Ray (Widescreen Edition)

Rating:
Summary: MAKE A SPACE ON YOUR SHELF JAMIE
Review: ...for you are destined to win this year's Best Actor Oscar for this incredible performance. Foxx is so good that I too actually forgot I wasn't watching the real Ray Charles. Jamie inhabits the role so intensely one can't imagine anyone else playing the role. Under masterful direction from Taylor Hackford, RAY is an excellent biopic, whose only fault in my opinion is its length; it seems to go on forever. But during the time spent with the movie, you are treated to some of Ray Charles' most endearing songs; a tightly focused script featuring superb performances from the supporting cast including Kerry Washington, Regina King, David Krumholtz, Bokeem Woodbine and countless others. The period detail is impeccable: costuming, vehicles, everything seems like it came right out of the fifties and sixties. I don't know the name of the actress who played Ray's mother, but she is wonderful in a fiercely determined performance. Ray is a legend, conquering all the major fields of contemporary music, showing that an r&b singer can have pop hits, even country hits as demonstrated in his awesome renditions of I CAN'T STOP LOVING YOU and BORN TO LOSE. And the picture doesn't sanitize his faults and weaknesses: he was a womanizer and his addiction to heroin could have ended his career. It is ironic that after he conquered this addiction, his stance in the recording industry lessened; seemed he did his best work while high. But as the movie depicts, Ray's conquering of his personal demons kept his family together, and after tonight's six posthumous Grammys, one can say Ray and his music lives on. Congrats to Foxx for his uncanny embodiment of this musical giant.

Rating:
Summary: Jamie Foxx is gorgeous!
Review: Damn, I'd love to get my hands on Jamie Foxx. He is so fine and cute. In the movie "Ray," you can see one of his nipples when he's in bed with his wife. I really hope he gets the Oscar, because if he don't, there's gonna be some MAJOR problems, okay? You go, Jamie!

Rating:
Summary: And the winner is......Jamie Foxx for...Ray!!
Review: I can't remember ever having seen such a guaranteed shoo-in for for the best actor academy award in my life. Oh, there have been greats like Peter O'Toole, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hanks, Jack Nicholson and others, but this performance is head and shoulders over the competition. Throughout the movie, I forgot that this was Jamie Foxx....to me it was Ray Charles. He had the movements down, the talk, the jive and the music. An emotionally rich story covers from his early childhood and the tragedies and dissapointments that cultivated a natural blues and soul voice and through his successful years. This is not a sugar-coated biography. Here we also see Ray as the Heroin junkie and womanizer. But you come away with an emotionally filled experience and realize that despite his imperfections, God gave him a truly unique voice that rose above all his handicaps to acheive legendary status as one of the major figures and forces in American music. A beautiful film. Don't forget, it too is nominated for Best Picture as well.

Rating:
Summary: Jaime Foxx deserves the Oscar for this role.
Review: I just saw this movie last night and I fell in love with the music of Ray Charles. I learned alot about this imperfect human genius. I sympathized with his struggle as a man with a handicap that never allowed him self to be treated as a cripple. I learned so much about Ray Charles in this movie that I didn't know.

Rating:
Summary: Kept forgetting I was looking at Jamie Foxx!
Review: I truly felt like I was watching Ray Charles rather than an actor playing him! Ray is definitely worth all the hype plus more! Jamie Foxx deserves to win the Oscar! For those who remember In Living Color, he has definitely come a long, long way! He actually had prosthetics put over his eyes so he could know more what it's like to be blind! Now that's dedication! Of course all the music is great because, hey, it is Ray Charles after all! :)
The bonus material is pretty good. There's deleted scenes, a jam session between Ray Charles and Jamie Foxx, the ever popular commentary with the director, plus other good stuff. You also have the option of watching the version of the film shown in the theatre or the extended version with is 25 minutes longer. I haven't watched that one yet, but I like to assume that just means there's more music. :)

Rating:
Summary: You Won't Soon Forget It
Review: If a day goes by after I've seen a movie and I'm still thinking hard about it, it's made an impression. This movie is still in my mind, every bit of it. Jamie Foxx is amazing in channeling Ray. The wonderful period feel of all the scenes drew me into this life and made it completely believable. I lost all sense that Jamie Foxx was playing Ray Charles, and the music, supporting cast, and excellent direction drew me all the way in. Ray's addictions just made him more human, and the movie gives a complete picture of Ray the boy, and Ray the man, although I was left wondering how he developed his musicianship, where he got his first piano, how and where he picked up Nat King Cole's music, etc. But this gap in his development is more than made up for in all the rich details that play out for over two hours, which fly by. Who cares if this movie or Foxx's performance wins the Oscar. It's a fine thing. Go see this right now!

