Man, this was boring as all hell, and when you're doing a film about blues artists in the 50's that's really hard to do.

"Visually and narratively flat." - Nick Schager

There's a great movie about Muddy Waters here. Unfortunately, it's surrounded by a dull, muddled, overfull movie about Chess Records and the label's small battalion of seminal recording artists. The consistently great Jeffrey Wright is excellent as Waters. He starts with the legendary musician's uncertainty and moves outwards. When the movie angles away from him, his absence is felt like missing notes in a familiar song.

This is a good look into the music industry, and while it's a fairly slow film it has some solid acting performances, as well as Beyoncé shining as Etta James. It's interesting to follow these characters journey towards fame and success, and while it has a similar resemblance to Dreamgirls it's certainly missing those musical numbers that made that film a hit. Beyoncé's performance of 'At Last' is a shining moment in a fairly mellow movie, but overall still worth a look for the performances.

Nice concept, but bad done. The film is messy and confusing. A lot of things happen, and you can't really tell how much time passes from the scene before. Musicians are suddenly rich in five minutes and in the next five minutes they are in problems again. Anyway, Howling Wolf is amazing in the film.

"...so-so Blues melodrama."

A slow, melodramatic, over-serious film that only begins to pick up speed and actual gravitas once the surprisingly excellent (and, I'll say it, award-worthy) enters late in the film. Note should also be taken of Eamonn Walker's Howlin' Wolf, as he steals every scene he's in.

One of the few times I've seen a movie and wished it were MORE ambitious. Stretch this out to three hours, jam pack it with every musician you can fit because what we got was SO GOOD but very fast and thin. With the exception of overly silly Mos Def, the all the performers' impressions of these legends were impeccable, Howlin' Wolf's menacing demeanor especially standing out to me. I've heard people complain of growing tired of these music movies. I'm tired with the rest of Hollywood drivel

Interesting topic, with reasonable acting, but ultimately a messy ensemble that didn't really have much to say. A fun gathering of facts and conjecture in the form of a film. The guy who plays Howlin' Wolf did a fantastic job.

Tried to do too much, i.e. cover the lives of too many important musical figures over too broad a time span. This period in music was obviously legendary but it needs a better film. Beyoncé infused her performances (as Etta James) with modern, hip-hop influenced vocal stylings - an annoying anachronism. Still, this film had some fun moments and it generally held my attention. See this if you are particularly interested in this kind of music, otherwise don't bother.

This would have made a great 6 part mini-series, but the shoe-horning of so many different stories into one stilted narrative is ineffective. Each artist depicted in this film deserves to have their own story told outside of the confines of the 90 minute cinematic story arc.

Quite an impressive look at the music industry back in the day with some outstanding performances from the likes of Beyonce, Adrien Brody & Columbus Short. A little slow to begin with but seems to pick up near the middle. While it's not the most interesting of films to watch it is rather intruguing and following some of the characters journey's is quite interesting. Songs don't really stand out either, but Beyonce singing 'At Last' was a nice touch. Overall it's pretty good and worth a look.

Good story of sex, drugs, blues and Rock in the 50s