Load of rubbish!!

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Absolutely brilliant

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

People seem upset that this doesn't convey all the facts as correctly as a documentary. But the same could be said for McFarland. I was not a Beyonce fan till this flick and discovered how good she is as an actor. Adrian Brody gives his typical solid performance. Jeffrey Wright plays his role with emotion and feeling and you get a real sense of the pain he feels and conveys it wonderfully with his acting. The movie is moving, emotional, and compelling, I have never seen anything to suggest it was a documentary but rather great actors telling a story about the start of something big in an era of racism and a man that helped to make it happen. Enjoy the movie for what it is-a movie about a difficult subject that might be historically flawed, that isn't the fault of actors which give a wonderful performance.

In Cadillac Records, we take a look at the beginnings of Rock & Roll music and in particular, the roots of Blues and Rock & Roll sound recordings. Based on a true story, we follow the lives of the Blues artist known as "Muddy Waters" along with the founder of the legendary Chess Records music company, Leonard Chess. After seeing the humble beginnings of Muddy Waters, in Mississippi, we see how he eventually comes in contact with a club owner who had an idea to start a record company. After having a lot of success by releasing a few songs on the radio, these songs of Blues, known as "Race Music" in those times, surprisingly ended up becoming the most successful music in the United States at that time period, quickly rising to the top of the music charts. After setting up his own recording studio in Chicago, Leonard Chess subsequently attracted a wide range of artists into the fold. Artists and musicians such as Willie Dixon, "Howlin Wolf", Etta James(played by Beyoncé Knowles}, and Chuck Berry(played by Mos Def) all ended up becoming on the Chess Records roster of artists. With the entrance of these new artists into the company, a lot of strange things began to happen. Chuck Berry's original style of music began to catch on all over America, and after that, there were many Caucasian artists who started to emulate & copy bits and pieces of Berry's original style which was beginning to be known as "Rock 'n' Roll". At this point, artists such as Elvis, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, & Led Zepplin have all started to take cues from the Chess Records recording artist Chuck Berry. Overall, Cadillac Records is a good piece of music history which should definitely be on a viewing list for all music aficionados & those in the music industry alike.

If you ever watch a movie that has a movie or video scene being part of that movie, you will always see a fairly accurate set decoration: lighting, rigging, boom operator, monitors, sound guy, costuming, props, etc- all the needed technical things that lend to the credibility of the scene. But 99 times out of a hundred if it has anything to do with music- be it in a club, concert hall, or the studio, those details get glossed over, ignored or forgotten by the director:(1) Electric Instruments, mixing consoles, and mic's have no cables,(2) sound timbre does not match the instrument- examples:Fender Rhodes sounds like an acoustic piano, real strings and horns from a synthesizer, vocalist voice is doubled- even thought there is only one of her,(3) instrumentation does not match the recorded music- big orchestral sound from a trio, harmony vocals by absent singers, single sax is now a horn section, chords being played on monophonic synthesizer, (4) ambiance is all wrong- reverb, echos, big crowd sounds in a small club, perfectly blended and mixed sound.(5) Hands and mouth don't sync up with the music- my personal favorite is the piano glissando that looks going up but we hear it going down, music that fades out. (6) artist who dress up in the studio- they never do that (7) full band recording in the same room with the vocalist- NEVER HAPPENS! (8) vocalist holding the mic in hand in the studio- NEVER HAPPENS!(9) All musicians wear leather and have long hair (10) A record exec walks in the scene and gives the act a record deal- NEVER HAPPENS. Common Hollywood get your act together already.

Cadillac records has a fantastic soundtrack. Having said that, personally I think it would have worked better as a mini-series. There are so many characters that it's difficult to focus on just one. Nevertheless, many actors shine in their roles. Adrien Brody tackles a difficult role with his usual ease. The fabulous Jeffrey Wright is a stand-out, Mos Def is an irrepressible Chuck Berry and Gabrielle Union is quietly impressive in a supporting role. Beyonce, however, in a key role of Etta James is woefully miscast and her acting talents are dubious. The script is good, the set-pieces attractive and the film is beautifully shot.