YMMV / What's Love Got to Do with It (1993)

• Award Snub: Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne were nominated for Academy Awards, but lost out to two equally high-level contenders. Bassett had the very bad luck of going up against Holly Hunter in The Piano, while Fishburne lost to Tom Hanks in Philadelphia. Not helping matters is that The Piano was also up for Best Picture.
• Catharsis Factor: Regardless of how factual it is to the real Ike, the film's Ike is enough of a nightmarish bastard that the limousine scene where Tina finally snaps and beats his ass down while he howls in agony is immensely satisfying.^note When the movie was in theaters, audience members were known to cheer at that part. The remaining final act is Tina separating and dressing down each of his attempts to regain intimidation over her, rendering him ineffectual.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Laurence Fishburne and Jenifer Lewis play a divorced couple in Blackish.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Eat the cake, Anna Mae!" became referenced in movies and songs after this film.
  • A screenshot of Ike glaring at Tina has also become popular.
  • "You tryna help Ike?" also gets quoted a lot.
• Narm: Many of the scenes of Ike abusing Tina end up being unintentionally hilarious (at least until the beatings and rapes happen) due Ike's over-the-top behavior. The fact that many of these scenes are either exaggerations of what really happened or outright fabrications only exacerbates the Narm.
  • When Tina overdoses, and Ike accompanies her to the hospital, he says "If you don't make it, I--I'll kill you. Hear me? Hear me, bitch? If you don't make it, I'll kill you." His facial expressions don't help matters.
  • Also, when Ike attacks Jackie in the restaurant for defending Tina after attacking her for splashing water on him after forcing cake in her face, you can clearly hear two variations of a Stock Scream from the restaurant patrons. Not to mention that the whole cake argument leading up to it is ridiculous, and right after Jackie leaves the restaurant, Ike is back to commenting on the cake as if nothing happened. It's just too hilarious to take seriously.
  • When Ike threatens Tina with a gun at her big concert in the finale, his demeanor gets undermined with him telling her (while tapping on his temple), "You can't get away from me, Ann: I'M IN HEAH!!!" No wonder David Alan Grier ran away with his portrayals of Turner.
• Never Live It Down:
  • Laurence Fishburne allegedly got mean looks from women for a long time following his portrayal as tall order Domestic Abuser Ike Turner. The Matrix saved him a little face, but it wouldn't be surprising if this was why he mostly does voiceover work now.
  • To say nothing of the real Ike Turner, who accused the film of exaggerating his violent history and destroying his career. Even the reports of his death made evident he would likely be remembered more as Tina Turner's abusive ex-husband than for his own music career (the New York Post's hilariously blue obituary was titled "Ike Beats Tina To Death").
• Retroactive Recognition: Richard T. Jones portrays the adult Ike Jr.
• Tear Jerker:
  • When a young Anna Mae returns home, she finds her parents fighting and screaming with her grandmother and they leave her. Saddened, a young Anna Mae asks her grandmother when is her mother coming back for her. "She took Alline and not me. How could she? When is she coming back to get me?"
  • When Lorraine shows up unexpectedly and drops off her two sons with Ike for him to raise, they have a fight and the two children are sad. Luckily, Tina takes them in and cheers them up.
  • The scene of Ike's sons and Tina's sons crying, frightened from witnessing Ike's abuse of Tina in the hallway.
  • When Tina runs away to another motel bloodied and bruised, she asks if she could have a room for the night and lacking her wallet, proceeds to take off her jewelry. Only for the desk clerk to kindly refuse the jewelry and give her a room anyway.

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