CommentsXp Best movie ever!

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Dalbert Pringle Yes. Even though this 1993 bio-picture was a somewhat exaggerated retelling of 22 years (1958-1980) in the turbulent life of famed pop singer, Tina Turner - It was still, without question, certainly well-worth a view.Packed with plenty of brutally-fierce drama, and high-energy musical numbers - Both actress, Angela Bassett, and actor, Laurence Fishburne gave convincing, top-notch performances as a pair of dynamic performers and ill-fated lovers whose repeated head-on collisions with each other could only lead to one final conclusion.All-in-all - I recommend this picture, highly.*Trivia notes* - Angela Bassett's singing was all dubbed by Tina Turner.Director, Brian Gibson died in 2004.

robert-temple-1 It took me a while (18 years), but at my wife's urging I finally got round to watching this superb film about the harrowing life of popular singer Tina Turner. The film is brilliantly directed by the late Brian Gibson, whose previous film in 1991 had been the life story of another famous black singer, Josephine Baker. But the film sizzles and fascinates primarily because of the sensational performance of Angela Bassett as Tina Turner. She is simply a knock-out. I presume her singing may have been dubbed by Turner herself. But whether she sang or not, her performance was dazzling, full of charm and sweetness as well as conveying all the heartache, emotional confusion and weakness, joys and sorrows. This is really a superior biopic, and the true story has plenty to tell! One should not neglect to mention that the little girl who plays Tina as a child, Rae'Ven Larrymore Kelly, is also superb. (She has grown up and appeared now in 42 films.) Tina Turner had a rough time in life, and it is shown very vividly in this film. She married an egocentric, violent, borderline psychopath named Ike Turner (died 2007), who beat her up regularly for years. Men who beat up women are really sick, but women who let men beat them up year in and year out without leaving them are sick too. In the film her excuse for not leaving Ike is said to be because she 'can't abandon family', due to the trauma of her horrible mother having abandoned her as a child. That does not wash. But let us not heap blame upon the ravaged Tina Turner for the horrors she endured and for her determination over so many years to remain a victim rather than save herself. At last she did summon up the courage to save herself, and she also went on to reinvent herself. So this is a story of heroic endurance and dedication to her art by a girl who was born to sing. If she suffered a lot along the way, well, that's life. But the songs go on.

Boba_Fett1138 There is plenty wrong with this movie as a biopic, however when you look at it as purely being a movie, it is a surprisingly great one.I never really considered Tina Turner to be such a good subject for a biopic, especially not in the '90's. First of all she was still alive and at an all time popular height and second of all, she in my opinion is not a that big star, when compared to all other people who get a biopic made about them. But I must say that after seeing this movie i have a whole lot more respect for her by now and I was definitely wrong about her career and life not being worthy or interesting enough for making a movie about it.The movie was a positive surprise. But nevertheless there still is plenty wrong with it as a biopic. It suffers from lots of the stuff other genre movies often suffer from. Thing with biopics often is that you try to capture a persons entire life and career into a 2 hour long movie. This means some stuff will often get rushed and shoved down your throat. You often just have to take things for granted, without them ever getting developed properly and convincing enough, like would be the case in a normal film drama about a normal average, every day person. And yes, this happens quite a lot in this movie. It often makes some very sudden jumps with its story and make jumps in time as well. We just never get to see how popular Tina Tuner is with the public and some things seem to happen very randomly in this movie, just because they happened in her real life as well. It at times feels like some stuff really got crow-bared into the film. They movie because of that also feels quite distant at times as a biopic, since you don't ever get the feeling you are really getting into the character.But having said all that, the movie still works out great. The story is always intriguing and keeps you interest throughout. It's also really fast-going, which makes this a bit of a distant one when it comes down to its emotions and characters but at the same time keeps this movie consistently good to watch, since you never get bored with things.It's also true that it are the actors performance that keep the movie going and make this a great watch. Angela Bassett really shines and she deserved her Oscar nomination. Same goes for Laurence Fishburne as the abusive Ike Turner, who is perhaps the foremost reason why this movie remains such a good and interesting watch. His character, no matter how awful he is, is still what gives the story as well as the Tina Turner some real depth. Because lets face it, would Tina Turner's life had been interesting enough for a biopic if she had never met Ike? I really don't think so.But of course the movie does not only focus on her personal life but also her career. It's quite fascination to see how she started out and at several points at her career had to start all over again but every time came back stronger, as a performer and person as well. It's why I now have so much more respect for her after seeing this movie. I now kind of wished I would had gone to her concert when she was in town here a decade ago. Besides, I really don't think you have to be a fan of her music in order to enjoy and appreciate her incredible stage presence and performance. Same sort of goes for this movie. You really don't have to be that much in Tina Turner in order to really like and appreciate this movie.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

