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Rating: 
Summary: Well Made Shlock
Review: "Ray" starts well - covering an interesting period in music as Ray Charles' career gets going, but soon degenerates into standard (and in some cases, substandard) Hollywood biopic fare.Jamie Foxx's performance is a really good imitation of Ray Charles. But this is not the great performance that critics are falling over themselves to praise. Like Will Smith in "Ali", Foxx's "depth" is shown by having him be stoic while all around him better actors perform. The basis of Ray Caharles' powerful inner demons are revealed through a series of flashbacks, but what the viewer is left with is a feeling that the guy is a basically irredeemable jerk who - for a decade and a half - produced great music. The movie is way too long and Charles' treatment of those around him left me feeling cold towards him. What remains is a series of laughably executed scenes (particularly weak is the montage of Ray's "announcer" and road manager introducing him in a variety of foreign languages). Even with the length of "Ray", the story ends abruptly. Ray Charles struggles to kick heroin and then lives happily ever after. This despite the fact that Ray Charles spent the last 3 decades of his life touring as a "golden oldie" type act. I don't understand the hype on this film. It has the emotional depth of Tom Hanks' homage to the early 60's "That Thing You Do". And that's no compliment.
Rating: 
Summary: I simply do not get it!
Review: I dont understand all of the hype about Jamie Foxx. His performance wasn't that good and it wasn't anything that I have not seen him do before. He is not in the same league with Depp, Eastwood, DiCaprio, and Cheadle. These guys are real actors who have been in many good movies. Jamie Foxx does like two good movies and people are throwing their panties at him and praising him like he's the best actor ever! I personally think Leo DiCaprio should win the Oscar this year because his performance in 'The Aviator' was so good that it should not be passed up by some comedian. Jamie Foxx is an impersonator not an actor. Besides, this movie was only popular because Ray Charles died.
Rating: 
Summary: Fine film; excellent performances
Review: I never had the opportunity to see this in the theatre, so when the DVD came out, I bought it immediately; not only for the great buzz surrounding the film, but that I've always loved Ray Charles' music. One thing I would advise first-time DVD viewers: don't watch the extended version first. Those extra scenes are included in a "deleted scenes" section on the DVD and most were left out for good reason. I didn't do that, and there was a certain amount of coherence missing. I've watched it a few times since, it's a wonderfully made film, which FINALLY earned Taylor Hackford a nomination as Best Director.I'm not going to go over the plot, or rehash the fact that this is a "warts 'n all" look at Charles' life. The acting is very fine; Foxx does it all, with excellent support from Kerry Washington (wife) and Regina King (mother). Ms. King, in particular, will bring a tear to your eye, a short but powerful display of fine acting. The Oscars are next week, and all indications are that Foxx will win the Oscar. His leading role in "Collateral" also garnered him a nomination, but...supporting? He'll definitely win something. Oscar odds-makers are suggesting that Foxx' performance in "Ray" was an impersonation. I think it went way beyond that, but who knows what goes through the minds of those idiots? The great Ray Charles has been given a loving tribute, complete with fine music, acting and period detail, not to mention very loving direction by Hackford.The DVD has lots of extras, and a lot of insight.This is essential viewing to any fan of the great Ray Charles Robinson.
Rating: 
Summary: Miss You, Ray!
Review: I was always a fan of Ray Charles and always enjoyed watching him perform on television. I had read all the hype about this movie and decided that I had to see it. Overall, it's a very good biography about a man, as it turns out, I knew very little about. I knew him only as an old man, a family man, and a music legend. I didn't know about his younger days: his drug addiction to heroin, his philandering ways, and the careless manner in which he handled his family. I didn't know that he had been born with sight and lost it at a young age, or that he had had such a strong determined mother. It was very interesting to see what he went through on his way to stardom, from all the good things that happened to him to all the bad choices he made along the way. Although I'm not sure if I would deem this movie "Oscar-worthy," I readily admit that it was a moving film - and as I said before, a VERY good biography that shares with us plenty of Ray's music to enjoy along the way. Jamie Foxx was fantastic - I never knew he could act that well! This movie was a very good showing of his capabilities as an actor. Please remember that it is a biography, so it is slow-moving - there is no action packed into it like there are in fictional movies. It was, however, an Excellent film and if you're a Ray Charles fan, it's a definite must-see!
Rating:
Summary: JAMIE FOXX TEARS IT UP!
Review: Jamie Foxx gives the performance of his life, in
this movie! Oscars for this movie, are right around
the corner,this movie will receive many awards!
I always new Ray Charles was great, I just didn't
know how great, till I saw this movie. You've heard
this is a great movie, and it is! Just watch it,
you'll enjot it! (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!)
