LastingAware The greatest movie ever!

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

beauzee Richard himself had been talking about a movie of his life as far back as 1962; by '84 and the release of his first biography, by Englishman Chas White, it was a "go"! well....took about 14 years, and all the speculation about Michael Jackson or Prince as the Georgia Peach came to an end...Leon got the part..and he is excellent! Some wonderful scenes leading up to Richard's sudden (actually took about 4 years of flop recordings and Southern club dates) fame with the indescribable culture shocking TUTTI FRUTTI. Richard's parents are nicely portrayed; the doting MOm and the strict but eventually very supporting Dad.The film's "timeline" is so distorted that deep fans might want to pause the DVD and consider donating it to the local Library - but they should hang in there. There is still plenty of engrossing material, especially when we hear "new" recordings > a recut of LR's TAKE MY HAND, PRECIOUS LORD and a tune called VEGETABLE MAN. Depressingly, the soundtrack, otherwise, uses original '50s tracks, one crazy cut, MONEY HONEY, from 1964, and some 1976 rerecordings.One reviewer said that this picture needs a Part 2 and he is so right: we go from 1932 to 1962 and it's at that point that the most interesting time in his career starts: he endures a personal battle: does he come back from a rock and roll retirement (when he records nothing but Gospel) to please the loyal fans all around the world and presumably to recover a lot of lost bucks? I did not like the final scene at all.but check it out for yourself. ask yourself if the most influential artist in rock deserved a better biopic?

carmenere1 Sure much of the music was lip-synched to actual old Little Richard music, but some clearly was not. So who was that singing the imitations? Whoever it was, was awesome! There is nothing whatsoever in the credits though. I'm particularly intrigued by the snippet of "Money Honey". The rock'n'roll bedlam depicted in this brief scene is wondrous. But it doesn't sound anything like Little Richard's 1960s recorded version. Who was playing and singing that in this movie?? I'd gladly go see that act any time! And, I agree with one of the other comments - it would be nice to see this great subject in a bigger budget, theater-oriented treatment (like, for example, "Ray"), with a more realistic and accurate depiction of the wild rock'n'roll life.

michaelstar21 Tressa's vocal performance was Outstanding!! Tressa played the female singer role, while Richard was in the club. When she first step out on stage, and started to riff and strut her stuff, it made my soul shake. Her voice is platinum. She needs to make a CD. She has more fans then she realizes. I loved her show stopping performance in the five heart beats, which she also starred with Leon when she was younger. How can a little girl have a voice so big. She is truly amazing.Good voice Good Good Good Good voice voice voice voice excellent voice fantastic voice , back shaking , tear crying , uplifting, take you back in the days voice. Tressa if you read this commit, please take my advice and start recording a CD. If not just for the love of singing, but for your fans. I believe you can truly make it. Look at these other one hit single studio singers, lol.

BigRich This had to be one of Robert Townsends better, if not best, movie he'd ever directed. I never knew much about Little Richard's past and this movie does a very good job in explaining it. I say about as good as the Tina Turner story, What's Love Got to Do With it.It's starts out with Richard's child hood, his infatuation with dressing up in his mother's clothes, his father giving him beatings and the influence of the church. The film later goes into Richard's first hit recording "Tutti Fruitti". Pat Boone later goes on to record this song and many other Little Richard songs and the white radio stations play Boone's instead of Richards. Of course, this isn't the whole plot of the movie, though, just part of it.This movie is about as good as you can get when it comes to biography movies on Rock stars. It doesn't disappoint, not in my opinion. LEON does a very good job portraying Little Richard.-BGR