Good movie but not great. I watched and felt it could have been so much better. Leon does a reasonable job but not as good as his portrayal of David Ruffin in The Temptations TV movie, in which he was perfect. In this movie he just doesn't quite make it and seems to lack the charisma that Little Richard had. This is particularly evident in the songs where he doesn't capture the madness and brilliance of Little Richard's performances. Leon is also too tall and not skinny enough to be Little Richard.That said the movie is watchable and shows the story of his rise to fame and his internal conflict between religion and Rock and Roll.

It is fitting on a musical Sunday to get your heart a pumping, and no one can do that better than Little Richard. The man could sing the drawers off the ladies and defined rock and roll.Look to Leon to provide a definitive characterization, as he has done so with David Ruffin in The Temptations and Jackie Wilson in Mr. Rock 'n' Roll: The Alan Freed Story.This was a fascinating biopic as we saw Little Richard struggle with his father, with his church and with himself over just who he was. He won the battle and there is no one else that has his voice or his style.

This had to be one of Robert Townsends better, if not best, movie he'd ever directed. I never knew much about Little Richard's past and this movie does a very good job in explaining it. I say about as good as the Tina Turner story, What's Love Got to Do With it.It's starts out with Richard's child hood, his infatuation with dressing up in his mother's clothes, his father giving him beatings and the influence of the church. The film later goes into Richard's first hit recording "Tutti Fruitti". Pat Boone later goes on to record this song and many other Little Richard songs and the white radio stations play Boone's instead of Richards. Of course, this isn't the whole plot of the movie, though, just part of it.This movie is about as good as you can get when it comes to biography movies on Rock stars. It doesn't disappoint, not in my opinion. LEON does a very good job portraying Little Richard.-BGR

The Life and Time of Little Richard, as told by Little Richard, as produced and directed by Little Richard, was about as one sided as one of his songs. This is not a biography or even a docudrama, but does have good writing, great energy and an outstanding leading actor playing Richard. All the music is by Little Richard, so it rocks a tight lipsync on every song.The movie covers his early childhood, carrys thru the formative years in music, the wild success and Richard's throwing it all away to praise the Lord. Its all tied together well and the obvious comeback in 1962 manages to stay away from the idea that Little Richard discovered the Beatles, whom opened for him.My main objection is that his outrageous, counter cultural behavior is underplayed and you get no feel for how his audience experienced him at that time. Some of his energy, which he still has, does not come across full force. He seemed tame, compared to what I remember of him at the time.The best scenes are Richard getting jilted by Lucille and writing a song about it and the strip to bikini shorts while performing, to make the point about not having a decent place to change.If they had gotten into the "Bronze Liberace" as Richard use to refer to himself in interviews, then there's a story. Trust me I just saw him perform a couple of months ago and he still flirts with the pretty white boys, giving the one particularly good dancer in the audience, his headband. Nearly 68 and still going strong I recommend this movie and any concert or T.V. appearance you can find. Little Richard is always on