Ray

Caught a private screening of this flick last night. 😁
So, I’m kicking off this thread, hoping we can stretch it out to at least four or five pages. First things first: the movie is killer. Jamie Foxx is absolutely legendary as Uncle Ray Charles. He’s so spot-on that you almost forget he’s acting and think Ray Charles is just playing Himself. 😁
I dig how they didn't try to make the biopic some perfect fairy tale. They show Ray as a total jerk who was busy hitting on all his backup singers while his wife was back home holding down the fort with the kids—yeah, he could be a real piece of work.
I already know the nitpickers and the high-brow snobs are going to have something to complain about, so let me beat them to the punch. 😁
It runs a little long, and a few characters don't get enough screen time (like Jeff, Ray's longtime sidekick).
Bottom line? It’s a feast for the eyes and ears. 👍

*I know, I know, cheesy cliché alert. 😁

Here’s my two cents on the movie... I finally sat down to watch it yesterday, and honestly, it didn't quite live up to the hype for me. On the bright side, the lead actor was incredible as Ray (which makes sense, since I read somewhere he was practicing blindfolded on set for up to 12 hours a day). My biggest gripes, though? First off, the runtime is just way too long. Second—and this was genuinely distracting—I don't think I've ever seen so many boom mics visible in a single production. It was amateurish, frankly. By the end, we weren't even watching the movie anymore; we were just staring at microphones hovering at the top of the frame. Talk about poor technical execution. But, if we're talking about the soundtrack? Pure bliss. I had "Hit the Road" stuck in my head for the rest of the night... 👏 ☕

electriclynx20 said:Seriously, I haven't seen this many boom mics in any movie before... It’s just lazy filmmaking. We weren't even watching the movie; we were just staring at microphones hovering at the top of the frame. Total amateur hour...

Man, what a mess. Someone pointed this out a while back... I don't know the technical specs, but the projector is supposed to be angled so you don't catch the gear in the shot. I watched the DVD version and the mics weren't even there. ☕

I honestly doubt this thread will even make it to page four because there’s zero debate here. You’ve got Ray carrying the whole thing, the soundtrack is solid, and the script actually holds up. Basically, everything just works exactly how it should (if I do have to 😁 )
I’m a sucker for these kinds of biopics about legendary icons—I feel like I pick up so much from them, plus I’m a total visual learner.
Seriously, go watch it.

Bringing this thread back to life... Just finally sat down to watch the movie. It's one of those films where you honestly can't call it bad. Jamie Foxx absolutely nailed the role of Ray... he was incredible. My only real gripe is that certain parts felt a bit dragged out, but that doesn't take away from the overall quality at all. That's about it.

Honestly, this was easily one of the absolute best movies I’ve seen in quite some time...
Jamie Foxx definitely earned that Oscar, he really did. 🙂
And those microphones... well, let's just say I was watching the screen in the theater and didn't catch a single one of them...

I honestly didn't care much for this movie. I wasn't a fan of how the director played around with the timeline, jumping back and forth between the present day and when Ray was just a kid...

As for Jamie Foxx, I’d give him an Oscar for Collateral long before I’d consider it for The Aviator. Let's be real here: Jamie did a great job imitating Ray, but there's a massive difference between a good imitation and actual acting...🙂

I didn't notice any microphones at all (not that I was looking for them in the theater)

The movie was just... meh.

Honestly, nothing about his performance as Ray really stood out to me. What actually blew me away was the actress playing Ray's mother. She was absolutely incredible—just top-tier talent.
As far as the soundtrack goes, "Ray" doesn't even become listenable for me until "Georgia on My Mind" kicks in.

I’m struggling to find the right way to describe this flick—maybe the best word would be naive.

This version of Ray just spends the whole time being charming, playing piano, singing, and that's basically it. I found the whole thing pretty uninteresting.

The Aviator was much better, though even that wasn't exactly a masterpiece. Nowhere near it.

I think Jamie Foxx might actually value an Oscar for his role in Collateral more than for playing Raya... Let's be honest: he did a brilliant job imitating Raya, but a great impression isn't quite the same thing as pure acting. 🙂 [/B]

Oh, please! Give me a break. Some people just try way too hard to sound smart.👎

Rebecca Bennett79 said:I didn't notice any microphones at all (at least not while I was watching).

