Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
near-crap, April 21, 2003
It's kind of ironic that "The Bodyguard" was a box-office hit while "Glitter" was a box-office bomb. Whitney Houston's acting was even more wooden than Mariah Carey's, and comparatively, the story was less believable. And the music in "Bodyguard" was worse."Glitter's" story is actually pretty good, if a bit tired. Mariah Carey plays Billie Frank, a beautiful young woman who faces down hard times and despair to become a national singing success in mid-1980's New York. The camera work and pacing is actually pretty good; the movie doesn't drag along excessively. Great performances by Da Brat (who knew!) and Tia Texada as Billie's backup singers and girlfriends keep it real, and Max Beesley puts in a decent performance as Billie's manager / love interest, Dice. The biggest problem with "Glitter," I think, is that it's Mariah Carey in a starring role. She's trying hard, to be sure, but she's not leading lady material. I think that people love to hate her because of her bigger than life marketing and those sappy songs. That would be a good reason, I guess. (Note to Jennifer Lopez: BEWARE!). It's hard to believe that she could take herself seriously although if you compare what she's made musically to what Elton John or Cher has turned out in the past ten or so years, she's a little less campy by comparison. There are some funny parts in "Glitter", especially the video shoot and the time she thinks she found her estranged mother and it turns out to be a junkie, but it's sappy and a little contrived and yet strangely earnest. The Muppets probably would done this a little better (Miss Piggy as Billie Frank! Awesome!)...
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly for some, "Glitter" absolutely Glitters!, January 18, 2002
The movie was never released to cinemas in my country and even being the huge Mariah Carey fan that I am, after reading all the horrible reviews that it got - I was beginning to think that acting shouldn't be Mariah's forte. .. WRONG!!! Just because the media had a field day about it doesn't mean the movie was that bad. In fact, the opposite is correct, the movie was wonderful and Carey is anything but bad in it. The idea of having the 80s theme and the soundtrack to go along with it turned out to be fantastic. The songs, the club scenes, the clothes - they all contribute to having the movie look just as if it was done in the 80s. True, the plot wasn't based on a Stephen King story. But it is so much better than half of the summer movies I've seen in the past couple of years. Mariah is a singer and she excels in playing one (Billie Frank). The rest of the crew did a great job as well. Da Brat & Tia Texada (Playing Billie's childhood friends) mostly helped the funny part of the film, Max Beesley (as Billie's love interest) - the romantic/dramatic part and even gorgeous Eric Benet with a cameo appearance did a fairly nice job. All in all, the movie is short, fun and even has a surprising ending! The music that goes along with it is an extremely big part of it and I feel bad for the reporters who dislike Carey's music and for that chose to dismiss the whole movie. I suggest you give "Glitter" a try and ignore the joke that was made out of it, because it is honestly much better. One last advice, Don't back down Mariah, you have what it takes!
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A retread on very familiar territory leaves a lot to be desired., July 17, 2003
I saw this movie about two months after it was first released. I went to a theatre where admission was only $2.00. Lucky considering all the bad reviews I had read. It proved to be as bad as one could expect. It was just a [bad] movie, plain and simple. It was very reminiscent of its more successful predecessors such as "The Rose," "A Star Is Born" and "Mahogany" to name a few. All the positive reviews are no doubt from Mariah's legions of fans (to whom she affectionately refers to as "lambs." Sheep is more like it). Here's a quick rundown of the "plot" for those of you who have yet to see it (don't bother): As a little girl, Mariah's character Billie Frank (said to be tribute to two of Mariah's real-life idols Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra) is turned over to child welfare after her alcoholic and/or drug addicted mother (it never really is specified) nearly gets both of them killed in a house fire. Flash forward about fifteen years later to 1983 where Billie, and her friends since childhood, Louise (Da Brat, who does a wonderful job here as the comedy relief) and Roxanne (Tia Texada) get an offer to sing back up for an attractive, albeit tone-deaf singer named Sylk. It is at Sylk's lyp synched performance to a track featuring Billie's voice that Billie and company meet a DJ named Julian "Dice" Black (Max Beesely, in the only other stand-out role in the film). He sweet talks Billie into letting him produce her. Within a matter of weeks, she with record deal in hand, ends up getting him in the sack. The rest is pretty predictable. Stardom eventually leads to lost friendships, lost love relationships and death. This film (I'm sorry to even admit it) had the potential to be an okay movie. There were certain points where the movie tries to be poignant and touching i.e. like when Billie finds out that Dice has been murdered or when she is finally reunited with her long-lost mother. The sad, but all too obvious fact is Mairah's stiff wooden-like acting and inability to emote onscreen doesn't allow the aforemntioned scenes to have the impact they were intended to. It is also further proof that Mariah should have stuck to singing and that the filmmakers could have casted a more convincing leading lady. The box office failure had little to with the release date. It could have been released in theatres six months prior to September 11th and it, no doubt, would have still earned the same acidic reception and scathing reviews, if not more so. An interesting side note about "Glitter" is the same screenplay writer also wrote the script to the far superior Oscar-nominated Tina Turner biopic "What's Love Got To Do With It." Imagine that.
All in all, the movie was only about a star and a half. It was an overused, poorly constructed formula that seemed to very much be a direct rip off of the three aformentioned films. One review I had read beforehand had described this movie as "The Mariah Carey Vanity Project" and that's EXACTLY what it was. Like it or not, not every entertainer who tries their hand at acting is good at it. In my opinion, the only good singers-turned-actors are: Cher, Bette Midler, Janet Jackson, Aaliyah (R.I.P.), DMX, Busta Rhymes and, even though I hate to admit it, Diana Ross. If you're looking for a great story, then rent "Postcards From the Edge." Its star Meryl Streep is living proof that just because you are good in one realm of the entertainment biz, doesn't mean you automatically HAVE to do the other.
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