Rating:
Summary: This is an Oscar Winner, or should be
Review: Jamie Foxx. Taylor Hackford. Ray Charles. Three powerhouse performances in one movie. This film was flawless. Rarely have I seen a film where nearly every actor gave a memorable performance. There are no wasted scenes in this film! What I found particularly interesting is that it shows what people can overcome when they make up their minds to do so. My favorite lines: You're blind not stupid! You're not a cripple! So many Americans could learn from this inspirational film. I loved it!
Jamie Foxx, who also gave an astonishing performance in Collateral opposite Tom Cruise earlier this year, was nothing short of brilliant in this career making film. Foxx has come a long way since his years on the comedy show, In Living Color. Of this, there is no doubt. While I knew it was Jamie Foxx on the screen, I saw Ray Charles. I don't know if Foxx will get another opportunity to shine the way he did in Ray. I think it's safe to say, GIVE THE OSCAR TO MR. FOXX RIGHT NOW. No need to wait!
I was first acquainted with Taylor Hackford in the summer of 1980 in a small California town called Victorville. I was there TDY (temporary duty) at George Air Force Base for 45 days. The hotel I was staying at was showing a film called, The Idol Maker, starring Ray Sharkey, known for his television role in the series Wise Guy opposite Ken Wahl. That film was directed by none other than Taylor Hackford who just two years later went on to direct one of my favorite military films, An Officer and a Gentlemen. Hackford also directed Against All Odds, Delores Claiborne, The Devil's Advocate, White Nights, and Proof of Life. Ray easily blows away all of these career building films. This is his best film to date! GIVE HIM THE BEST DIRECTOR OSCAR!
Ray Charles never sounded better in this biopic. The soundtrack is worth the price of admission. Georgia on my mind, What'd I Say, Hit The Road Jack, I Can't Stop Loving You, and many more are featured in this film.
Other notable performances were given by Kerry Washington, who played Della Bea Robinson and new comer, Sharon Warren, who played Aretha Robinson, mother of the late great Ray Charles. Hopefully, these two women will be nominated for best supporting Oscars along with Foxx and Hackford.
The problem, however is that Hollywood is known for not rewarding people when they've earned it. They tend to give Oscars when they want you to have it, which, I find extremely irritating. Having said that, I'll take mine whenever they give it to me! LOL!
Ray is a 5 star film.
Take your family to see this!
Rating:
Summary: Georgia in our minds!
Review: Taylor Hackford is one of the most gifted and prominent directors of the American Cinema. He has given us previously authentic film jewels as Dolores Clairburne, Proof of life and The devils's advocate. So all the possible ephitets for this movie somehow weren't strange to me but confirmed once more my first imnpression of Hackford and his artistic talents.
The illumination before all is another hidden actor. Tastefully filmed the secure and masterful direction leads us through three decades. The artistic direction and the set up are impeccable. The film is told in documental stylish and thanks to the multiple flashback, the viewer ellaborates his own readings.
The supporting cast is simply superb. The lense never abuses of the close up. Hackford knows to use it as the good conductor with the "rubato" figure. In the other hand the script reflects to Ray multidimensionally , this a very remarkable aspect: Ray : the man and his whole circunstamce: many directors could have
given us a tearful reading and a soap melodram but you fortunately are before a mature film crudely described.
Jamie Fox,to my mind, makes an impressive acting and I suspect he will be the real winner the next Sunday in the Academy Award. Fox didn't play Ray Charles character. He simply is Ray , he lived the personae. Evcery little gesture, head movement and nervous tics in challenging and dramatic moments. From the first shot entering to that dark stage in the middle of nowhere in such bar, he asimilated the dramatis personae becoming instantaneously in a model not simply an actor in searc of Charles.
If Fox doesn't win this Award this risky prediction won't affect this towering performance at all because he just signed his name in the immortality.
Please go to the movie and acquire this artwork, because the only complaint I have is perhaps a certain lack of surronding atmosphere in the middle of the sixties with the dramatic facts as Martin Luther's King murder for instance and the raising of prominents artists who grew up under his shadow and influence such Stevie Wonder for instance. But this brief comment doesn't mean even an atom of disagree. The movie is a treasure and consider from now an absolute classic film!
Rating:
Summary: Addiction, Adultery, and Adoration
Review: What can I say about this film that has not already been said? Very little. I agree with everyone who says that Jamie Foxx "became" Ray Charles. I "became" Ray Charles just watching it. It was an amazing performance. At the end of it, I felt as though I knew Ray--I felt that he was one of my friends--I felt that I miss him now that he is gone. The performance was that powerful. I agree with everyone who says that the sets were dynamite. The cars. The clothes. The hip-cat talk. The brash Jim Crow. They took us back, baby. They took us back. I agree with everyone who says that the music works in this movie better than in any musician's bio-pic ever, and that includes even the best of them like Buddy Holly, The Doors, Richy Valens, Sweet Dreams, Coal Miner's Daughter, the Countless Elvis attempts, and even the Oscar-winning Amadeus. And there is a reason: focus.
