Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

rooprect As the joke goes...Q. How many guitarists does it take to change a light bulb?A. Five. One to screw it in, and 4 to say, "You suck."Now as anyone could predict, when someone dares to portray the deservedly deified Jimi Hendrix, you're going to get the equivalent of the light bulb joke multiplied by thousands.I'm not a guitarist, I'm a keyboard player. And while I have been known to hurl candelabras at TV screens when the actors don't play the piano right (like Ed Harris in "Copying Beethoven" yelling "B-flat! B-flat!" as he hits an F), I've mostly come to realize what most movie fans already know: actors are actors & musicians are musicians. Each should be respected for his or her particular craft being showcased.Wood Harris does a fantastic job of staying true to the personality, quirks & mannerisms of the eccentric genius Jimi Hendrix. Jimi's gentle tone of voice, his boyish shyness in social situations, his signature laugh (a baritone "huh!") and even a lot of his stage moves, like the rapid fire over-the-neck pick slide, were recreated with an authenticity that tells me Wood must've studied as many old Hendrix clips as I have.The story itself? Of course no one can encapsulate Hendrix in 90 minutes. What this biopic does is it avoids trying to be a narrative, and instead it gives us vignettes of who Hendrix was as a human being. In other words, you don't get a typical linear biography but rather, a series of short, almost disorienting scenes of Jimi giving an interview, interspersed with scenes of his life. With this presentation, we don't always get the whole picture of--for example, Jimi opening for the Monkees and getting drowned out by 16-year-old girls shouting "We want Davy!" and subsequently quitting the tour while, as a joke, a newspaper reporter floated the rumor that he was banned by the Daughters of the American Revolution for being too erotic--that's not in there. Instead we just catch a glimpse of his frustration at being marketed so poorly for the sake of a buck. And that's what the meat of this film is about: Jimi's constant struggle with managers & big money who kept undermining his growth as an artist.If you watch this film, realize that that's the biggest conflict that Jimi had, and perhaps that's what ate him up. A rare musical visionary, he was never truly appreciated for what he wanted to do because the pop powers kept telling him to play shows and write 3 minute radio-friendly songs. Jimi wanted the opposite, and as the film notes, he sunk gobs of his profits into building Ladyland studios where he could indulge in 14-minute poetic masterpieces like "A Merman I should turn to be". This movie, I think, faithfully depicts that all-too-common battle between art & life. Few artists fought it as rebelliously as Mr. Hendrix.While I enjoyed this film & the performance by Wood Harris, I have to dock it a bunch of points for a glaring oversight: it doesn't feature any of Jimi's music!! When I say "Jimi's music" I'm not talking about the great songs "Hey Joe", "All Along the Watchtower" & "Wild Thing" which are indeed in the film. But Jimi didn't write those songs. Since this movie focuses on Jimi the creative visionary, shouldn't they have featured a few of the songs he actually wrote? The only way we can hope to get into Jimi's mind is through his brooding masterpieces "The Wind Cries Mary", "Manic Depression", "Merman" ...what about "Little Wing"?My guess is that it may have been some licensing problem, because really there's not a single songwriting credit to Jimi. So because of that, I drop this film from a solid 8 or 9 down to 7 stars. It's still very much worth watching, but it may leave you a bit unfulfilled. No worries, the best education is to listen to a Hendrix album.

imapoa Wood Harris portrays Jimi with respect and determination, but doesn't quite PORTRAY him. Then again, how many actors could? I don't think Mr. Harris had ever experienced LSD when he attempted to deliver Jimi's oratory at Monterey; his effort was...well, kinda silly. Some of the other dialogue is also clumsy but this was a demanding role. I'm aware of some Hendrix career history and inclined to believe that the movie is basically accurate throughout (as with Gotti HBO movie).Although the music isn't too bad, I have to wonder why they didn't use actual Hendrix tracks? And why does the guy who plays the role of Little Richard look nothing like him? Was Michael Jeffrey really such an a-----e in real life? The real Chas Chandler seems like an unsympathetic and driven producer on the Electric Ladyland DVD...yet he and Jimi were said to be a great music partnership. Billy Zane does a fine job as Michael Jeffrey I guess, considering that I really don't know what he was actually like! Oh well.

dreichert-1 All of the actors did a very good job of portraying their characters, I've seen plenty of footage of most of the key players and I thought it was spot on. Still, when people are playing Britons they should hire British actors, not Canadians.Otherwise though, it was a bad film. The story lagged through the first couple of years of his fame and then flew through the last few. Could have profiled Billy Cox more, he was a very good and close friend of Jimi's and deserved a higher profile. As well, when making a film set in the 60s, people should have 60s clothing and hairstyles, too many people looked like they were straight out of the year 2000.If you want to see Hendrix, there are many good films of him, better to see those instead.

skysandstars I'm a big fan of Jimi,and this music totally ruins itself soon after it starts. The camera work for one,is horrible. The zooms and constant angle changes don't convey any kind of meaning, they just make you dizzy. Also, I didn't like how it went from stock footage from the actual 60's to pretty little film, it didn't fit. The plot was extremely slow, and the only reason I kept watching it was because of the music, and the acting was good, but horrible direction.