Get on Up is a thoroughly entertaining drama with Boseman shining at its center.

| Oct 22, 2021

As a biography, it glosses over a lot, but goes to the heart of Brown's charisma, his music and the trauma that drove the iconic performer to such high highs and low lows.

| Jun 10, 2021

One big chunk of funk with a gold standard performance from Boseman and music that will make you want to... er... get on up.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 1, 2021

Chadwick Boseman does a great job of playing James Brown who had so much personality and was such a loud character

| Sep 13, 2020

Boseman's charismatic and eerily accurate performance as American R&B legend James Brown is truly something to behold.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 11, 2020

There is a lot covered in the film, though Taylor nicely avoids the usual chronological storytelling.

| Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Aug 31, 2020

The way the script jumps around in time is a little sloppy, but Boseman is so dynamite it doesn't matter. A powerhouse performance is worth watching, no matter how it's framed.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 29, 2020

A biopic that dares to put a few extra wrinkles and curves into its narrative.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 15, 2020

In Get On Up, a great deal depends on the lead actor Boseman, who ably captures something important about Brown's outer and inner being.

| Aug 13, 2020

[T]his show ultimately belongs to [Chadwick] Boseman. He captures the groove, soul and even [James] Brown's incompressible speech and his performance is electric.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 19, 2019

If it weren't for the magnetic, utterly watchable central performance from a prolific Chadwick Boseman, Get On Up would be a miserly, unapologetically sterilized biopic.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 30, 2019

Whilst issues with exposition and pacing threaten to deflate Get on Up, captivating performances and electrifying music set-pieces manage to pump up the funk.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 31, 2019

Whenever producers weakly say they couldn't find good Black actresses for roles that usually end up going to white women, I can't help thinking of all the talented Black women going to waste in films like this one.

| Mar 12, 2019

[Get On Up] is also consistently entertaining and intermittently moving, but by the end, we realize that it hasn't been all that illuminating.

| Original Score: B | Jan 11, 2019

[Chadwick Boseman] gets the mannerisms right, and builds a volatile character who's opportunistic, frightening and vulnerable, like a funky Klaus Kinski.

| Aug 31, 2018

An arresting encapsulation of Brown's dichotomy of being at once a soulful singer and at the same time a man incapable of showing affection.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 22, 2018

Get On Up struggles, at times, to surprise us.

| Oct 30, 2017

[Chadwick] Boseman captures the volatility, on and offstage, of the entity we recognize as James Brown, the flamboyance, the fierce ambition, and the uncompromising determination to be treated with respect.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 12, 2017

Get On Up is enjoyable...it's about funk and a funk legend after all.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 7, 2017

[Chadwick] Boseman is a delight.

| Aug 22, 2017