What's Love Got To Do With It?

But the real reason I watch the movie over and over (especially when I'm trying to get motivated to work out) are the musical numbers. They include among others "A Fool in Love", "Rock me Baby" a great montage to "Make me Over", but the centerpiece of the film has got to be the perfect recreation, right down to the choreography, of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue's "Proud Mary". It is full of so much energy and rocks so much that your jaw will just hang open in amazement when Tina and the Ikettes start going into their dance moves. I never get tired of watching that scene (almost as good as the real thing). I'm still trying to figure out how they kept their wigs on when they were whipping their upper bodies back and forth, they danced so hard. Oh, and the costumes (especially on the Ikettes and the "Proud Mary" fringe dress) and period detail are not only accurate but To Die For. I can't recommend this movie enough. She should have got the Academy Award, not just the Golden Globe, and the movie should have got the Oscar for best picture of 1993.


A TRIUMPHANT STORY OF A REAL LIFE SURVIVOR....   September 10, 2001
Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle)
16 out of 16 found this review helpful

This is an incredible, highly energized film about the life of rock and roll diva, Tina Turner, and her stormy relationship with her controlling and physically abusive husband, Ike Turner. Award calibre performances are turned in by Angela Bassett, as Tina, and Laurence Fishburne, as Ike. They are both absolutely riveting.

Ms. Bassett plays Tina with all the earthy charm and sexual magnetism of the real life Tina Turner. Laurence Fishburne gives an amazingly effective performance as Ike, at once both repellent and charismatic. The movie focuses on their relationship, one which sowed the seeds for the Tina Turner we know today.

What started out as a match made in heaven, quickly soured as Tina naturally took the lead musically in their Ike and Tina Turner Revue. When it became clear that Tina was the one for which the fans were clamoring, Ike did not take lightly to being second banana, and their relationship became one of domestic discord and abuse, with Ike easing into the role of abusive husband with relative ease.

When Tina finally had had enough, she divorced Ike, taking nothing from the marriage except her children and her show business name, the name she earned. From there, she went on to rebuild her life and career, becoming the world reknowned rock and roll diva she is today. Ike, a substance abuser, ended up in prison for narcotics possession and fell into relative obscurity, little more than a footnote in rock and roll history.

This is a film well worth watching, with great performances and great music. Look for the live stage performance by the real life Tina Turner at the end of the film. That alone is worth the price of this video.


Intense and Extremely Well Performed   June 5, 2002
Gary F. Taylor (Biloxi, MS USA)
16 out of 17 found this review helpful

Celebrity bio-pics are very hit or miss, but once in a great while a really good one comes along--and WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT is one of them. Based on the autobiography of Tina Turner, the film offers a glossy but intense portrait of her rapid rise to stardom under the sponsorship of husband-manager Ike Turner--a relationship that quickly turned dark and became increasingly abusive as Tina's fame began to outstrip Ike's own.

Although the film is a bit on the obvious side, it is well-crafted and the two leads offer powerhouse performances. Angela Bassett is simply astonishing as Tina Turner; where most other actresses might have simply imitated, Bassett accomplishes the impossible: she makes you believe that she is Tina Turner, capturing both Tina's famous on-stage performing style (the concert scenes are really exciting) and giving a completely believable interpretation of her off-stage personality as well. The script offers Laurence Fishburne little more than a one-dimensional role, but he plays it brilliantly from start to finish, and both are well supported by the overall cast.

There is certainly a great deal more to the lives of both Ike and Tina Turner than this film conveys--but what it does show it presents with considerable power and conviction, and by the time Tina finally hits back at Ike you'll be roaring for her to hit him again--and again--and again--and eager to see her finally triumph entirely on her own. Recommended.


Legend of Our Time   July 9, 2000
Rachel Gedeon (Broadview Hts., OH United States)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

I never really listened to Tina Turner except on the radio but one day I decided to watch What's Love Got To Do With It and I was absolutly blown away. The power and feeling Angela Bassett put into her character as Tina Turner was so convincing I actually started to believe it was the true superstar, not just an actress. Laurence Fishburne is an incrediable actor and he did a wonderful job portraying Ike Turner, to the point where I wanted to reach inside the television screen and hurt him as much as he was hurting Tina. He was so good being bad I can't believe he never won an Oscar for this incrediable role. I would recommend this movie to anyone who is a big Tina Turner fan or anyone who just want's to watch a very powerful and emotional film, full of extremly talented actors and actresses. May God always be with Tina Turner after the Hell on Earth she went through, thanks to Ike Turner.


This movie was entertaining.........NOT   July 6, 2002
E. D. Daniels (tampa, florida United States)
7 out of 32 found this review helpful

...Read the book first, then watch the movie, then look at [Tina's] present life. this movie was hysterically entertaining, I laughed through half the scenes the fight scenes were as almost as good as the Rocky series. Fisburne and Bassett were great in their roles and acted their faces off.But the movie played up themes that were lies at best slander toward Ike Turner. Tina was no innocent in that marriage, she had a kid from the drummer in his band that the movie ignores and so many lies to play off the fact that he was more abusive than he actually was making him the second coming of Ted Bundy than a fully fleshed person, add to the fact she has only seen him twice in the past 30 years and the scene with the gun at the end and playing her off as a loving mother to her sons when she all but abandoned them to Ike and moved to Europe and got over and became a multi- millionare and married her white saviour. Black folks who gave this movie a five - star review ,Tina is no longer the black female icon you admire but a liar a person who played on your pity, like O.J. Simpson she is no longer black but colorless and she has said that in many interviews to that effect. And most of you are gonna think i approve of domestic violence but I DO NOT, but read the book first, look at her behaviour the last 30 years towards her black audience and judge for yourselves.