Get on Up – Picture: Universal Pictures
The 2014 biopic on James Brown featuring the late Chadwich Boseman has just arrived unannounced on Netflix in the United States today. Get on Up is available on Netflix US as of March 16th, 2021.
Directed by Tate Taylor, the highly regarded biopic follows the life of legendary singer James Brown from his beginnings in extreme poverty to becoming one of the most well-renowned musicians.
The film first released on August 1st, 2014 and took 14 years to get off the ground after multiple reboots with lots of high-profile names joining and dropping out of the project over the years. The Rolling Stones Mick Jagger served as a producer throughout.
Among the cast for Get on Up includes aforementioned Boseman as well as Dan Aykroyd, Nelsan Ellis, Nelsan Ellis, Viola Davis, Lennie James, Craig Robinson and Jill Scott.
Just yesterday, Chadwick Boseman was nominated for an Oscar for his leading performance in Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and he could’ve/should’ve just as easily been nominated in a category for his performance in Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods too. Boseman sadly passed away in the middle of 2020 after losing his fight to cancer.
Reviews for the feature film are generally very positive with a 6.9 on IMDb currently and a 71 on Metacritic.
Some notable reviews include Richard Corliss from Time saying Boseman crushed the role: “Incarnating James Brown in all his ornery uniqueness, he deserves a Pulitzer, a Nobel and instant election to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”
The Playlist’s Kimber Myers refers to the movie as a “crowd pleaser”.
Only Netflix US picked up the movie today. As it’s a Universal Pictures title, however, it could still come to other regions over time depending on individual contracts per region. In the United Kingdom, the movie is available on Prime Video while in Australia and Canada the movie can only be found on VOD platforms currently.
As mentioned you can find Boseman in Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Da 5 Bloods and an often overlooked Netflix Original from 2016 called Message from the King.
How long the movie will remain on Netflix is unclear. Some Universal titles only remain on Netflix for a number of months so if you’re wanting to watch, get it on your watch list now.
Will you be checking out Get on Up which is now on Netflix US? Let us know in the comments.