waiching liu Sometimes biopics tend to be instantly forgettable made-for-TV franchises, with very little to offer in terms of character development and exploration which attempts to dig deeper into their personal lives, and their eventual triumphs over adversity. There are also biopics that seem to be memorable and popular with mainstream Hollywood, such as the Rocky series, Ali, Ray, Walk The Line to name but many. But 'What's Love Got to Do With It?' is neither a made-for-TV type of film, nor did it reclaim instant recognition and appraisal from the Academy Awards folk, seeing as it was harshly and virtually ignored. Bassett was nominated for a best actress gong, only for that to go to Holly Hunter in the rather dull drama,'The Piano' whilst Fishburne lost out to Tom Hanks, who starred in the overrated 'Philiadelphia' for best actor. It is indeed one of the very few (music-based) biopic films where in which it delivers strong but impressive performances from the main leads without all the necessary commercialised bravado and hype. 'What's Love Got to Do With It?' chronicles the imminent and illustrious life and times of Anna Mae Bullock aka Tina Turner- one of the most prominent and successful female solo recording artists in (pop)music, ever.The narrative of the film attempts to present to the audience a glimpse into the difficult hardships that Tina had to endure both as a child and as an adult, as well as her troublesome and at times violent marital relationship with her husband, Ike. Laurence Fishbourne excels in this role, even though some would argue that he bears little resemblance to Ike Turner, in physical terms. He is so convincing and yet so menacing and vile as Ike, you just feel nothing but total repulsion towards him for the way he has treated his wife. Beating and hitting her so hard, i'm sure it wasn't easy for Fishburne and Bassett to film such difficult scenes because on screen for us viewers, the violence, which was being inflicted on Tina by her lover, was so brutal to watch. As for Bassett, she may not be an accomplished vocalist in her own right, but her lip-synching of the tracks during the music performances of the film was impressive and she succeeded in capturing and projectifying Tina's mannerisms and presence on stage.What I like in particular about this movie also, is that as it is based on a true life account of Tina Turner's ups and downs, in contrast to other similar themed auto-biographical films, the events that unfold throughout the duration of this production are presented to us, not in an idealised way but as and when it happened, no matter how bleak and unsettling it is and was. Ali, Ray and even Malcolm X all celebrated the achievements of Black African American heroism but that they also celebrate the acceptance and importance of Black masculinity within what was then a predominantly white society and what it is to be male, Black and American. In Tina Turner,and this film, it in a way celebrates and acknowledges the contribution of Black femininity through her struggles and in overcoming such struggles and through her music, in addition for others to make sense of what it is to be female, Black and American.Although the abuse scenes are often difficult to stomach, particularly the rape scene where Tina is attacked by Ike, which I found incredibly disheartening and painful to sit through, 'What's Love Got to Do With It?' is an unmistakable- yet intense journey of emotions, sheer brutality and pure heartache on the part of the so- called main protagonist. But of course, Tina does indeed triumph in the end, which is a wonderful thing. And although it feels like it is like any other film with a predominantly Black cast, the fact that Tina Turner's music caters for all audiences and not just the Black community at large, means that regardless of your social, ethnic background, gender or sexuality,'What's Love Got to Do With It?' is an extremely accessible and engaging film that is as hard-hitting and powerful as it is moving. And in Angela Bassett, she should be a much, much bigger movie star than she is right now. It is unbelievable that this underrated actress doesn't receive as many film roles that she rightly deserves.Nevertheless, this film has to be one of the cult classics of all- time and the brilliance of the performances have to be seen to be believed. If you're a massive Tina Turner fan, you'll love this, but if you love to watch great acting and expect a good story, then this is definitely worth seeing as well.