Emmanuelle Chriqui Movie:

		List Price: $39.95		Label: Sony Pictures Salesrank: 16750 Released: March 10, 2009
		Our Price: $16.97
		Used Price: $11.10
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
Cadillac Records chronicles the rise of Leonard Chess' (Adrien Brody) Chess Records and its recording artists including Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), Little Walter (Columbus Short), Chuck Berry (Mos Def), Willie Dixon (Cedric The Entertainer) and the great Etta James (Beyonce Knowles). In this tale of sex, violence, race and rock and roll in Chicago of the 1950s and 60s, the film follows the exciting but turbulent lives of some of America's greatest musical legends.

Description of Cadillac Records [Blu-ray]:
An energized and passionate, if selective, telling of the story of Chess Records, Cadillac Records is a worthy entry in the niche genre of movies about rock and roll roots. Adrien Brody plays Leonard Chess, who started Chess Records in Chicago in 1947 and turned the label into an important force for blues, rhythm and blues, gospel and, in time, early rock and roll. Cadillac Records focuses on Chess' relationship with his first significant artist, Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), and the label's rise and expansion with the addition of such talents as Little Walter (Columbus Short), Willie Dixon (Cedric the Entertainer), Howlin' Wolf (Eamonn Walker), Chuck Berry (Mos Def) and Etta James (Beyonce Knowles). Written and directed by Darnell Martin, Cadillac Records captures the scrappy beginnings of an enterprise, and a sound, inventing itself as it goes along. Particularly fun are scenes set in clubs or at Chess' recording facility, where electrified blues never stop pushing the envelope of creative possibility. All the while, danger lurks in shadows or in rivalries between artists; also in the self-destructive streaks of Walter and James, and the sexual fetishes of Berry. But the drama largely centers on the potent connections between all these people, who don't always know where their contribution to a cultural phenomenon is going. One of the film's delights is the way Chess and Waters don't really see rock coming until Berry steps through the door, fusing country music with blues. The film skips over a lot of facts: there's no sign of Leonard Chess' brother, Phil, who co-owned the company, nor is there much hint of Chess' expansion into a lot of other areas of music. None of that is any big deal. But what Cadillac Records is missing is more of a unifying point of view. The story is told as a recollection by Willie Dixon, but in a scattershot way that doesn't tell us who Leonard Chess or Waters really are. Aside from that, the film is well worth seeing. --Tom Keogh

Stills from Cadillac Records (click for larger image)

Cadillac Records [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Spinning Blues Into Gold!
2009-12-04 - CADILLAC RECORDS(2008)---Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Gabrielle Union, Cedric The Entertainer, Beyonce Knowles, Columbus Short, Emmanuel Chriqui, Eamonn Walker.
A film that tells the story of the legendary blues record label, Chess/Checker Records. As with most films of this kind, there is some blending of "artistic license" and the historical facts. However, as a devoted "blues freak", whose first album purchase was by a Chess/Checker artist, I found that, for the most part, the story is told with a great deal of factual accuracy and a minimum of "dramatic enhancement". The label was started by Leonard Chess(nee,Czyz) and his brother Phil, two immigrant Polish Jews. The unifying theme of the film is the relationship that developed between Leonard and Muddy Waters(aka, McKinley Morganfield). Leonard owned a bar called the Macomba Lounge on Chicago's South Side that catered predominantly to blacks and featured black musicians. As a result of owning the nightclub, Leonard began to realize that the real money was to be made by recording the artists who played the blues music that his customers came to hear. From the insurance money he got as a result of an "unfortunate" fire that burned down the Macomba, Chess started his record label. Chess became the home of a virtual, "Who's Who", of Chicago blues artists, many of whom had migrated north from the cotton fields of their native south. By "plugging in" and amplifying the blues music they had brought with them, they effected a revolution in the genre. In addition to Muddy Waters, who was perhaps the single most important figure in that revolution, artists who recorded for Chess included: Etta James; Howlin' Wolf(aka, Chester Burnett); Little Walter Jacobs, who was one of the first to amplify his blues harmonica playing, and is generally regarded as the greatest blues harpist ever; Bo Diddley(aka, Ellas McDaniel); and, the Father of Rock & Roll Guitar, Chuck Berry. In addition to these performers, Chess was blessed by having on board a gentleman by the name of Willie Dixon, who was the "house bass player" and, much more importantly, wrote the bulk of the songs recorded by Waters, Wolf, Jacobs, et. al.---his list of writing credits is simply stunning---and far too lengthy to list here. Suffice it to say that the bulk of what became the basic "blues canon" was written by two men: Willie Dixon and Robert Johnson. The time frame of the story is compressed, but the story is told accurately and it doesn't gloss over some of the uglier aspects of the story. It is well-known that Chess took a "paternalistic" approach to his artists---he "took care of them", doling out money whenever they needed to pay the rent or buy a home or needed bail money to get out of jail. He also was in the habit of buying his artists a new Cadillac when they had a #1 record, hence the title of the film. But, he also cheated many of them when it came to paying the artist's royalties they were entitled to, and the film depicts that aspect of the "Chess story" candidly. With the rise of rock & roll, and the so-called "British Invasion" of the 60's, Chess was eventually forced to sell the label and died of a heart attack shortly thereafter, which is where the film ends. Some of the Chess artists experienced "career revivals" when the British blues musicians who worshiped them, and grew up listening to their records, brought them to Europe to tour and hired them to open their shows in the U.S. The various actors portraying the principals all give effective, convincing portrayals. Adrien Brody is quite good as Chess, and Jeffrey Wright and Beyonce Knowles are particularly good as Muddy Waters and Etta James, respectively. The only real criticisms I have of the film are: 1)Instead of using the actual recordings of the various artists, the actors portraying them do the singing and, while they all do a credible job, given their historical importance, I think it would have been better to have them "lip-synch" the original recordings; and 2)no mention whatsoever is made of Bo Diddley, who was one of the seminal figures of early rock&roll---he also wrote many songs that became "blues standards", e.g., "Who Do You Love"; "Mona"; "I'm a Man"; etc. This seemed to me an incredible omission. But, those cavils aside, this is a "must-see" film for any fan of the blues or for anyone who might like to know more about the genre and the performers who put "the blues" on the musical map.


