Movie Review: 'Cadillac Records'

'Cadillac Records', gets the honor of being Celebrity Bug's first movie review. In this tale of sex, violence, race, and rock and roll in 1950s Chicago, 'Cadillac Records' follows the exciting but turbulent lives of some of America's musical legends, including Muddy Waters, Leonard Chess, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Etta James and Chuck Berry.

Storyline:

The storyline seemed extremely rushed and I personally felt like it cheated the actual artists, being that, each of their individual story lines were kind of crammed together and not given the time to genuinely develop and accurately unfold. In fact, most of the characters, in some aspect, deserved a movie of their own.

Acting:

Most of the acting was completely top-notch, as Jeffrey Wright, Columbus Short, and even the often campy Gabrielle Union, who connects with her character in a raw emotion that she had yet to do before, all deliver stellar performances.

However, the real question on every one's mind is: Does Beyonce actually pull it off?

Surprisingly, she kind of does, as Mrs. Knowles-Carter delivers the performance of her career, connecting to her character in a way she's never displayed before, however, though the emotional scenes comes with ease, its actually the scenes where she wasn't forced to tap into that emotion, that subtracts from her performance. Its kind of weird to say, but she fails on the easy scenes, and delivers on the hard ones. Still, her name being withheld from the supporting categories at Golden Globes and SAG awards, was no fluke, because her performance pales in comparison to her peers, especially Adrien Brody, who is just incomparable as the gutsy Leonard Chess.

Direction & Visual:

The direction isn't overly keen, but Darnell Martin, does do a great job of depicting and giving you the old school feel and vibe of the old days.

Overall:

I can't say the movie was great, nor can I say its horrific, but I can say I felt extremely shortchanged on the characters, in fact, it was like before you got to know one character good, another one was being shoved down your throat.

In all honesty, this isn't the kind of movie you go to the theatre to see, but instead wait for its release on DVD.

2.5 out of 5