I did not have TV, so I rented movies, and found this TV mini-series at a used media outlet. I have watched it over 20 times over a 5 year period. I felt alone in my obsession until I checked online for other reviews. The music makes my heart feel glad, and the acting and special tone of the relationships and cadence of the speech pleases me no end. I read everything you can find on the Tempts. They were a favorite in college, lying on my dorm bed with earphones on -- however, the mini-series which honors the music, dancing, and stage appearances has earned, in my heart, top honors. If a famous actor had been in it, it would have won an Academy Award. And probably not been as good as it is. Congratulations to everyone involved.

Being a white kid from Brooklyn there's no way I can know how accurate this movie is although it's based on a book by a real member of the group and withstood court suits from other family members of the group.Once I heard a quote,"If it ant't that way,it should have been"and so it is with this film.Released in 1998 and running 150 minutes it was first a TV miniseries and now a DVD.Besides the great music of the Temps,the acting is so fine it's divine. Leon IS David Ruffin and Terron Brooks IS Eddie Kendricks .Everyone else is fine as well.The movie starts out at HS in Detroit and ends with a funeral of a member with a cameo of Smokey singing at the burial.In between is the story of 2 groups members forming what became the temps and all the ups and downs that went with it.You listen to the music and stay for the story.The story only touched briefly on the various infidelities of members while focusing more on the group dynamics and lack there of.My favorite scene was the group stopping down south on a bus tour at a segregated HS dance,complete with a rope across the gym to keep whites and blacks separate while both sides enjoyed the music.Sad to think it was once really like that.

Like a previous writer I too found this film by accident, watching late night TV one night and it came on and I was hooked. Imagine my delight when I saw it for sale for 99p in a bargain basket. Terron Brooks(Eddie Kendricks), DB Woodside(Melvin Franklin), Charles Malik Whitfield(Otis Williams), Christian Payton(Paul Williams), and Leon(David Ruffin) all did amazing job acting as the temptations, especially Leon as David Ruffin, the likenesses were really good and they did a really good job when performing the Temptations hits. I love the Temptations music in all its incarnations. It is a shame that the film had such a slant towards Otis, but then it was based on his book so I guess that was bound to happen. I would have loved to have seen more Motown stars featured, where was Stevie Wonder? The music of the Temptations will live on and for that reason this film is a must for any fan.

The camera work has the usual claustrophobic box look of most television films. The editing is incredibly choppy, and the continuity is really awful sometimes. There are also clichés in abundance - David Ruffin getting tossed out of a car is pure detective-show melodrama, but doesn't really resolve the whole Ruffin problem in the film. And there's plenty of lag-time, especially in the second half.All that said, the story is surprisingly very strong, the characters fascinating, the performances energetic, and the music is very well presented. The sense of the historical change of context surrounding the characters is also accurate and convincing, although played quietly (actually works better that way).The first half especially is a treat. A strong effort to do the group, its music, and its history justice.