Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Tacticalin An absolute waste of money

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

ThingyBlahBlah3 I think the positive reviews pretty much covered what I value in this documentary. It's great to see such unappreciated talent finally get its day in the sun, the Funk Brothers are a hilarious and energetic bunch of guys in front of the camera, their stories contain plenty of wisdom and humor, and of course all of the music is pure perfection. The ground-level viewpoint of a session musician working for Berry Gordy is a very valuable addition to Motown history, especially as he did everything in his power to keep them out of it.It seems that most of the people who had problems with this movie are focused on the live performances, and particularly the choice of singers. While I found the songs worth listening to (and it was nice to finally see the guys playing together after 40 years), I suppose I'd justify the choice of singers in two ways:(1) This was a low-budget movie, and there wasn't money to bring in the likes of Aretha Franklin, Bono, or Stevie Wonder, so the producers had to take what they could get in the form of Gerald Levert, Joan Osborne, and Bootsy Collins (a fantabulous bass player and undisputed funk icon, but nobody's idea of a great singer).(2) It was a subtle attempt to prove the movie's thesis. If, indeed, the Funk Brothers were the secret ingredient in the Motown sound, what better way to prove it than to have them backing up some mostly* second-rate singers and STILL make it sound like a million bucks?* - I exclude Meshell Ndegeocello from that generalization.

Mark Near This is the story of some great people who worked hard to make some great music. Berry Gordy assembled them out of Detroit's jazz clubs and brought them in to be the foundation of the now famous "Motown sound". This is their history. Well, they didn't storm the beaches at Normandy and save the world, and yeah sometimes the narration goes a little over the top regarding the importance of what they did and how it fit in to the times, but all in all, this is a well designed story about some very good musicians that you have heard and loved without knowing who they are.If you love Motown music and/or jazz, this movie is well worth a watch or purchase. The modern renditions of the Motown standard are all moving and/or fun. Bootsy Collins, Montell Jordan, Me'Shell NdegéOcello, Joan Osborne, Chaka Khan and Gerald Levert front the band on some classics that are as listenable as the originals. The secret is that the new backup band behind the singers is pretty much the same band.

bob the moo Everybody knows Motown music and pretty much everybody loves some if not all of the music and artists that came out of that stable. However not many people can name the group of musicians that supported the majority of these artists and are credited as the musical foundation for Motown records. That group of thirteen men became known as the Funk Brothers and this is the story of how they came together and influenced an entire generation of music.With so many reasons to make this documentary worth seeing, is there a reason why it is comparatively hard to find? Anyway, the story told here is not a great story but a collection of simple personal stories that come together to provide the story of the funk Brothers both as people but also as a group. On this level it is interesting, mixing some re-enactments with old footage/photographs but mainly talking heads with the surviving members of the group. The recollections are edited together well to construct a time-line of tales that manage to capture the personal side but also the scale of the influence the music (and the group) had at the time. On top of this, performances of the music for which they are famous are cut in every 10/15 minutes or so. While these are as funky as ever, it would have been nice to see more famous singers performing with them.Then again, maybe it was a deliberate decision to have the singers only be a couple of people who are not that well-known, in order to make sure that it is the musicians who get more attention than the singers – after all, isn't that why most people know the original artists but not the musicians? Also it may have been to back up the claim made early in the film by Jordan that anybody could have sung these songs and the Funk Brothers would have made them sound good! The music does still sound good although I suppose it depends how possessive you are about the originals – for example I didn't mind any of the changes except I didn't think a great deal of Chaka Khan doing "What's Going On?" because I just couldn't imagine anyone else doing it.Overall though, this film hits all the right notes in every sense of the phrase. It is informative and personal in equal measures and, although the original artists are not singing, the musical numbers are as funky as ever and show the influence the Funky Brothers had – crossing oceans, genres and generations.

FilmOtaku In order to appreciate 'Standing in the Shadows of Motown', a film about the Funk Brothers, the backing band for all of Motown's greatest singers, one has to be a huge Motown fan. This is due to the fact that the film, while being a documentary, doesn't really provide hard historical facts; rather it basically gives the Funk Brothers some due for their part of music history. The film is comprised of a little bit of history, some stories shared amongst the various members of the band, and a LOT of concert footage, all of which was taken from a concert that was obviously arranged for the film, and featuring various current singers such as Joan Osbourne, Chaka Khan, Ben Harper and Bootsy Collins providing the lead vocals. While I understand their distress at not having received the same recognition as the singers from Motown, I felt that the film had a low distinct 'whining' factor, which, coupled with the seemingly endless concert footage, left me pretty flat. As a former musician and life-long lover of music, I understand the impact of instrumentals, and of course can appreciate the talent of these gentlemen, but one of the Funk Brothers' assertion that 'anyone could have sang the songs', intimating that they were the most important factor of the hits Motown was churning out was kind of my last straw with this film. As someone who likes the Motown sound, and certainly many of the artists who emerged from that label, but isn't a die-hard fanatic, I didn't really get anything out of this film. The fact that there was so much concert footage that it was almost a concert film with anecdotes from the band members thrown in didn't help this assessment, and realizing that I sat through almost two hours of film hearing some decent songs but not learning a whole lot left me flat on the film as a whole. 4/10Shelly