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intereact!Director: Taylor Hackford
Actors: Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, Regina King, Clifton Powell, and Harry J. Lennix
Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Retail Price (not our price): $19.98
Release Date: 2005-02-01
Theatrical Release Date: 2004-10-29
Studio: Universal Studios
Run Time: 153 minutes
Format: Array
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Discs: 1
Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
1) Amazon.com
Jamie Foxx's uncannily accurate performance isn't the only good thing about Ray. Riding high on a wave of Oscar buzz, Foxx proved himself worthy of all the hype by portraying blind R&B legend Ray Charles in a warts-and-all performance that Charles approved shortly before his death in June 2004. Despite a few dramatic embellishments of actual incidents (such as the suggestion that the accidental drowning of Charles's younger brother caused all the inner demons that Charles would battle into adulthood), the film does a remarkable job of summarizing Charles's strengths as a musical innovator and his weaknesses as a philandering heroin addict who recorded some of his best songs while flying high as a kite. Foxx seems to be channeling Charles himself, and as he did with the life of Ritchie Valens in La Bamba, director Taylor Hackford gets most of the period details absolutely right as he chronicles Ray's rise from "chitlin circuit" performer in the early '50s to his much-deserved elevation to legendary status as one of the all-time great musicians. Foxx expertly lip-syncs to Ray Charles' classic recordings, but you could swear he's the real deal in a film that honors Ray Charles without sanitizing his once-messy life. --Jeff ShannonMore on Ray CharlesModern Sounds in Country and Western Music (CD)The Genius of Ray Charles (CD)Ray Charles and Betty Carter--Dedicated to You (CD)Genius & Soul--The 50th Anniversary Collection (CD)Ray: A Tribute to the Movie, the Music, and the Man (book)More Albums by Ray Charles
Customer Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5
1) Resonated in Every Scene [Rating: 5 out of 5]
I heard that Ray was a great production, but I thought it wasn't my kind of movie. However, actually seeing the DVD changed my mind. The story of Ray Charles Robinson is a personal account of a man's life as a creative artist, haunted by a childhood incident, and bolstered by the spirit of Ray's mother's efforts to help him stand on his own feet. Ray's struggle for independence plays in his music and relationships, as the man tries to free himself from conventions, imitation of others work, and from his own wrong turns. Foxx was brilliant as Ray Charles, and the production was convincing throughout. The story resonated in every scene, showing the ultimate triumph of the human spirit.2) Ray [Rating: 5 out of 5]
It's Ray this movie is one of the all time great with this special edition which you can't find anywhere, once I knew they had it on DVD I hurried up and purchased it, it a great deal what more can I say I would buy from him anytime!!!3) One brilliant musician. [Rating: 4 out of 5]
This 2004 movie is about the life and career of Ray Charles, the blind musician. Ray was not born blind, but became blind at 6 after having glaucoma. We are shown that Ray got his strength from his mother who never babied him and made him do things on his own. Ray's struggle through life was hard--fighting off people who ripped him off, and a long time heroin addiction. Ray was also, himself a ruthless businessman at times. Ray Charles marries his "B" and they were together for many years, despite his many affairs. I am not a big fan of his music, but this film held me. It truly is a great movie! It shows that no matter how handicapped one is, you can do what you dream of as long as you believe in yourselve.The performance of Jamie Fox is excellent! He truly showed how good an actor he can be. They movie was a little long (a little over 3 hours), hence the 4 stars, not 5--- I was getting a little impatient. Overall a must see film!4) Very uplifting [Rating: 5 out of 5]
Really good. Jamie Foxx comes into his own here. Very enjoyable. Definetely deserved the oscar it got.5) Its keen eye for detail makes for a wonderful movie experience... [Rating: 4 out of 5]
A lot of love circulates around Jamie Foxx's Oscar winning performance here, and yes he did do a wonderful imitation of the real thing, but to me `Ray' has a lot more deserving areas to give consideration and appreciation. For one, the set designs are brilliant, the lighting and mood of just about every scene is fantastic and the musical numbers, while all actual recordings, are choreographed in such a way that you could swear Foxx did all his own singing. Case in point, there is a scene where Ray is singing in a club and in the recording some of the first words out of his mouth are mumbled and so to make it authentic Jamie knocks the microphone off balance for a moment. It's the little touches like that one that make this movie authentic, accurate and worth while.I did enjoy Foxx, so don't get me wrong, but I did feel that his work in `Collateral' was more deserving of the praise. The main problem I have with Foxx's performance is that he invests so much time and energy into getting Ray down that he forgets to infuse enough of himself into the performance to make Jamie the actor stand out aside from Ray the character. But, with that little jab of criticism I will admit that he's a force on screen and demands you pay attention.That said, to me the real star of this film is the man behind the camera, Taylor Hackford. His acute eye for detail is fantastic here, and is a huge step up from his previous work. Technically `Ray' is far from my favorite biopic, even in the year of the biopic it falls short of perfection and or utter brilliance, but when `Ray' hits its mark it hits it with such beautiful depth and clarity that it makes up for its minor shortcomings. Did it deserve a `Best Picture' Oscar nomination? Not really, but I'm not going to whine about that too much.Another aspect of the film that shines like a diamond among pearls is the impressive female supporting cast, all of which deserved any and all recognition and praise for they all were essential in not only developing the man that was Ray into a full blown character study but they were also pertinent in making `Ray' the film a film entertaining and relatable from beginning to end. Kerry Washington, an actress I've just fallen in love with over the years, gives such a brutally honest performance as Charles wife, the woman who stands by her man and supports him despite his addictions to drugs and loose women. Regina King gives probably the most explosive performance of the bunch as Margie, one of Ray's backup singers and his obsessive secret lover. Her brilliance on screen is matched only by her spunk and heart and it's a true pleasure to watch her chew each and every scene she encounters. Sharon Warren also does a splendid job as Ray's mother and is sure to stand out as a remembered favorite.The life of Ray Charles was a hard one, full of deceit, drugs, women and pressure. He was abused, taken advantage of and used and on the other side he abused, took advantage of and used others in the process, but the true story of Ray Charles is a story about overcoming our weaknesses and growing into the person we knew we had in us all along, the person who has been dying to come out but just needed to opportunity. My one big disappointment with this film is that it never truly shows us the recovery Ray made. We see his struggles, his problems and his faults. We see him finally realize he needs help but we never see him truly change, we just read about it in a montage of newspaper clippings that litter the final frames of the film. It's a small quaral I know, but it's one I'm not ready to let go of. If the ending had only added as much depth as the beginning and middle had then maybe this would have been a more deserving film to me, but in the end, even with my issue included, `Ray' is still a wonderful biopic, one that I'm happy to have seen and will most definitely see again.