Soul Men Review

Samuel L Jackson and Bernie Mac star in this road movie/rockumentary/buddy comedy. Louis and Floyd were backing singers in a legendary 70s soul group, The Real Deal, but fell on hard times after lead singer Marcus Hooks (played by John Legend) went solo. Thirty years later, Floyd is stuck in a retirement home and Louis is living in poverty after a spell in jail. When news of Hooks’ death reaches the pair, they are cajoled into travelling across America to perform at their former band mate’s memorial concert. Things, however, do not go smoothly, as estranged daughters, aging groupies and their own acrimonious relationship threaten to derail the whole venture.

It is unfortunate that the film is overshadowed by the deaths of Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes (who has a small part as himself), who both passed away within weeks of filming. A sweet tribute to Mac plays out over the credits, which is in stark contrast to the otherwise frenzied tone of the film. Apparently, the film was re-cut following the deaths to allow for a softening of its tone, which is surprising – the film is relentlessly rude from start to finish, with enough f-bombs launched to level a small country.

The film is ultimately something of a mixed bag. There are several funny one liners, the ‘archive’ footage of the band in its heyday is amusing and Samuel L Jackson remains an actor I’d be happy to watch in anything. The music is also not too bad (there was a quite clever moment in which a soul song was given a rendition with country and western instrumentation) and Mac is also reasonably charming. In spite of this, though, the film is wholly unoriginal, rather scattershot in its approach and uncomfortably offhand towards women. There was also a sequence featuring domestic violence, which, while commendably punishing a wrongdoer, sat uncomfortably with the more adolescent humour throughout the rest of the film.

Soul Men is a rather rough diamond then; or a highly polished turd. Given the inconsistencies in tone, it would have been interesting to see how the original cut played out, one hopes it may see the light of day yet, if only out of curiosity.