Get On Up
Universal Pictures | Release Date: August 1, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
TimeRichard CorlissJul 30, 2014
In 2007, Jamie Foxx won Best Actor for his subtle performance as Ray Charles. Boseman exceeds that solid standard. Incarnating James Brown in all his ornery uniqueness, he deserves a Pulitzer, a Nobel and instant election to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Read full review
91
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJul 31, 2014
The most important thing, though, is that we come away feeling we know him. He died on Christmas Day eight years ago, and people listening to samples of his music in rap and hip-hop may have no idea why he mattered. Now they’ll see. Read full review
90
The New YorkerDavid DenbyAug 4, 2014
This movie will never need reviving. Brown’s innovative rhythms will always make his music sound contemporary. Read full review
90
The New York TimesStephen HoldenJul 31, 2014
Like its gyrating, spasmodic staccato beats, Get On Up refuses to stand still. It whirls and does splits and jumps, with leaps around in time and changes in tempo that are jarring and abrupt and that usually feel just right. Read full review
90
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekJul 29, 2014
Get On Up isn't a perfect-picture; there are moments of awkwardness, little gambles that don't quite pay off. But it's one of those experiments that's both flawed and amazing, a mainstream movie (with Mick Jagger as one of its producers) that fulfills old-fashioned, entertainment-value requirements, even as it throws off flashes of insight. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 31, 2014
Get on Up hits all these high points. But the Butterworths fracture the order, fruitfully. They're more interested in making musical and dramatic connections across time and space — something in the '70s triggering a childhood memory, for example — than in laying them out predictably. Read full review
88
New York PostLou LumenickJul 31, 2014
One funk-tastic musical biopic. Read full review
88
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJul 30, 2014
Artistically, Get on Up rivals “Walk the Line,” with a lead performance on a par with the career-making turns of Angela Bassett (“What’s Love Got to Do With It?”) and Jamie Foxx (“Ray”). With this wonder of the summer, Boseman and Taylor deliver a piece of American cultural history every bit as important as the Jackie Robinson story, a story told with heart, humor, funk and soul. Read full review
88
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJul 28, 2014
Get on Up belongs, as it must, to Boseman, who delivers the kind of charisma, showmanship, sex appeal, and tireless energy that allows us to believe him as the Hardest Working Man in Show Business. Read full review
80
EmpireDan JolinNov 17, 2014
Energising, stylish and engrossing, although its scattershot chronology and egocentric approach might not be to everyone;s taste. Still, Boseman is brilliant - it would be madness if he isn't among the Oscar runners this season. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriAug 1, 2014
Tate Taylor’s film cares less about narrative clarity and more about portraying a life lived between the extremes of sin and grace, between the abject and the sublime. It’s lively, stylized, and genuinely surprising. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 31, 2014
All the more remarkably, then, this flawed but startling biopic stars another performer, Chadwick Boseman, who fills Brown's shoes with a dynamism that transcends imitation. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirJul 31, 2014
While Brown’s complicated trajectory as a cultural and political figure gets short shrift in Get on Up, his music does not – the sequence depicting his legendary “Fever in the Funkhouse” show in Paris in 1971 is an absolute knockout, worth the price of admission all by itself. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJul 30, 2014
So much of Get on Up is uncannily perfect, from its nightmarish Georgia childhood flashbacks to delirious concert re-creations and the casting of Blues Brother Dan Aykroyd as Brown’s longtime manager. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJul 30, 2014
Like Brown, the movie is dynamic and entertaining as hell. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerJul 31, 2014
Where the film fails is in its fizzled, melodramatic ending. The problem is that Brown the man had no resolution – no third act. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigJul 31, 2014
The musical numbers, with Brown's remixed vocals and Boseman re-creating his signature dance moves, are mesmerizing. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchKevin C. JohnsonJul 31, 2014
Cameos from actors portraying Little Richard, Mick Jagger, Frankie Avalon and Alan Leeds add up to some fun. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 31, 2014
A triumph — a messy, qualified triumph that even at 138 minutes makes an incomplete case for Brown’s meaning to American life and culture, but a triumph nevertheless. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 31, 2014
When Boseman shows us Brown doing his thing onstage, the movie comes alive. Read full review
75
Washington PostJen ChaneyJul 31, 2014
One could describe Boseman’s performance in Get on Up as electrifying, and that would not be wrong. But it’s more accurate to say that watching Boseman transform into James Brown, who died in 2006 at 73, is like watching a dude invent electricity while the idea for electricity is still occurring to him. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 31, 2014
