Simply Perfect

Overrated and overhyped

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The acting in this movie is really good.

You need to see this. Period. If you enjoy Motown music, or are a musician, you definitely need to see this movie.The Funk Brothers, the most accomplished musicians in history, finally get their due in this. About time too.This group of 13 musicians played on more number-one records than the Beatles, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, and the Beach Boys COMBINED! The least you can do is give them 2 hours of your time.It moves between interviews with the remaining living Funk Brothers, re-enactments of stories they have, and a fantastic concert with the remaining Funk Brothers performing their biggest hits with several modern singers... Chaka Khan, Ben Harper, and (my personal favorite) Joan Osbourne.Allow me to stress my original point. You need to see this.

"Standing In The Shadows Of Motown" is a wonderful insight into the sessions musicians who played on practically every track that Motown Records produced between 1959-1972. Known as "The Funk Brothers", these talented men helped craft a sound that became distinctive around the world. They were, the musical backbone of the legendary record label.Directed by Paul Justman, this documentary highlights the trials and tribulations of "The Funk Brothers". With interviews from the surviving members, and concert footage of classic songs from many of today's artists such as Joan Osbourne, Ben Harper, Me'Shell Ndegeocello and several others, this is an entertaining and thoughtful look at the accomplishments these men have made to contemporary American music and the imprint they have left behind.Fascinating, touching, amusing and at times tragic, this documentary is well worth checking out. For lovers of music and for those who enjoyed a good solid documentary, "Standing In The Shadows Of Motown" delivers the goods on both counts. See how things were done - Old school style.....

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.

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.