I had heard bits and pieces about this film previously, I knew it was about one the most famous popstars in the world, based on the autobiography "I, Tina", so I was looking forward to whatever it had to offer. Based on the true story, Anna Mae Bullock (Golden Globe winning, and Oscar nominated Angela Bassett) was born and raised in Nutbush, a small in Tennessee, she grew up in an unhappy family, with her parents leaving and abandoning her, and taking only her sister with them. Following the death of her grandmother, Anna Mae relocates to St. Louis, she reunites there with her mother Zelma Currie Bullock (Jenifer Lewis) and sister Alline (Phyllis Yvonne Stickney). Charismatic bandleader Ike Turner (Oscar and Golden Globe nominated Laurence Fishburne) performs with his band often at clubs and bars, Anna Mae watches him with awe, along with the many more screaming female fans, he spots her and is attracted, one night she gets the chance to express her talent for singing when she is brought onstage to join the act. Anna Mae pursues being a professional singer, winning her spot singing onstage with Ike, and he mentors her, in time an unexpected romance develops between them, and she eventually moves in with Ike. Shortly after they marry, they have two sons, and they begin having musical success, Ike gives Anna Mae the new stage name "Tina", because the name rhymed with the television character Sheena, as Ike and Tina Turner they produce many hits in the charts. As time passes however, the marriage turns sour, when Ike become physically violent and dominating towards Tina, she cannot find a way for herself to escape without disturbing her career. Tina rises to fame in St. Louis, and eventually spreading, becoming a rhythm and blues superstar, Ike grows increasingly jealous of the attention given to her. Ike turns to drugs, and his abusive behaviour gets worse, Tina seeks solace from her chaotic lifestyle, so a friend introduces her to Buddhism, this helps her gain confidence against her aggressive husband. Tina and Ike have a final fight, leaving her in a bloody state, but she finally musters the courage to defend herself, the police arrest Ike for domestic abuse, and she finally leaves him. In the divorce proceedings, Tina asks for no money, only the right to retain her stage name, she wins this right, she continues singing in clubs to get by, until she gets her break after meeting music producer Roger Davies (James Reyne). Tina realises her dreams of rock stardom, Ike attempts to win her back, reminding her that he is the one who found her and made her a star, but she shuns him and prevails, finding solo success and accomplishing her dreams, without Ike, Tina Turner is now recognised as one of the greatest female singers of all time. Also starring Vanessa Bell Calloway as Jackie, Khandi Alexander as Darlene, Rae'ven Larrymore Kelly as Young Anna Mae, Virginia Capers as Choir Mistress, Cora Lee Day as Grandma Georgiana, Sherman Augustus as Reggie and Terrence Riggins as Spider. Bassett gives an applaudable performance as the to-be singing superstar, with the real Tina dubbing her singing voice, but it is Fishburne deserves all the credit, including singing himself, the real Ike may have many faults and be considered nasty, but he put Tina in the spotlight. It is a very simple rise to fame story, the abusive marriage part of the story, when you consider it is real, can be hard to watch sometimes, but you are livened up by the great soundtrack of songs from Ike and Tina's repertoire, including "Proud Mary", "River Deep - Mountain High" and "What's Love Got to Do with It" , I'm surprised "The Best" was not featured, overall it is a most watchable biographical drama. Good!

This is maybe a first time I heard about Tina Turner and her songs. In short,the film was very interesting.Acctualy,Ithink that every biography is interesting. The first scene is cute and catchy.But,for the beginning of the film,we see that her childhood was not happy.And that will form her adulthood. So there is one interesting dimension of film:the wounds from childhood.Then we skip few years to the very important moment of her life:the first touch with Ike and The kings of rhythm.The acting is amazingly good.I felt every characters feelings. The most interesting is Ike:he is charming but violent,from the beginning he want's to dominate to others.Because of a lession that film gives and extraordinary quality of the film,it is useful to watch it.

There is plenty wrong with this movie as a biopic, however when you look at it as purely being a movie, it is a surprisingly great one.I never really considered Tina Turner to be such a good subject for a biopic, especially not in the '90's. First of all she was still alive and at an all time popular height and second of all, she in my opinion is not a that big star, when compared to all other people who get a biopic made about them. But I must say that after seeing this movie i have a whole lot more respect for her by now and I was definitely wrong about her career and life not being worthy or interesting enough for making a movie about it.The movie was a positive surprise. But nevertheless there still is plenty wrong with it as a biopic. It suffers from lots of the stuff other genre movies often suffer from. Thing with biopics often is that you try to capture a persons entire life and career into a 2 hour long movie. This means some stuff will often get rushed and shoved down your throat. You often just have to take things for granted, without them ever getting developed properly and convincing enough, like would be the case in a normal film drama about a normal average, every day person. And yes, this happens quite a lot in this movie. It often makes some very sudden jumps with its story and make jumps in time as well. We just never get to see how popular Tina Tuner is with the public and some things seem to happen very randomly in this movie, just because they happened in her real life as well. It at times feels like some stuff really got crow-bared into the film. They movie because of that also feels quite distant at times as a biopic, since you don't ever get the feeling you are really getting into the character.But having said all that, the movie still works out great. The story is always intriguing and keeps you interest throughout. It's also really fast-going, which makes this a bit of a distant one when it comes down to its emotions and characters but at the same time keeps this movie consistently good to watch, since you never get bored with things.It's also true that it are the actors performance that keep the movie going and make this a great watch. Angela Bassett really shines and she deserved her Oscar nomination. Same goes for Laurence Fishburne as the abusive Ike Turner, who is perhaps the foremost reason why this movie remains such a good and interesting watch. His character, no matter how awful he is, is still what gives the story as well as the Tina Turner some real depth. Because lets face it, would Tina Turner's life had been interesting enough for a biopic if she had never met Ike? I really don't think so.But of course the movie does not only focus on her personal life but also her career. It's quite fascination to see how she started out and at several points at her career had to start all over again but every time came back stronger, as a performer and person as well. It's why I now have so much more respect for her after seeing this movie. I now kind of wished I would had gone to her concert when she was in town here a decade ago. Besides, I really don't think you have to be a fan of her music in order to enjoy and appreciate her incredible stage presence and performance. Same sort of goes for this movie. You really don't have to be that much in Tina Turner in order to really like and appreciate this movie.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This film is truly extraordinary. This is one of those films that you will not forget about. Angela Bassett portrayed Tina Turner perfectly in this movie. Whether you were a fan of Tina Turner's music or not you will feel some type of respect for her and what she went through after watching this film. She lived a life that not too many people were familiar with. This movie teaches you so much about her and what she went through and that celebrities aren't always as happy as they appear to be and that behind the scenes anything goes. Tina's husband Ike Turner, who was played by Laurence Fishburne, used and abused her in the movie. He initially got her started and made her a big star but he controlled all aspects of her musical career, and her life! He became obsessed with her and would beat her a lot. After years of being in this domestic violence filled relationship Tina finally came to her senses and left her, it took a lot of years because she was very gullible. This movie is so interesting and it will keep viewers captured all the way to the end because they want to figure out how it will end. Will she fight back? Will he kill her? Will she kill him? These were questions that were going through my mind as I sat and watched the film. This is one of my favorite films and although the movie reveals Tina's constant struggle with Ike, ironically the movie had it's funny moments. This is a must see. Excellent film 10/10.