People seem upset that this doesn't convey all the facts as correctly as a documentary. But the same could be said for McFarland. I was not a Beyonce fan till this flick and discovered how good she is as an actor. Adrian Brody gives his typical solid performance. Jeffrey Wright plays his role with emotion and feeling and you get a real sense of the pain he feels and conveys it wonderfully with his acting. The movie is moving, emotional, and compelling, I have never seen anything to suggest it was a documentary but rather great actors telling a story about the start of something big in an era of racism and a man that helped to make it happen. Enjoy the movie for what it is-a movie about a difficult subject that might be historically flawed, that isn't the fault of actors which give a wonderful performance.

Cadillac Records will give you an introduction to the story of some of the blues legends and the story of Chess Records. Chess records became known as Cadillac records as co-founder Leonard Chess paid his musicians by Cadillac's instead of cash.The film is based on true events but many liberties have been taken with the truth. The story focuses on Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody) no mention is made of his brother who founded the record label with him or their experience in working with musicians on a previous record label.Chess takes on talented blues musicians such as Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Little Walter, Howlin Wolf and later Etta James (Beyonce.) Chess guides them but also rips them off by taking shares of their royalties or leaving them destitute although Howlin Wolf did OK financially.Much is made of Muddy Waters and then later Etta James and a fledgling affair with Chess. However the more interesting characters are Chuck Berry (Mos Def) and especially Howlin Wolf (Eamonn Walker) and they are underused.The film is nicely made, a mix of music, racism, getting to the top, addiction, violence and financial destitution. The usual type of ingredients for these types of films but nothing really stands out. The writing and direction is beige, almost like a glorified television film with some bad language.

Whilst there are some good performances in this film, Eamonn Walker for example who dominates the screen whenever he is on it and Mos Def as Chuck Berry, it is impossible to look past the director's distortion of history. Martin has for some reason decided that the real stories of the artists and founders of Chess Records were not interesting enough so she essentially makes everything up. She adds relationships where there were none, attributes a murder to Little Walter because a man toured under his name, mixes up chronology, barely touches on the finances and leaves out major figures from the story. It also seems as they could not decide which angle to focus upon - jumping from one thing to another. There is a great film to be made about the subject - this is not it.To some extent you get used to filmmakers changing things for dramatic purpose but this is so overdone as to be ridiculous.

Probably no type of music is more American than the blues. Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Etta James are some of the most famous names in the genre. Less well known is the story behind their recordings. Darnell Martin's "Cadillac Records" is the story. The movie casts Adrien Brody as Leonard Chess, who established a record company in Chicago to record some of these artists. Every step of the way it was a risky business: racism was still the law in much of the country, and the artists were often at each other's throats. But in the end, they made some of the greatest songs in history.As can be expected, the best part is the music. Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), Howlin' Wolf (Eamonn Walker) and Etta James (Beyoncé Knowles) contribute some masterful tunes, as do Chuck Berry (Mos Def), Willie Dixon (Cedric the Entertainer) and Little Walter (Columbus Short). It's a great time every step of the way. Definitely worth seeing.