One Night in Miami...

I love the story of the thought of four influential people during the civil Rights movement getting together and discussing the movement at the time.unfortunately it's still very relatable to the current times that we're in and makes you question how far the movement for a quality of people of color has really com? This film couldn't have come out at a better time. Great directorial debut for Regina King.

I went into this film with high hopes, and maybe it was because of that fact I didn't enjoy myself, or simply the fact that the film was not what I expected it to be, but One Night in Miami is unfortunately a dull dud from Regina King and nothing more than another play made into a film that we simply did not need. What frustrates me most about this film is that there is many little things about it that could have been great. I get what the film was trying to do. It's very talky, but still, it could have provided a clear and important conversation on the importance of racial equality among the other things it grazes upon- but sadly, the script is too muttled to focus on a single idea, and too distracted by its four characters to do anything significant with them. 4 Legends ahead of their time, people who not only stood up for racial equality in a trying time, but helped lead a revolution through it all- and yet, we simply sit here watching them in a plain hotel room, with little to nothing going on. It's not even just a missed opportunity, it's a dull experience in general. There is very little to keep your focus during this movie, and little to be learned after it. Are its values important? Of course, but sadly so many films have handled the ideas it tries to place so much better, and sadly, One Night in Miami is just a forgetful film experience. My Rating: 4.5/10

You don't know how sad I am to be saying this, but I'm giving Regina King's "One Night in Miami" 5 stars only because of Leslie Odom Jr's portrayal of Sam Cooke. He put this mediocre film on his back and carried it to the end. Odom's performance is a testament that true talent can take a weak script, trite dialogue and co-stars who've made their portrayals of historical figures laughable, and make lemonade. His portrayal of Sam Cooke is what made me stay until the end. At the conclusion of the film when he sang "A Change is Gonna Come", that made it worth drudging through this boring, choppy, amateurish film. I knew I was in trouble when I realized the trailer was probably going to be better than the entire film, and I was right. I have no idea why One Night in Miami is getting so much praise because critics have savaged much better films for their technical flaws. I wanted to like One Night in Miami and was looking forward to watching it, but it started off a bit confusing and in every scene, I felt there was a lot missing that should have been there to tie it all together. If this was supposed to be an atmospheric character study of Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke, Jim Brown and Malcolm X, and the dynamics of their friendship and how it culminates in the directions their decisions take them in life, it fails miserably. Kingsley Bin-Adir spent the entire run of the film mumbling his dialogue and spewing some of the most non-Malcolm X nonsense I've ever heard. Malcolm X was a bold, unafraid outspoken warrior for his truth and Black people, I don't think he would be sitting in a hotel room looking downtrodden, tearing up and feeling sorry for himself. And the scene where his home was fire-bombed, and he, his wife and children were running out of their enflamed home, is straight out of Spike Lee's Malcolm X, only Lee shot it much better. Eli Goree's turn as Ali looked as if he was performing it on Saturday Night Live. He brought no realism or depth to Ali. It was an achingly bad performance. Once again, a prior portrayal was done much better as in Will Smith's Ali. Aldis Hodge's Jim Brown portrayal, consisted of an entire performance that was a series of dull monotone mumblings of banal dialogue and nondescript frozen "looks". There were puzzling camera angles, shots and lighting where the POV's weren't really telling the story nor were they showing any raw emotion. I applaud Regina King for taking this film on, but it definitely shows that this is her first foray into directing a feature film . It's not an extraordinarily bad film, but it is not a tour de force in filmmaking either. It's really just a meh film with good intentions.

What works on a theatre stage, doesn't necessarily work on the big screen. 'One Night in Miami' is proof of it. It might have been a good idea to write a stage play about what could have happened during the night in february 1964, when Malcolm X, Cassius Clay, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown spent an evening in a motel room. But it wasn't a good idea to adapt that play into a movie. The result is predictable: four men talking in a room. What they talk about is interesting: music, politics, race relations, and how they interact. They discuss, they tease each other, they exchange insults, they almost fight, they drink (except for Malcolm X), they laugh now and then (not very often). But that's not enough for a good movie. The film needs a story with a beginning and an end, it lacks action and suspense, the characters are built around their place in the history books, not as if they were real human beings. The conversations are not smooth and natural, but feel contrived and artificial. The whole thing has the feel of a history lesson. To give the movie a more cinematic feel, scenes have been added before and after the meeting in the motel room. They are meant to put some perspective on the discussions in the room. But they make things even worse. They feel like add-ons, and some of them are hammering in a message about race relations that's already very clear.

I don't know if it's because I've held the characters on such a high pedestal, but this movie is NOT engaging, and it's almost insulting to have these actors play these men. Keeping in mind that probably no man can do justice for playing any one of these men (let alone all of them), I continued watching, because I'm not gonna hate them for trying. I'm lying. Sam is the only character/actor who looks like he's got any actual life experience in his eyes. The rest of them just look like college students pretending "they've experienced it ALL". Simple explanation: half the time it felt like there was no "forth wall". Maybe it's the directing of the movie, but it really felt like I was watching them film the movie (in the room while the actors where reading their lines). Again, the acting's not that bad, they just don't feel like they have any actual life experience.

I thought all four guys were really well cast, especially Sam Cooke and Ali. I'm watching and realize this has to be a play (confirmed in the credits). It takes place in basically one location (a hotel room). So for such a movie you have to have spectacular dialog and I thought it lagged in places. Some of the dialog was contrived, just little things to get people riled up and argue or whatever. Might have been better if it was shorter. And there are great little scenes here and there. But yeah, the four actors were all really great and I like Regina King in general so good for her. She'll get a lot of directing work.

I'm mystified by the numerous favorable reviews this movie received because it was horrendous. I'm a relative of Rosa Parks so no one can claim racism but this picture combined cast (& director) of dubious talent and a story line that didn't hold my attention for more than 15 minutes at a time w/o my needing a break from the maddeningly dull content. Furthermore, considering the #MeToo era having empowered females to speak out about mysogynistic men, how is it that the nortorious sexual predator in real life, Jim Brown, came to be one of the four main characters in this film. It would seem there are hundreds of thousands of more worthy African-American men to be profiled than Brown (or didn't the screenplay receive any kind of vetting?) The undeserving high marks other reviews give this film leads me to believe that there is an Affirmative Action-like handicapping scale for this film's reviews.

In terms of cinematography and performances this is an incredible (perfectly edited) movie. Despite what people say about two hours of men talking to each other, it was quite refreshing seeing black men in different social positions during the civil rights movement. Can't wait to see more of Regina King's work.

Was really looking forward to this movie, four of the most noteable black men of modern American history in a room, I thought this was going to be reviting, but the movie is not as riveting I was hoping. Firstly great directorial effort by Regina. I felt the movie was not focused, there was aspects of serious dialogue exploring every mans view of their America and how each one in their way tried to fight the battle against a racist time, but in between the serious points there was alot of loose talk that removed the seriousness of the overall story. Conclusion, good acting by all, weak story.