User Reviews

This is a very interesting story about the "Queen" of Rock 'n' Roll Little Richard Penniman. This movie stays true to the little I've researched. Actor turned director Robert Townsend gives us an intimate look at one of the founders of the music that changed the world. His abusive childhood to his bizarre beginnings in show business and his bowing out of an astounding career to preach the word of God. Then his energetic, but slightly noticed comeback. Thanks to Little Richard for "Lucille", "Long Tall Sally", "Tutti Fruitti" and his other hard, pulse pounding anthems. Leon is excellent in the starring role. Also of note in this biopic is Carl Lumbly, Tamala Jones, Anthony Griffith and Jonelle Kennedy. If you love Rock 'n' Roll and enjoy backing up your brain to its foundation you will enjoy LITTLE RICHARD.

It is fitting on a musical Sunday to get your heart a pumping, and no one can do that better than Little Richard. The man could sing the drawers off the ladies and defined rock and roll.

Look to Leon to provide a definitive characterization, as he has done so with David Ruffin in The Temptations and Jackie Wilson in Mr. Rock 'n' Roll: The Alan Freed Story.

This was a fascinating biopic as we saw Little Richard struggle with his father, with his church and with himself over just who he was. He won the battle and there is no one else that has his voice or his style.

It is always a nice suprise when a film made for TV turns out to be entertaining such as Little Richard. This is a very watchable film about the story of Rock and Roller ,Little Richard played by an actor called Leon who i have never seen before but does an very good job. As most TV films , this is a little tamer than if made for Cinema which is a shame because i am sure there is lot we could have seen about Little Richard that was controversial. Instead we see a lot religous rubbish which is the only thing that spoils the film and eventually spoilt a very promising career. All in all this film is good and the acting is above average fot a TV film. 7 out of 10.

This had to be one of Robert Townsends better, if not best, movie he'd ever directed. I never knew much about Little Richard's past and this movie does a very good job in explaining it. I say about as good as the Tina Turner story, What's Love Got to Do With it.

It's starts out with Richard's child hood, his infatuation with dressing up in his mother's clothes, his father giving him beatings and the influence of the church. The film later goes into Richard's first hit recording "Tutti Fruitti". Pat Boone later goes on to record this song and many other Little Richard songs and the white radio stations play Boone's instead of Richards. Of course, this isn't the whole plot of the movie, though, just part of it.

This movie is about as good as you can get when it comes to biography movies on Rock stars. It doesn't disappoint, not in my opinion. LEON does a very good job portraying Little Richard.

-BGR

I truly enjoyed the movie, however, I did not realize that Little Richard had so many things going on in his life. First of all I was not aware of Lucille. There is very little (hardly any) mention of females being intimately involved with Little Richard. Even in his life today there is no mention of any involvement of females in a romantic way. I wonder why this part of his life was not mentioned. Overall the movie was great. I also did not like Leon playing the part of Little Richard, he is a good actor but I feel that the part of should have went to a different actor. Visually he did not remind me of Little Richard. I also was totally unaware of the promiscuity that Little Richard was a part of. From the movie he was pictured as a sexual addict. In todays time he would be referred to counseling for his sexual addition. He was a voyeur. I don't want to ruin the movie for someone that has not seen the movie however there were several things about the movie that I feel should not have been a part of the final cut.

Good movie but not great. I watched and felt it could have been so much better. Leon does a reasonable job but not as good as his portrayal of David Ruffin in The Temptations TV movie, in which he was perfect. In this movie he just doesn't quite make it and seems to lack the charisma that Little Richard had. This is particularly evident in the songs where he doesn't capture the madness and brilliance of Little Richard's performances. Leon is also too tall and not skinny enough to be Little Richard. I agree that Miguel Núñez did a better job in 'why do fools fall in love', Prince would have been perfect, it's a shame that casting didn't happen.

That said the movie is watchable and shows the story of his rise to fame and his internal conflict between religion and Rock and Roll. The Pat Boone debacle was underplayed but captured the essence of racism in the music industry.

