Pluskylang Great Film overall

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

danceability Some people run at the first sight of stormy weather ... But SOME people hold on and work it out together." -- Breakout lyric from the movie's soundtrack.This movie has absolutely everything.It's got comedy of all sorts, yet this movie really isn't a comedy.And it's got compelling moments that'll make you think and make you feel some kinda way about given relatable characters and life circumstances, yet I wouldn't exactly fit this movie into a mold of your typical drama."The Five Heartbeats" is the loosely autobiographical tale of the rise, fall and ultimately triumph in life of a hit five-man R&B group from the 1960s (my father and uncles have an ongoing debate about whether this group's experiences were based upon The Temptations, The Four Tops or The Dells).This movie seems like a real-enough, real life story about how money, fame and stardom can breed distrust, hate, disloyalty and an assortment of shady dealings that could undue any family relationship or close friendship.The story follows five young men who start out as close friends who share a common passion and talent: singing.Of course, they get "discovered" but as they start to and eventually make it big, they discover their moment at the top is filled with tragedy, anger, addictions and deceptions of all kinds -- realities totally different from the starry-eyed images they'd had of "making it big" once upon a time.Overall, this movie is very much uplifting because, while it takes a life time, these five friends eventually overcome the past and learn some invaluable life lessons.This is a movie for families -- the plot and various scenes will be interpreted differently by kids and adults, however, both demographics will be able to relate to this movie's overall theme and message.Fame and fortune are fleeting. Friendships -- good friendships -- are priceless. This is a movie that was out and out ignored by Hollwyood. Easily Robert Townsend's best film and deserving of Academy Award consideration. Awesome acting, brilliant writing and a blazingly inspiring soundtrack. This movie is the complete package. Guaranteed crowd-pleasing movie and one you can watch over and over and over, and not get tired of.Probably one of the best movies I've ever seen

joannejcks-1 This movie was excellent. Every nuance of racism, drug use, etc were depicted accurately for black performers during those times. For those who think that those things were over-exaggerated are probably reading history book versions (cleaned up no doubt) of the struggles of that era. Those things HAPPENED! Also, this movie was NOT about the Temptations, it was about the Dells. The Chittlin' circuit, dirty managers, in-fighting EXISTED. Baby Boomers GET this film, because we lived it-we didn't read about it. This movie is great. I highly recommend it. Young people, don't read about it, ask your parents, grandparents--they know the real deal.

wynell-jenkins The movie was not intended to create an atmosphere of racism, but rather keep the movie in prospective given the era of it's setting. Many artist in those days were subjected to unfair treatment by the mainstream record labels in those days. Here are a few examples: 1. Frankie Lyman and The Teenagers were a group that was comprised of numerous ethnicities. One member of the group who Chris Montes (who was latino), was cut from the group by the label's producer because he was too ethnic. Chris Montes did later go on to record a few hits of his own such "Do You Want To Dance".2. American Bandstand which first in 1952 played mostly Rock and Roll which, was pioneered and played by mostly black artist. However, it wasn't until 1957 that Johnny Nash, Jackie Wilson, and other African American singers performed on the show.3. The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Dells, and many other such groups were restricted to playing all black venues during the 50's and early 60's in the south. This gave rise to would later become know as "The Chitterling Circuit", as the venues were mostly nightclubs, and juke-joints. These artist received harrassment from local law enforcement agencies, and townspeople on a regular basis whenever they came to the highly segregated south.As far the scene where the record company brings a white group called The Four Horsemen, that's not really a stretch. Most of the time what would happen is that a black group would write or even release a song to the black audience, while the record company would have that same song "covered" by a white group to be released to the "mainstream" audience. The covered version of these songs were the ones that normally got air play from disc jockeys. The best example I can give of that is the 1955 hit by The Platters "Only You (And You Alone)". This song was released on Mercury Records, while one of their subsidiary labels Dot Records released a covered version of the same song by a group called The Hilltopper's who hailed from Western Kentucky College (all white school...segregation you know.) The Hilltopper's version of Only You hit number eight on the pop charts six weeks after the release of the Platters version. The Platters version however reached number on the R&B charts, and crossed over to the pop charts were it number five. A few months later in 1956 The Platters hit #1 on the pop charts with The Great Pretender, which was covered by Stan Freberg in the same year without the same success.All of that is to say that the movie has its facts straight about what black artist went through in those days, but it's about much more than that. It's about the rise, fall, and resurrection of a talented group, and the proof that love and friendship can withstand all of life's ups and downs.

jtpaladin This film was fun to watch except for a couple of things. First, the attempt to pretend as though White record producers wanted to substitute a White group in place of the Five Heartbeats was utterly retarded.Secondly, the attempt to pretend as if they were subject to racism when in fact Black music groups were a hugely popular in the '60's, is pathetic.The film traces a group which appears to be based upon the Dells. The group has its' highs and lows. You'll notice a number of cliches throughout the film. This causes the film to slow down in a number of places. The running time could have been shorter with better editing.My advice is watch the film but ignore the overt attempts to create racist feelings.