The movie is garbage.

The guy playing Ray isn't anything special to me. Honestly, the actress playing Ray's mom is what actually blew me away. She was absolutely incredible.
By the way, "Ray" is only worth listening to from the "Georgie" track onwards.

I don't even know how to describe this movie—maybe "naive" is the best word for it.

This version of Ray just charms people, plays piano, sings, and that's it. It wasn't interesting at all.

The Aviator is way better, though even that isn't perfect. Far from it.

Give me a break,

Jamie Foxx is unbeatable in this role. You can tell by the million awards he picked up for Ray.

I thought the movie was great. Look, it has to be long because Ray Charles had a long, complex life, so there's plenty of material to work with.

The music is legit; I was tapping my foot the whole time I was watching. 😎

Betty Wright64 said:It’s easily one of the best movies I’ve seen lately.
Jamie Foxx definitely earned that Oscar. 🙂
And those microphones... honestly, I was watching in the theater and didn't spot a single one.

Same here.🙂

Zachary Gomez9 said:Jamie Foxx is untouchable in this movie. You can tell just by looking at the massive amount of awards he picked up for The Aviator.

Just because someone wins an award for a role doesn't mean the performance was actually good... 🙂 Awards lost their luster a long time ago (if they ever really had it), especially when it comes to an Oscar...

Yeah, just look at The Aviator ☕

@ redowl90 --yeah, honestly, an Oscar nomination is my cue to skip a movie. Whenever I see someone sweep a mountain of Oscars, my first thought is usually that there’s something fundamentally wrong with the film itself.

@Zachary Gomez9/">@@Zachary Gomez9 :
As for Ray---like I said, the movie was just meh. It was mediocre with a spectacularly underwhelming ending. There were moments where I was just bored out of my mind watching it. The lead actor was so incredibly grating—he could easily land in my top 10 most unlikable actors of all time. The relationships between the characters felt shallow and totally naive.
What really bugs me is how Jamie Foxx played Ray--he basically "stripped" Ray down to his public persona. Sure, he nailed the public face, but I just can't buy that this "public" Ray is the same guy as the "private" Ray. To me, it feels like everything Jamie did was just a surface-level performance. When you watch a biopic, I expect it to dig into those deeper, hidden layers of the protagonist's character that aren't immediately obvious...

The direction? A total disaster. It felt like they took one ridiculously long Ray concert, changed his outfit a couple of times, swapped locations, and sprinkled in some superficial, shallow snapshots from his life. And they call that an autobiographical film?🙄

The absolute peak of the film's naivety is the ending--the guy has been shooting up since he could walk, and suddenly, in a dream, he reconciles with his dead brother and mother, and they tell him: "Don't ever let us down, Ray," they all share a big hug, and then—poof—it's over: "...and Ray never used drugs again." Yeah, right.🙄 and they all lived happily ever after.

So yeah... I think it's just a mediocre, forgettable movie that doesn't deserve half the hype it got.

And regarding Ray vs. The Aviator, I still think The Aviator—which is easily Scorsese's worst film, even compared to stuff about New York gangs—is still a hundred times better than Ray, which is probably the best film that specific guy has ever had made about him, regardless of the director.

For me, the great musical biopic from '98 is "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" That movie is fun, breezy, and actually engaging, unlike Ray--and frankly, I find it hard to believe that one-hit wonder Frankie Lymon had a more interesting life than the real Ray Charles.

p.s. As for the music in the film... well, obviously it's going to be great when it's the original Ray tracks. If this were a movie with a brilliantly curated soundtrack (like Pulp Fiction, for example), I'd say something else. But since this is a movie *about* Ray, it feels a bit silly to point out the music as a special "plus" of the film... if you know what I mean, because it's not like some specialized team was brought in to record a custom score for it.

I’ve always been a sucker for biopics, so I’m glad I finally sat down for this one since I was pretty much in the dark about his life... It felt kind of jarring seeing him portrayed as this drug-addicted guy who was cheating on his wife and all that... But man, I have to hand it to Fox, he played the part so intensely that for a second there, I actually thought I was watching Ray Charles himself!