Strong and Moving!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Tina Turner is a great and influential performer, and many of her songs are classics for a reason. When hearing that there was a biographical drama, based on Turner's autobiography 'I, Tina', the first feeling that came into my head was intrigue, but also the worry as to whether it would do her justice.On the most part, 'What's Love Got To Do With It' does. Sure, 'What's Love Got To Do With It' is a little obvious and over-simplified dramatically and a few of the musical scenes stop the flow at times that slows the film down. With that being said, 'What's Love Got To Do With It' has got a lot to recommend it.Its biggest asset is the lead performances, two lead performances that one would describe as powerhouse. Angela Bassett gives a beautifully observed and deeply felt performance in the title role, her performance feels incredibly real and does not fall into the trap of being an impersonation. Every bit as good is Laurence Fishburne as Ike, on terrifying form. Both characters are very much convincing and have strong chemistry together.'What's Love Got To Do With It' is nicely filmed and designed, as well as sympathetically directed. As predicted, the songs are terrific and well staged and performed. The script on the most part is heartfelt and avoids falling into making the characters clichéd caricatures or descending into over-heated melodrama. The story also mostly grips and can be very touching and illuminating.On the whole, intriguing and very well done with powerhouse lead performances that carry the film faultlessly. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I read the book first, which was intriguing and enlightening on the life of Tina Turner, and one would think that if would be difficult to translate her life's journey into a great movie .Not so! the movie is one of the best biopics related to a famous singer's journey that i have ever seen so far.I was drawn into the story from the beginning of the movie, which begins when Tina was a child singing in the choir, and even at that time, Tina's voice was so magnificent that she was ostracized by the choir director. I was riveted throughout the movie and the story conjured up so many emotions. The music of course, took me back in time when I grew up in the 60's and 70's, which is fantastically revitalized and full of energy.The years of battery that Tina endured from Ike is wrenching and disturbing, but the triumph and endurance of the person called Tina Turner is enlightening.

Personally I'm not especially keen on this type of movie; movies packed with music numbers. But after all, it is the grand old lady Tina Turner we are talking about; she deserves more than something average. I really did like her songs in the 80s when she got rid of her abusive husband Ike. Her voice was strong and with a great personality.The relationship between Ike and Tina was almost made for a movie; there is drama, violence, and music. The title really says it all. Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne are stunning as the main characters. Bassett got the nearly impossible job to portrait one of the most remarkable female artists in music history especially when it comes to the body language of Tina. However, Angela Bassett did it very well. Also in scenes with playback I could hardly notice it was an actor imitating a great rock star.Overall a very good movie, but like I said; too many music scenes that I felt interrupted the story. But most of the songs are well known - and good!

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.