Rating:
Summary: A 5 Star Performance by Foxx in a 3 1/2 star Film
Review: Jamie Foxx was either holding out on us or just waiting for the right platforms to display his amazing talent. His two Oscar nominations this year - Best Supporting Actor for "Collateral" and Best Actor for THIS movie - are well deserved. The man can ACT. He is so successful at inhabiting a role here - I wouldn't bat an eye if I heard he were playing Ronald Reagan in an upcoming film.

Ray Charles was also a stunning once-in-a-lifetime talent, and the combination of Foxx's ability working with the Charles' material is extremely pleasurable.

Jamie Foxx so completely inhabits the personna of Ray Charles that disbelief is totally suspended. In our minds he IS Ray Charles.

All that being said - it's impossible to make a coherent "story" from 20 years of disconnected interludes and anecdotes from Ray's life. We see young Ray growing up with a mother who wants more for her son than the poverty he is born into. She challenges him in ways that border on cruelty after he becomes blind, but the movie suggests that it is the hard lessons he learned while young that drove him to greatness later.

We see the young musician Ray, winning the respect and adulation of fans and musicians alike while playing Country, then blending Blues and Gospel to make Soul music. We see Ray the long-time heroin addict who doesn't think it is a "problem" as long as he keeps his musical engagements. We see Ray the womanizer who doesn't think it is a "problem" as long as it only happens on the road. We see Ray the astute businessman who learns to accept his early cash payments in ones - so that he won't be underpaid - and later negotiates a recording deal "better than Sinatra's". We see the Ray that understands that his music plays well in the south, and continues to play in venues that more progressive black musicians like Quincy Jones won't play. We also see the Ray who finally understands the wrongness of segregated music halls and takes a stand that no musician before had made - resulting in him being banned from the big money state of Georgia. We see the proud Ray who is invited back to the Capital of Georgia for an official apology. (The film glosses over the fact that the Georgia legislature changed the official Georgia state song - not just to "Georgia on my Mind", but specifically to Mr. Charles' version.

An excellent introduction to Ray Charles' life and music, highlighted by an Oscar caliber performance by Jamie Foxx as the Man himself.

Rating:
Summary: A Movie That Had To Be Made!
Review: Just about everything about in this movie was impressive. From scanning side-to-side film shots (camera sliding left and right between actors speaking) to an amazing script, this movie lived up to the hype.

I have to admit that I knew very little about Ray Charles before watching this film. But after viewing this movie I felt like I couldn't learn enough about the man. He was as talented a musician as there ever was. And this story on film does a great job of trying to give us a glimpse of the struggles and roadblocks, some of them self-induced, this man suffered through.

There are so many good parts in the movie that it would be impossible to list them all; besides, I don't want to spoil it for the five or six people who might not have watched the movie yet.

Jamie Foxx manages to portray Ray Charles with such a convincing performance that he deserves all the accolades being sent his way. He, in fact, is so convincing that at times I wanted to look away during the scenes when Ray was becoming addicted to drugs. It will be extremely hard for Foxx to ever top this performance.

The flashback scenes to Ray's childhood home and surroundings were inserted at just the right times during the film; I have seen directors totally blow that placement in movies. Taylor Hackford should get director of the year for this movie. He managed to add just the right amount of music, history, good dialogue, and extras to make this film a complete success. I would love for him to direct The Running Girl if it ever becomes a movie; wishful thinking on my part. Seriously, he is going to have a hard time topping this masterpiece.

All of the actors and actresses in this movie were very convincing in their roles. Combine that fact with the incredible set designs and atmosphere and you have a film that will still be popular fifty years from now.

If you haven't seen this movie because you thought the hype was probably overdone, I suggest you take a look. It really is that good.

See ya next review.


Rating:
Summary: GREAT MOVIE
Review: ray is clearly one of the best movies ever made!! it is an awesome feel-good movie with an excellent performance by jamie fox as the lead. if u have never seen this movie, buy it (becuase its totally worth it) and watch it! this movie shows details of ray charles life starting with his childhood when he first goes blind, to his hard herioin addiction, to the great details of his musical career. ray charles was a genious and jamie fox's portrayment of ray is so outstanding and believable, ray is one of the greatest movies ever!

Rating:
Summary: 5 stars for the movie and 1 star for this edition...
Review: While Ray is one of the best movies I have ever seen, this 2 disc "limited edition" is a complete and utter rip-off. The extras in both packaging and video are cheesy at best. The regular version of RAY has everything a fan of the movie would need. Don't waste your money on this over-blown presentation. Luckily, I was able to return this version and get the lesser priced, but just as thorough, version.