Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B (2014) Reviews

• This movie sucks

  shenise-122014-11-16

  If I could give this movie a zero star rating, I would. First of all, I assume the absence of her greatest hits was attributed to the fact that they failed to obtain the music rights, hence why they used music from soundtracks. Second of all, the acting... all around was pitiful. I have never seen a biographical movie done in such poor taste. I feel for the family. They didn't want the movie produced in the first place and then this is the best that lifetime could do in honour of her life? I found the movie to be so bad that it was actually disrespectful. There was very little thought put into the movie. I found out that Wendy Williams was one of the producers which I suppose makes sense... The movie was just about as great as her show. I respect Zendaya for stepping away from the role and in all honestly, she dodged a bullet. This movie did no favours for any of the actors in there. There was no real character development, everyone seemed to just be dropped in there for the mere purpose of name dropping, but there was no real need for their existence in the movie. Poor, poor, poor. I apologize to the family on behalf of everyone involved in this crap-storm catastrophe "movie". And by movie, I mean a bunch of random clips lumped together into about 85 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Don't waste your time on this one.

• What The "H" Was This?

  kimone-smith072014-11-16

  I did not like this movie very much. First of all, none of the actors in this movie looked like the real people, in some instances, Alexandra Shipp almost looked like Aaliyah, but I still believe that Lifetime could have chosen a better actress for such a role. Don't even get me started about the guy they presumed as R. Kelly, not only did he looked too thick, the man looked like he was tired and he looked NOTHING like the King of R&B! Then you've got this tall brown pretty boy wannabe gangster look-a-like that they chose for Damon Dash, PLEASE! Your network needs to fire the casting director of this movie. This movie was poorly done and I believe it was rushed. They did not even portrayed the relationship that Aaliyah had with with DMX which was much more of a value than what she had with Damon Dash. Honestly Lifetime, if you could not have handled a story as Aaliyah's better than this, I think you should NOT have taken up the responsibility of doing a movie like this for the Princess of R&B! This was an UTTER insult!

• Oh, No. Just Oh, No

  the_remixer082014-11-16

  It is rare, and I mean rare that I give a negative critique all the way through even through bad productions. I normally give even bad productions the benefit of the doubt. As a matter of fact, I have never even given a bad production a low scale like this. For the first time in HISTORY I have rated a movie a 1. Drumline 2 wasn't even this bad compared to this film. This was so, so disrespectful to Aaliya's legacy, and I'm just hoping and praying that Missy and Timbaland, whenever they feel they want to, will do this movie justice the way it is supposed to be done. The fact that they weren't even apart of this production, and the parents even said no to the production, why would you even waste your time writing and producing this garbage!? Not only that, you didn't even have the rights to put any of her best hits in the film, which is a HUGE part of Aaliya's story. If you're going to tell a story, tell it right. Don't tell it based on an unauthorized book and Wikpedia. The actors didn't even come close to matching the original people, and even though Ship was only the slightest exception, she did not do Aaliyah justice at all. It didn't seem like she even studied on how Aaliyah, spoke, how she moved or anything. The timeline of the story was even off, and most of the movie felt rushed. I feel really bad for those actors. They will never be able to live this one down because of someone's poor decision of greed and a buck. I'm just so upset. It's bad if Timbaland is even making a mockery out of you because you didn't listen in the first place to leave this story alone! smh....

• Massive Fail!

  laneeset2014-11-16

  Why make a movie about Aaliyah and not do it right. The actress portraying Aaliyah has a singing style that sounds like "pop" while Aaliyah's style is way more Hip/Hop-R&B. The actor portraying R. Kelly looks nothing like him, not even close, and it really bothers when these movies are made about blacks that greater care is not made to find the right actors to more accurately represent the people being portrayed. This production is a massive fail. Aaliyah was a fabulous singer and dancer, how could Lifetime attempt to make a movie about her life and exclude her hits and not include more dancing and singing in it? Her greatest hits are not even in this movie. How can this be? It gets 2 stars simply for attempting to pay homage to the late songbird who deserves so much better than this.

• I am very upset.

  Youshouldntsaythat2014-11-16

  I have never watched a movie about a musician's life that did not feature any hit songs that helped to make them popular. Did the director and writer think that Aaliyah's fans was going to over look this massive flaw? Well, I didn't. And to top it off, none of the characters looked like the people they were meant to portray. Really, you used a skinny woman to play Missy Elliot? Although the girl was pretty who played Aaliyah, someone else that favored her more should have played the role. I couldn't get past the small details that were missing. Sometimes it's the small things that can make a big difference. Also, they made this movie without Aaliyah's family blessings, and I believe this one of the major reasons this film is such a big disappointment. I am so upset. Please, someone remake this movie for the sake of her memory.