Love it or hate it, focus makes the difference. Yes, Ray's life was bigger than addiction, adultery, and adoration. Yes, this narrowness of focus leaves out much that is to be said about one of the musical greats of all time. It does, however, make for an easier viewing. It does allow for a man's life to be built around plotpoints, rather than feel like a confusing splash of film images--which is what usually happens in a bio-pic (take Van Peeble's ALI, for example).
So, if we focus on Ray's adultery, there is a natural beginning, middle and end when Marge Hendricks, his longtime lover, meets Ray, becomes entangled in his life and his music, and then dies tragically of an overdose (never mind the truth that Ray's dalliances neither began nor ended with Marge).
If we focus on the drugs, there is a natural beginning, middle and end when Ray is introduced to heroin, becomes a junky, and finally kicks the habit (never mind that the addiction seems to have coincided with the BEST music he ever created; in other words, most of the songs we love him for were all created during his junky days).
Finally, if we focus on the adoration (i.e., the music and the fan), we get the "rhyme" that matches the "reason." In other words, Ray's music, fueled by his addiction and lust, is the perfect background music for . . . the movie RAY. The driving rhythms of HIT THE ROAD JACK and UNCHAIN MY HEART are both heartstrong and drugged-out frenetic.
A final point: My second favorite Ray song of all time is THE NIGHTTIME IS THE RIGHT TIME (my all time favorite was left out of the film, LET'S GO GET STONED). For about two decades I have associated that song, NIGHTTIME, with a classic episode of THE COSBY SHOW--you know the one I'm talking about: Cosby and family lip-sync a musical tribute to their grandparents before they go off on a sea voyage to renew their vows. It is a sweet scene, highlighted by cute little Rudy (Keisha Knight Pulliam), five at the time, closing her eyes in a lover's mask and moaning the song's famous call "Baby, Baaaabay, Babbbbay, Ooh my ba-baaaay" to Cosby's reponse, "I say Baby, I say Baby--" Again, I know that you know the scene and the song--it begins with Dave "Fathead" Newman's famous lazy bump-and grind tenor sax intro. For years when I heard the song, the Cosby scene played in my head. That little girl belting out those words. It seemed so cute. So innocent. Seeing it in the movie, with Marge Hendricks singing it to her lover Ray Charles, seeing the look of love and lust in her eyes, seeing her eyes wide open as she sings--there is nothing cute about that scene. Baby don't mean baby in that scene, if you know what I mean.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Movies I've Seen!
Review: WOW!! I had heard how good this movie is, but didn't realize it was that good. We saw the DVD for the first time over the weekend during a dinner party at a neighbor's house. We were all very impressed with the tremendous struggle that Charles had to maintain, with the discrimmination, especially in the south. Even some Afro-Americans were taking advantage of this blind black man. Not only was he a musical genius, but also a survivor!
I found it troubling how much Charles got caught in spider webs of drug abuse and unethical women, bound to get a hold of some of his fortune. I was surprised that he had 12 children, many out of wedlock? All an all, his life was success, because of the joy of music he brought to millions and millions around the globe. I will never forget how Charles could deliver the song "America"...how he could make me shed a tear every time he sang that great song.
I hope this film wins many awards. It deserves a lot of praise!
Rating:
Summary: A good film made superior by an incredible performance
Review: You've probably heard enough hype in the past couple of months about Jamie Foxx's performance in the Ray Charles biopic.Well, I'll say it again: Jamie Foxx is maddeningly good as Ray Charles. Not only does Foxx share an uncanny resemblance to Charles, he gets so deep inside the real Ray Charles, that the two breathe as one. He doesn't imitate Charles's traits and mannerisms: he adopts them as his own, and if there is any justice left (which I doubt) in the acedemy, they will grant Foxx his much deserved academy award for what will be known years from now as a landmark performance.
I'm not usually a fan of biopics.They strike me as insipid, superficial, and pretensious.But "Ray" really got to me. It actually told me the story of this legened in an engrossing manner-it was touching without being trite.Ray is a very long film, but it flew by.It is by turns humorous, tragic, and triumphant.Most of all, it successfully does what very few biopics are able to do-it conveys a clear essence of who this man was-Ray the man, not the star.More than that, all of the supporting characters in the film are believable and 3-dimensional.
Superb performances from the ENTIRE cast, and spine-tingling music from the genius himself can't hurt.
But what truly raises Ray to the bar of excellence is Foxx's UNBELIEVABLE performance.His acting alone makes this film worth seeing.
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