Chadwick Boseman must be one happy actor. He's gotten his second role of a lifetime - becoming James Brown in "Get On Up," after playing Jackie Robinson in "42." Those legends couldn't be further apart in temperament and character. Brown could be a wild man, a live wire on stage and off. Boseman sparks with star power as Brown, finding every quirk and angle in this complicated person. He really captures Brown's in-concert charisma and energy. Screenwriters Jez and John Henry Butterworth try to cover a lot of territory - Brown's whole life, pretty much, without honing in on any particular aspect. Not only that, but their script then jumps around in time. The result feels more jumbled than it needs to. I wished more time was given to two characters, if only because the actors are so winning: Nelsan Ellis, warm and wonderful as Brown's best friend and band mate, whom Brown takes for granted; and Jill Scott, feisty as one of Brown's wives. Director Tate Taylor brings in some of the very fine actors he directed in "The Help," too, giving small but rich roles to Viola Davis, as the mother who abandons Brown as a child, and Octavia Spencer, as the madam who takes him in.

- KRISTINA DORSEY