Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 30, 1991 TAG: 9103300335
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But it's an exuberant melodrama, full of energy and motion and ambition.
Townsend made the low-budget satire on the movie business's treatment of black performers, "Hollywood Shuffle." Here, he's co-writer, director and one of the performers in a good, ensemble cast.
Though the film is uneven - veering from inappropriately broad humor to the maudlin - it's almost always entertaining. It captures the looks and sounds of the 1960s and '70s when most of it takes place and it's packed full of characters and activity.
The story focuses on a vocal group that rises from amateur nights at talent shows to the top of the pop field.
It begins with Donald "Duck" Matthews looking at a where-are-they-now issue of Rolling Stone. The picture of Duck's old group on the cover triggers 25 years of memories.
`Duck" was the writer and creative force of the group. Eddie (Michael Wright) was the lead singer and the member who succumbed to drugs and booze. J.T. (Leon) is Duck's brother and the most dedicated womanizer of the group. Dresser (Harry J. Lenox) was the stolid member. And Choirboy (Tico Wells) was the preacher's son who opted for a life in the limelight instead of the pulpit.
Chuck Patterson plays the steadfast manager who takes the group to the top and Hawthorne James the intimidating record company owner whose greed lets him stop at nothing. This is not an all-male movie, but it's male dominated: Townsend and co-writer Keenan Ivory Wayans haven't given the actresses much to work with though they serve as catalysts for some of the melodramatic plot turns.
Diahann Carroll may have the largest female role as the manager's wife and she plays it rather stiffly.
But the actors who play the Heartbeats tackle their roles with vigor and personality. They manage to cut through some of the predictability and ultimately engage the audience. The Motown-like music, the authentic look of the period and the Five Heartbeats themselves are hard to resist.
"The Five Heartbeats": 1/2 A Twentieth Century-Fox picture at Salem Valley 8 (389-0444) and Valley View Mall 6 (362-8219). Rated R for language, violence and sexual content; 130 minutes.
by CNB