slugport
Personally.. I really enjoyed this film.. The cast playing the characters.. Andre playing Jimi etc Linda etc where all believable.. I liked the way the film unfolded, the way it was different in its take on a biography.. Didn't try to cover everything, a snapshot of the early time and place in Jimi's life.. those important first steps to fame.. I really don't get some of the bad reviews.. I guess that's their personal opinion as this is mine.. but being open minded.. this is a good film and worth a watch.. don't be put off.. take a look for yourself.. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised..
TheFunkyBass
The movie missed the opportunity to dive deeper into the music, but decided to focus on the uninteresting relationships.Editing is weird and slow paced. Dialogue was layered on top of alternate dialogue and 40% of the movie is complete silence (people smoking or just staring at things). The movie is 2 hours long, so there is a A LOT of fillers due to the dullness of the script.The script is bull. Hendrix was not aggressive and disrespectful to Kathy, and Clapton was not jealous of Hendrix.As much as I love Hendrix, this film was nothing but and insult to Jimi's legacy. Honestly, the only scene worth watching is the band's performance of Sgt. Pepper's.5/10
nhwardle
Truly dreadful. It said on the DVD box "Benjamin is electrifying", what they meant was, Benjamin is shocking. Maybe not his fault, he's just out of his depth. Yes, he's black, but there the similarity ends. He sounds like Michael Jackson, not Jimi Hendrix and look at his hands! This is not the person to play the great man. The narrative is deeply flawed, as noted by other reviewers, including those who were there. Perhaps this film might work in 50 years time as a Sunday night costume drama of the 20th Century, but as a biopic it fails miserably, and is certainly not "one of the best biopics ever"as trumpeted in the promo material. Don't believe it, just leave it.
grantss
Had heaps of potential but squanders most of it.The story of Jimi Hendrix's rise to fame, from playing in other people's bands in the US in 1966 to making a name for himself in London in 1966/7. Stops just short of his famous Monterey Pop Festival performance.Interesting from an historical and biographical perspective and had a lot of potential in that regard. However, much of this is wasted through silly, pointless sub-plots and lame, pretentious directing and editing. Instead of just telling the story, writer-director John Ridley throws in random cuts and scenes that go nowhere and add nothing to the movie.All this unnecessary stuff ruins not only the focus of the movie, but also the pacing. The movie starts stutteringly enough but at a point seems to get into a groove. At this point you think it is about to get better, but soon you have one of the random distractions, wrecking the flow. And so it goes for the entire movie. As soon as you have a meaty, interesting passage of play it is derailed by something frivolous. Makes it incredibly difficult to get into the movie, and is very frustrating.On the upside, the performances are pretty good. Andrew Benjamin (Andre 3000) does a good job as Hendrix, capturing his mannerisms, speech and general outlook quite well. Good support from Hayley Atwell as his psycho girlfriend and Imogen Poots as Linda Keith.
AD