Richard himself had been talking about a movie of his life as far back as 1962; by '84 and the release of his first biography, by Englishman Chas White, it was a "go"! well....took about 14 years, and all the speculation about Michael Jackson or Prince as the Georgia Peach came to an end...Leon got the part..and he is excellent! Some wonderful scenes leading up to Richard's sudden (actually took about 4 years of flop recordings and Southern club dates) fame with the indescribable culture shocking TUTTI FRUTTI. Richard's parents are nicely portrayed; the doting MOm and the strict but eventually very supporting Dad.

The film's "timeline" is so distorted that deep fans might want to pause the DVD and consider donating it to the local Library - but they should hang in there. There is still plenty of engrossing material, especially when we hear "new" recordings > a recut of LR's TAKE MY HAND, PRECIOUS LORD and a tune called VEGETABLE MAN. Depressingly, the soundtrack, otherwise, uses original '50s tracks, one crazy cut, MONEY HONEY, from 1964, and some 1976 rerecordings.

One reviewer said that this picture needs a Part 2 and he is so right: we go from 1932 to 1962 and it's at that point that the most interesting time in his career starts: he endures a personal battle: does he come back from a rock and roll retirement (when he records nothing but Gospel) to please the loyal fans all around the world and presumably to recover a lot of lost bucks? I did not like the final scene at all.

but check it out for yourself. ask yourself if the most influential artist in rock deserved a better biopic?

Sure much of the music was lip-synched to actual old Little Richard music, but some clearly was not. So who was that singing the imitations? Whoever it was, was awesome! There is nothing whatsoever in the credits though. I'm particularly intrigued by the snippet of "Money Honey". The rock'n'roll bedlam depicted in this brief scene is wondrous. But it doesn't sound anything like Little Richard's 1960s recorded version. Who was playing and singing that in this movie?? I'd gladly go see that act any time! And, I agree with one of the other comments - it would be nice to see this great subject in a bigger budget, theater-oriented treatment (like, for example, "Ray"), with a more realistic and accurate depiction of the wild rock'n'roll life.

The Life and Time of Little Richard, as told by Little Richard, as produced and directed by Little Richard, was about as one sided as one of his songs. This is not a biography or even a docudrama, but does have good writing, great energy and an outstanding leading actor playing Richard. All the music is by Little Richard, so it rocks a tight lipsync on every song.

The movie covers his early childhood, carrys thru the formative years in music, the wild success and Richard's throwing it all away to praise the Lord. Its all tied together well and the obvious comeback in 1962 manages to stay away from the idea that Little Richard discovered the Beatles, whom opened for him.

My main objection is that his outrageous, counter cultural behavior is underplayed and you get no feel for how his audience experienced him at that time. Some of his energy, which he still has, does not come across full force. He seemed tame, compared to what I remember of him at the time.

The best scenes are Richard getting jilted by Lucille and writing a song about it and the strip to bikini shorts while performing, to make the point about not having a decent place to change.

If they had gotten into the "Bronze Liberace" as Richard use to refer to himself in interviews, then there's a story. Trust me I just saw him perform a couple of months ago and he still flirts with the pretty white boys, giving the one particularly good dancer in the audience, his headband. Nearly 68 and still going strong I recommend this movie and any concert or T.V. appearance you can find. Little Richard is always on

I know that the real story of Little Richard is a lot more thrilling than this maudlin and thoroughly average biopic. But then producer Little Richard was probably too reluctant to bring to light any sordid details of his life and just gave us a forgettable facsimile of his career highlights from the 50s and 60s.

Leon was fantastic as always, this time playing Little Richard in his early years. The movie showed a fully fleshed out Little Richard without neglecting to fill the show with lots of great music. My only complaint is that the ending was a little abrupt - I was hoping for a 2-parter!

This portrayal of Richard Penniman as a skirt-chasing dandy is completely the opposite of what I've seen of Little Richard all these years. Also, having friends in show biz who worked with and knew him well, this is a movie about somebody else! The only "hints" we get of his homosexuality are the knowing glances between Richard and his young singing mentor, who told him he needed to record. Yes, his behavior ranges from "regular guy" to "somewhat effeminate," but the character is inconsistent.

Good lip-syncing by Leon and nice acting from Jenifer Lewis, as his supportive mother. Other performances were stereotypical, but the story does give us a clear picture of how black stars were cheated by low-down record shysters and literally robbed by white artists like Pat Boone, Georgia Gibbs and Gale Storm.

