Beverly J. Ortiz

I was absolutely enthralled. From beginning to finish, I was captured. I felt like I was holding my breath…I had to physically remind myself to shake it off! I had witnessed the movie with Whoopie, Oprah and Danny and I had EXPERIENCED the broadway play with Cynthia, Heather and Danielle…but the cinematic beauty of this one simply took my breath away. If I would critique any one thing, that would be the sound…the astounding depth and soul of the actors portrayals just did not match their musical performances at all. Their songs seemed swallowed up. TAMALA AND FANTASIA? Two of the biggest, boldest voices of our time and I had trouble hearing them for the loudness of the music??? Sadly I think the sound person hit and missed…when Tasia fumbled ‘I’m Here’…let me tell you, it wasn’t because of her vocal dexterity…there was just no OOMPH! No REVERB…no depth…no soul! But I could be wrong. It’s just my opinion. I know I’m prejudiced since NOTHING COMPARES TO CYNTHIA…not even my lovely jHUD! But something something, something something just wasn’t right… But I cried. I winced. I jumped. I danced. I sang. Mister pissed me off AGAIN. I loved this version and I will be purchasing the DVD for posterity. It was beautifully done, and wonderfully portrayed but child I was kinda left wanting more….wait…Ms. Winfrey, was that the plan????

You can not expect the former. I suspect it’s gonna be better when watched years from now but right now it seems to have tried too hard to be funny. I wish they’d left the obvious on the cutting room floor. Wesley was wasted acting like a caricature. They all were. They missed the opportunity to use Lavelle and the aging makeup was horrific. I couldn’t stand the way they looked, spoiled my appetite other than that I THOROUGHLY enjoyed every cameo and thoroughly missed Samuel L...Adding Wesley and Morgan to the cast was brilliant. Adding the black comic and black music royalty was beautiful but I hate not hearing from them more. ANYHOW....put it in your watchlist. It’s beautifully shot. Although a little washed out compared to the lavishness of the former. I love my people though. And ANYTHING Wesley does is alright with me♥️ AND KIKI LOOKS AMAZINGLY LIKE GRANDMA MARGE 😍 oh... and the most endearing highlight comes at the end when John Legend BEAUTIFULLY sings “She’s Your Queen”!

I could not enjoy my girl in BLACKFACE, cussin up a storm and and walkin like she had gas.