The Bobby DeBarge Story

That headline "Wasted Potential" not only suits Bobby Debarge, but also the people in charge of directing & writing the script for this movie. This movie was a mess from beginning to end. It starts off with him dying & then goes to pretty much his last show with Switch. We never see the struggles of why he left home, the group forming & him developing a drug addiction we're just put into it. I believe the biggest mistake was making it about only Bobby & trying to stretch an essentially one hit wonder into a two hour movie. It can be done like the Frankie Lymon story "Why Do Fools Fall In Love", but in order for that to happen you need talented writers which this movie didn't seem to have. In the end a lot of scenes seem to drag on only to kill time & what is there is pretty dull & boring. The characters they selected for roles such as Bobby, Berry Gordy, Janet, LaToya & Jermaine Jackson were laughable & honestly didn't fit the roles they were trying to portray. If you've ever seen the TVOne Unsung story for DeBarge then you've seen a better version of this movie. Because all they did was touch on that, but never fully tell the stories. In the end you never feel like you went on a proper journey to learn this person due to bad writing & story telling.

The acting was terrible. Even the continuity in this film was all off. The actual Bobby DeBarge story is a sad and beautiful story, But this film makes it look like a joke. My four star rating was being very generous.

The Positive: I am glad that some Black actors had the opportunity to work

The Negative: (1) hideous wigs (they have a life of their own); (2) a disjointed story with more holes than a piece of swiss cheese; (3) Poor editing...the story was all over the place (4) Poor script -- I don't think the actors had much of a story to work with.

I was a huge Switch fan in the 1970s. After I watched the movie, I was left asking "What did I just watch"? May Mr. DeBarge rest in peace, because he didn't seem to have any during his life.

Bobby my love, you deserve so much better than this! I pray you get it one day. This was not it. I'm all for our people getting work, God bless the actors. The story should have least been a mini series. And don't even get me started on those wigs, the fake looking wigs which I noticed a lot of people commented on, took away from the realness of the story. It was like people were playing dress-up and having an awful costume party and they didn't even tell not even 25% of what Bobby went through and shared only 10% of what his talent was.... and so many things in the movie was actually proven false so that also was a disappointment. For those who knew Bobby personally and his struggles, a lot of scenes more disappointing because it wasn't what happened, so we're not even looking at a real biography here, just something somebody threw together. And again Bobby DeBarge deserved better then this.

If you're from that era (70s-80s) I believe you'll like the movie more for your memories of the DeBarge's (Bobby, Switch, El,...) will carry you through. I watched the entire movie in almost one sitting, which means it kept my interest. And yes some of the actors weren't Oscar Worthy:) and though the clothing, hair, and vehicles too were accurate those wigs looked like OUR actual hair back then AFTER you awoke after an allnight bender:) And I must have forgotten James (DeBarge) went full BarKays with his hair back then:)

The poster(s) that suggested this should've been done similar to NE (Temptations too) is right on the $$s. But I bet they couldn't because it'd priced it out of production (music rights alone:)) but clearly that's why this movie came up short.

And another reason they may not have ventured into more time/detail, they'd had problems keeping it PG13. The trials and tribulations of Bobby and his family are downright biblical and not in a good way. The books and TV bios cover it in all its horrid detail, ironically very entertaining, just not pleasant.

Summary, IF you're of that time and/or a fan of Switch, DeBarge,..worth checking out Bobby's Story.