As we can only expect, everything gets a little oversimplified. Little Richard's wavering between religion and rock 'n' roll was a lot longer and less resolved than we see here, his sexuality was more complex-- I should say "even" more complex-- and hey, Pat Boone was not a bad singer. He was entirely the wrong singer for Little Richard's music, and he's admitted it forthrightly more than once, but he wasn't the talentless dummy that's shown in this movie.

I've seen enough of both Little Richard in interviews and in performances and enough of poor Leon pigeonholed into these 50s/60s musical bio pics to know that Leon was not the right actor for this role. Leon was so right as David Ruffin in The Temptations, but fails utterly to capture the essence of Little Richard in this film.

Actor Miguel Núñez who played Little Richard in "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" was a much more suitable choice, having pulled off the musician's powerful but effeminate persona.

If the performances are unconvincing then the film will be as well. And this is what has happened here. Glossed over or missed entirely are LR's forays into homosexuality and voyeurism. What "The Temptations" did so well in capturing the rise of the group, warts and all, this film misses by a wide mark.

What is going on with director Robert Townsend who started off so well with "The Hollywood Shuffle"? He's a talented, funny guy but hasn't delivered anything near that first effort.

I really liked this movie, it was good, and the actors were brilliant! Leon Robinson, who played Richard, and many other classic singers, is very good at his job, when you see him in a musical movie, you know that it is going to be good! I would suggest that people watch this heart warming, sad, and special movie, if they want to know more about Richard! Outstanding! Fresh!

Actually they could not have chosen a better diversified actor to portray Little Richard than Leon. He captures Little Richard to a most believable essence. The outfits where wonderful and any person watching this movie will definitely keep a smile on their face through the entire movie. Although the movie is a little long, it keeps your attention with the personality and outfits of Little Richard in mind. The ending should have taken a direction of moving Little Richard more into the present where you could see him as he has aged into this new millennium. He will always be the King of Rock-N-Roll as far as I am concerned regardless of what the other media says.

Little Richard was another example of an innovative and talented African-American music artist. He was eccentric, strange, cool, and ahead of his time. "Little Richard" let us see the intriguing and mercurial character that was Richard Penniman (played by Leon). From his humble beginnings in Macon, Georgia, Little Richard was in some ways comparable to Ed Wood, except more talented. They both liked wearing women's clothing and they were both in the entertainment industry.

Little Richard was so long before my time that I knew very little about him. I still knew who he was because he was still doing movies and commercials into the 90's, but I had no idea how important he was to music and to rock and roll in particular. This was a rockin' film and I'm glad Robert Townsend was on the point for this movie.

Tressa's vocal performance was Outstanding!! Tressa played the female singer role, while Richard was in the club. When she first step out on stage, and started to riff and strut her stuff, it made my soul shake. Her voice is platinum. She needs to make a CD. She has more fans then she realizes. I loved her show stopping performance in the five heart beats, which she also starred with Leon when she was younger. How can a little girl have a voice so big. She is truly amazing.Good voice Good Good Good Good voice voice voice voice excellent voice fantastic voice , back shaking , tear crying , uplifting, take you back in the days voice. Tressa if you read this commit, please take my advice and start recording a CD. If not just for the love of singing, but for your fans. I believe you can truly make it. Look at these other one hit single studio singers, lol.

I thoroughly enjoyed this short biography of a greatly talented man. Being a massive Prince fan prompted me to watch this as Little Richard was a great inspiration for Prince.

The acting is good and the key elements of his career were well documented in this movie.

Mid 1990 it was my pleasure to see Little Richard and Chuck Barry at a hotel on the strip. Forgot hotel. I recently watch Little Richard doc 'I am everything ' and had to write something on this great man. He started his concert talking about his start up and trying to make it in the entertainment buz at a time not good to be a black man. Other artists stealing his song, pay was shifty , being gay etc. He made me wisp in tears. I didn't grow up with his music but it was my father music 50s. Little Richard talent at the age of 70 was outstanding. He never gave up, you can tell his soul was in his music. I felt for the man to this day, his music, his attitude, his honesty, his personality and how he spoke out for himself. He will always be in my heart and thank him for sharing his journey. RIP my man Little Richard.