas. Cadillac Records is such a film: You see all the major landmarks, but how enlightening can a road trip be if you never even get off the highway? Read full review
60
EmpireWilliam Thomas
Beyoncé proves her Dreamgirls turn was no fluke in this so-so Blues melodrama. Read full review
60
VarietyJohn Anderson
Most of the details are right-on in Cadillac Records, though the director's efforts to sell it sometimes steers the film into mawkish or hokey territory. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyErnest Hardy
Director Darnell Martin (I Like it Like That) races through the script's bullet points with a brisk superficiality that leaves crucial plot points underdeveloped and unresolved, and refuses to engage the dark side of Leonard Chess’ paternalism. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
It's all a blur, except for the music. That's workin'. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
It's a rousing, fast-paced tale, told with a modicum of verve and packed with colorfully flawed, occasionally heroic and even tragic characters. It also feels disappointingly bloated and too fast-paced by half. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Martin attempts to present the whole oversized Chess story, but instead winds up reducing the lives and art that give it shape. Read full review
25
TV Guide MagazineMatt Collar
We never get a real sense of what made these recordings so different or revolutionary. Part of the problem is that re-recorded versions of songs by the actors were used in the film, with vastly mixed results that never match the ferocity and excitement of the original tracks. Read full review
10
Village VoiceRobert Wilonsky
With everything so wrong, how can there be anything right about Cadillac Records? Read full review
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