Get on Up

2014 Directed by Tate Taylor

The Funk Don't Quit

A chronicle of James Brown's rise from extreme poverty to become one of the most influential musicians in history.

Chadwick Boseman Nelsan Ellis Dan Aykroyd Viola Davis Lennie James Fred Melamed Jill Scott Octavia Spencer Nick Eversman Tika Sumpter James DuMont Billy Slaughter Ritchie Montgomery Craig Robinson Brandon Mychal Smith Aloe Blacc Josh Hopkins Aunjanue Ellis Black Thought Keith Robinson Stacey Scowley Liz Mikel Julius Tennon Allison Janney John Benjamin Hickey J.D. Evermore Carol Lee Cleta Elaine Ellington Jim Gleason Show All…

Alternative Titles

Get on Up: A História de James Brown, James Brown: El rey del soul, Get on Up: Príbeh Jamese Browna, I Feel Good: La historia de James Brown, Джеймс Браун: Soul Brother № 1, Džeimss Brauns: Ceļš augšup

drama music

139 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Patrick Willems ★★½ 3

If you take a formulaic biopic and tell it with a non-linear structure, that doesn't actually make it any better.
Review by Sam Meltzer🏳️‍🌈 17

Rest in Peace to a true legend. You will be missed. It was both shocking and awful for me to see someone die, especially since he was so young. My heart goes out to his family 😭💔
Review by Sam Meltzer🏳️‍🌈 ★★★ 12

My thoughts and prayers go out to Chad, and his family. I am truly heartbroken and I cannot stop thinking about this tragic and horrible occurrence. Rest in peace to an amazing person, you were taken away too quickly. 💔
I’ll be honest, this wasn’t a great movie, but it is seriously elevated by the talents of Chadwick Boseman. To me, this was his best performance. He had to do a lot, and he became James Brown with passion. It’s unfortunate that his performance here did not receive much recognition, especially when it is this great. The music choices were great, obviously. Every song filled the movie with beautiful energy and a great vibes. I didn’t really watch this for any reason other than seeing his performance, and I was not disappointed. Check out this movie to see how good of an actor he was. We all miss you, Chadwick. ❤️️
Review by Matt Singer ★★★½ 1

GOOD GAWD! This is an unholy mess. But in that it presents James Brown as sort of an unholy mess himself, it sort of works. And in the parts that don't work there's at least a kind of ambitious experimentation that makes this biopic different from the 40 other ones that came out this year.
There's something to be said for a biopic that boils a life down to a single, easily digestible story. But there's also something to be said for a movie like GET ON UP, that basically tries to get at the complexity of a guy like James Brown by showing all the different James Browns he was--from The Hardest Working Man In Show Business to The…
Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★½ 4

64/100
Dutifully put this on expecting to be bored for ten minutes and hit eject, only to find myself slack-jawed. For longer than I would have thought possible, given that studio money was involved, this movie is insane, gleefully eschewing linearity and psychology like 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould's funkier, less overtly formalist cousin. Taylor treats Brown like an icon rather than a human being, abetted by Boseman's intensely stylized performance; it's such a bold, striking repudiation of ossified biopic conventions that I was sure they couldn't possibly sustain it for more than two hours. And I was right: They couldn't. Even at its most conventional, though, Get On Up still boasts more of a pulse than is typical…
Review by JJRabbit ★★★

Chadwick Boseman portrays James Brown,
Through all of the ups and the downs.
Every music biopic,
Has the same shtick,
At least this one goes to funky town.
Review by chavel ★★★★ 2

This radical biopic on James Brown, the Godfather of Soul and the pioneer of funk, is quite unconventional and the scenes of the 1940’s poor South are indelible. Get On Up has a first shot of Chadwick Boseman strutting as James Brown on his way onto the concert stage (He’s the Man!), followed by a dismaying scene of an older Brown, in 1988 Augustus, Georgia, threatening some people at a seminar with a shotgun. The oddness of this must be explained, and for the next two hours, the film penetrates deep into why Brown might have temporarily went bonkers.
In the early scenes, Brown goes to perform for USO in Vietnam and acts as if he couldn’t care less that…
Review by C4rlo5 ★★★

“I paid the cost to be the boss.” - James Brown

First of all I have to say that this is one of the best performances of Chadwick Boseman, I’m sure that this 2014 movie and 42, both pushed his career to the Black Panther one, if it weren't for those movies he would be an unknown actor since his performance in Gods of Egypt, in 2016, two years after, was mediocre but not because of him, that was because of the movie which ended up being a disaster.
Talking about the movie, it’s a biography of James Brown’s life, which is really boring, but the main point to highlight is the performance of Chadwick Boseman acting as James Brown doing a…
Review by matt lynch ★★★½ 3

Doesn't really manage to elude the usual biopic traps but the whiplash time jumps carried by both the music and Boseman's intensity paint this James Brown some kind of space alien, arrived on Earth as a fully-formed icon, deliberately sublimating his own humanity.
Review by brianwcollins ★★★

Fuck cancer.
Review by Austin Gorski ★★★

Chadwick Boseman is absolutely marvelous as James Brown and should definitely be getting some recognition for his role here. However, the film itself is a jumbled mess with sloppy direction and a complete lack of focus. It's also far too long, even if some of the musical sections of the movie are impressive to watch. Far from great, but if anything, see it for Boseman's phenomenal performance.
Review by russman ★★★

This film's nice, like sugar and spice

Recent reviews

Review by Screamer Jim ★★

Can’t knock Boseman’s energy, but how music biopics weren’t outlawed after Walk Hard remains an unsettling mystery
Review by Larry Yoshida ★★★★

An otherwise average music biopic with the usual overused tropes (nonlinear timeline, breaking the 4th wall...) if not for the presence of the late Chadwick Boseman as James Brown. Boseman is so immersed in the role that nothing else matters. Not very accurate, especially when dealing with Bobby Byrd (Nelsan Ellis), whose contributions are very downplayed. With Lennie James and Viola Davis as JB's far from modl parents, Jill Scott, Octavia Spencer, Craig Robinson as Maceo Parker, and Dan Aykroyd (who worked with the real JB in three films) as Brown's manager. Worth watching for Boseman's performance.
Review by Caden ★★★

feels like they just made shots into a story. everyone especially chadwicks performance was really good and the soundtrack ofc was great. that’s what saved the movie for me
Review by Johne ★★★★½

I miss Chadwick Boseman.
Review by ximena leon ★★★½

Chadwick you are a true King, we miss you
Review by Brawlingcrazy ★★★★

Fairly generic plot points but a good performance and good editing.
Review by Fabio Laurane ★★★½

You're gonna have to give him a moment, son. Dewey Cox has to think about his entire life before he plays.
Review by Mostroatomico ★★★

It's a man's world
Review by bri

i miss chadwick boseman
Review by RentheGreat ★★

This feels like a remake of Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story without the jokes.
Chadwick Boseman is good, though.
Review by Rocky6122 ★★½

Solid acting, but a terrible edit leaves the series of events told out of order and diconnected.
Review by Matthew Anderson ★★½

I commend the filmmakers for trying to do something different from other bio-pics on famous musicians with its 4th wall breaking & non-linear structure, but it's either not used enough or too distracting for me to emotionally care about the story. And once again: Thomas Newman's music doesn't really do it for me, especially when the emotional moments are decent on their own without having to rely on him being sentimental. If nothing else, Chadwick Boseman was solid in this role. It's not the best performance he's done, but it shows he was just getting started.