Cadillac Records
2009-11-22 - This is a very dark, I suspect, realistic story of the very early days of a part of the music business. The prejudice the African American artist had to fight, the struggle to be taken into the record fold.
It was a very difficult life they led, leading to drugs, violence, etc, the language is rough,...BUT, it is very interesting, and the music is amazing. Beonce is a perfect Etta James, maybe even better than Etta herself !!!

Never got the dvd
2009-11-21 - I never got the dvd. The company said they would refund my money - haven't had a chance to see if that's been done.

Never would have known
2009-10-24 - I've read the many of the reviews written before this one and I understand that there are many knowledgeable people when it comes to the inaccuracies of this movie. However, the criticisms are made on the acknowledgements of the facts and not on the bases of how well the actors portrayed their characters or how well the director directed this movie. Every documentary/biography is not going to always be completely factual because let's face it, these movies are made in Hollywood. I am a big fan of r&b music and its history. This movie was more than just entertaining to me. After seeing it, it made me want to go out and learn more about each individual person's journey from his/her beginning to his/her end. I never would have known about a Little Walter or a Muddy Waters had it not been for "Cadillac Records." I am a twenty-something year old woman and there are not too many people my age who were even interested in seeing this movie. It's sad that a movie this good and actors like Columbus Short, Jeffrey Wright, and Beyonce' Knowles did not receive the accolades they were due. I hope that in the near future there will be individual movies about Little Walter, Etta James, Chuck Berry, and all the other musicians in the movie because even though this movie was great, I truly believe that their lives were better than any fiction.

Cliches Overwhelm Story
2009-10-22 - The people behind "Cadillac Records" had a great idea - a film about the founding and growth of Chess records is fertile ground indeed. The home of some of the greatest music ever made, most of which was made at a fascinating time in American history by a series of African-American musicians who had escaped the South while working for the son of Polish Jews....

There's a lot of material here. Unfortunately, the film tries to jam all of it in. The first half of the movie is carried along by the music (some of which is horribly lip synched by the way), but when the tone of "Cadillac Records" changes, the melodrama piles up in a way that is utterly unconvincing.

It would have been far better for the film makers to focus on one of Chess' stars and their relationship with BOTH Chess brothers. Instead, we get a series of cliched and entirely predictable scenes involving historical figures. Look - there's Muddy Waters giving Little Walter his first taste of whiskey (shades of "The Dewey Cox Story"). Look, there's Howlin' Wolf in his battered pick up truck. Oh dear, Chuck Berry's music just integrated a concert by getting those white and black kids to dance together.

And don't even get me started on the overwrought scenes with Beyonce as Etta James.

By trying to cram everything in the movie, the film makers drained all of the emotion from the story. By the time Little Walter dies in Muddy Waters' wife's arms, I was tempted to turn away. But the music was so good, I figured I'd stick it out to the end of the movie.

Sadly, "Cadillac Records" piles up so many cliches that it ultimately becomes meaningless.