It’s the powerful, raw, energized performance by Chadwick Boseman that makes this film worth seeing. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 31, 2014
Taylor's movie is overly episodic, but a number of those episodes are marvelous. Read full review
75
The PlaylistKimber MyersJul 30, 2014
It’s a crowd pleaser of a film, whose powerful musical moments can overshadow any smaller issues within the film. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJul 30, 2014
Get On Up... has some problems in the storytelling department, but Boseman tackles with gusto the unenviable task of capturing Brown. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenJul 28, 2014
In Chadwick Boseman, it has a galvanic core, a performance that transcends impersonation and reverberates long after the screen goes dark. Read full review
70
VarietyScott FoundasJul 28, 2014
Boseman is an empathic presence, and nothing he does smacks of mimicry. He feels Brown from the inside out, the way Brown felt his own distinctive rhythms, and even when the movie itself seems to be on autopilot, Boseman never leaves the captain’s chair. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnAug 1, 2014
Though Get On Up never congeals into a satisfactory whole, its fragmentary portrait of the singer at the height of his fame — intercut with his troubled single-parent childhood — effectively shows his invasive power in popular culture. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJul 30, 2014
Get On Up too often plays it safe when it needs to be dangerous. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerDan DeLucaAug 1, 2014
As superb as Boseman is - moving with athletic grace, doing splits with hair curled in a sky-high pompadour, approximating Brown's rapid-fire, guttural speaking voice without descending to Eddie Murphy SNL parody - he's never quite good enough to convince you you're watching the Hardest Working Man in Show Business up on screen. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 31, 2014
If you're a fan of James Brown's oeuvre, the film will keep you interested. If you're not, Get on Up will quickly become tedious and will wear out its welcome long before the end of its 133-minute run. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie OgleJul 31, 2014
The concert scenes in this biographical picture are some of its best moments — you’ll wonder just how long the actor had to practice to perfect all those splits — and Boseman’s charisma is irresistible. Read full review
60
Total FilmAndrew LowryJan 9, 2015
Handsomely mounted and energetically played, this movie captures much of the real genius of James Brown... then obscures it with needless chronological fiddling. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 1, 2014
Few of the film's secondary characters feel fully developed, with the possible exception of Nelsan Ellis' portrayal of Brown sidekick Bobby Byrd. Read full review
60
The DissolveKeith PhippsJul 30, 2014
The energy never flags, the film conveys a deep love of Brown’s music (which fills almost every scene), and Boseman remains magnetic whether onstage or in quiet moments. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 1, 2014
There is no law requiring a biopic to make “nice” with its subject, but Get On Up, which presents Brown almost entirely unflatteringly except as a performer, makes you wonder why the filmmakers (including Mick Jagger, one of its producers) took the trouble. Read full review
56
Film.comKate ErblandJul 30, 2014
Taylor’s film so egregiously picks and chooses from Brown’s life that the result is a holey and unsatisfying document that fails to give due respect to much of the singer’s life (especially the more unsavory stuff). Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonAug 1, 2014
Truth be told, Get on Up isn’t really interested in exploring how important Brown’s music was to any of the numerous styles it influenced. Instead, it just wants to play some of the big hits you love while ticking off a checklist of standard biopic milestones. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 31, 2014
This is all good movie material, so far as it goes ... but Get on Up can't go any further. Sometimes damaged people stay damaged, and sometimes popular artists make their contribution and then stay in one place forever. It's a big letdown for everybody, but in a biopic, it's poison. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJul 31, 2014
Despite the linked advantages of generous helpings of the man's high octane music and a star performance by Chadwick Boseman that's little short of heroic, Get on Up is more frustrating than fulfilling, a disjointed film that suffers from having a more ambitious plan than it's got the ability to execute. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianStephen WhittyJul 31, 2014
Get On Up never finds its rhythm. Blame most of that on director Tate Taylor. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleWilliam GossJul 30, 2014
For better and worse, the story unfolds as the late Brown himself might have related it, scattered across time, told with more impulse than clarity. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineEric HendersonJul 29, 2014
As if taking a cue from its own title, the movie emphatically sets its sights on the upward trajectory of Brown's career. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJul 30, 2014
Get On Up is the Hollywood biopic at its near-worst — a formless, extravagant assortment of historical incidents and lip-synched musical numbers, which ultimately amount to little more than a 138-minute showcase reel for Chadwick Boseman’s technically impressive and utterly opaque James Brown impression. Read full review
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