Develiker terrible... so disappointed.

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Helloturia I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

vchimpanzee It is 1950 and this is Alabama. Black people are not treated particularly well, though this film comes nowhere near depicting just how bad things are. Two boys aspire to be musicians and pretend at their modest shack, then they cross the nearby military base to get a glimpse of what is going on at Honeydripper, a place where black people go to listen to music.Pianist Tyrone "Pinetop" Purvis runs the place. For some reason he doesn't want Bertha Mae, as good as she is, to continue singing. No, the place is in financial trouble and the only way to save it is to bring in a celebrity named Guitar Sam. So is this guy who gets off the train and carries a guitar in fact the famous man himself? Hardly. And Sonny is advised by the fantastic and friendly blind dobro player that he is on the wrong side of town. And while the guitar player finds Honeydripper, Pinetops isn't interested in him. He's got a guitar player (or thinks he does; Sam is never seen but the word is that he is in the hospital in Little Rock). Sonny heads down the road looking for work. We've already seen the prisoners sentenced to pick cotton. And he becomes one of them because racist Sheriff Pugh (he treats the movie's stars relatively well, though) catches him wandering down the road. He claims to be looking for work, but that just makes him a vagrant.Pinetops, meanwhile, faces one obstacle after another. He lost his star. He and Maceo have to come up with a plan. While they do, they have to come up with one humorous con game after another. Sonny knows Guitar Sam's music. So if they can get the sheriff to let him go, no one has to know he isn't Guitar Sam. Delilah, a great cook, promises the sheriff her fried chicken. China Doll wants to go to beauty school and makes the man look good. Will it all work?Let me put it this way: There's good rockin' tonight! Yes, I said rock. Five years before white people discovered rock and roll, these people were doing it and doing it quite well. There are outstanding performances from just about everyone. Danny Glover has some scenes that I wouldn't be surprised to see as Oscar clips. Charles Dutton does his usual fine work and makes us laugh. Stacy Keach also does great work. Mary Steenburgen has a good scene as the employer of one of the black women. Keb Mo' gives what may the best performance of all, and not just as an actor. He can play that dobro! The musicians are very talented, particularly Gary Clark.Even those young boys give good performances, however brief. You have to watch them again at the end, after their pretend musical instruments have improved. It's an outstanding effort you just have to see.

mustangboy66 This movie got my attention right away with the music in the early scenes. But that's also where it lost me. There are only a small handful of movies about music that really capture the true essence of live music performance, and for me, this movie is ultimately not one of them. I'll say, though, that I enjoyed the movie as a whole. But knowing live music performance like I do, the "Guitar Sam" show scene left me squirming on the coach. It was far too "rock and roll" for the era, and the situation. And for a throw-together band, far too polished. Because of this, I couldn't help wondering if they have also missed the mark with their representation of life as an African American in the 1950's south-something I have NOT experienced for myself. It seemed pretty bad in the movie, but maybe it was FAR worse in reality. Like I said, I did enjoy the movie as a whole. But couldn't the band mess up ONE ending, at least?

les6969 This film has it's moments and there is a lot going on. It is an incite into early Rock and Roll and the fact that it was black singers and musicians and not Elvis who started it all off. It shows the racism and corrupt attitudes of the deep south and there is a little love interest. Danny Glover is outstanding as is Stacey Keech but all the support roles are also really well done. My only criticism about this film is that it doesn't really go anywhere. At the end I was left with an empty feeling with so many unanswered questions. What happened to the young guitar/singer after that weekend? Who was that blind man exactly? ( if he was blind, he gave the Danny Glover character a knowing nod at the gig ) Whay didn't the Stacey Keech character expose the boy as not Guitar Sam? ( Money I am guessing? ) I think this was a good film and it kept my attention but it could have been grittier and a better ending.

colinbarnard-1 This is not a great movie by any stretch, but it is a very GOOD one. My rating should be 7.8. IMDb, invest in some higher technology! John Sayles proves yet again what can be done when there is unity of vision on a film, and when everyone involved passionately believes in what they are doing. Any limitations this film has must surely be due to the budget (was there one?) rather than any creative lapses on Sayles' part.In fact, the only problems I have with "Honeydripper" are technical: some of the shots are out of focus, some of the scenes drag, and there is not a lot of dramatic tension to carry the piece along. It is enough, though, for those of us who can handle something more relaxed than the kinetics of Michael Bey or Steven ("I'll do anything for an Oscar!") Spielberg."Honeydripper" is really a small character study of a working class man, surrounded by good people, who is trying do do right by them and himself. It is a romance for the nostalgia of the Deep South in 1950, a period where Jim Crow was on the cusp of yielding to John Kennedy.It is also a romance for music, where Gospel and Blues was about to fuse and metamorphise into Rock 'n Roll. Sayles loves everything he is doing; you can feel the writer/director's respect and integrity through the camera and the screen.Unusual for a Sayles film, Danny Glover anchors the piece as its central character, the axis upon which the story and all the characters revolve. All the characters are complete human beings, with only a few drawn as caricatures. I don't mind.This would be a good film to show as a double bill with "The Great Debators". Several themes overlap, but "Honeydrippers" is the more mature film. Here, a man's biggest grievance is not being able to live in dignity as a man who pays his way. Sayles' characteristic character arcs provide us with many dignified men and women who achieve that dignity by finding ways to honestly pay their way. They do it with joy, love and creativity.Another fine Working Class film from Cinema's Working Class Hero.