Search - Glitter on DVD

Chad B. (abrnt1) from CABERY, IL
Reviewed on 4/10/2010...

some of the worst acting I've ever seen. Awful film that's a complete and utter waste of time. Mariah Carey's performance is horrid, the film is very very boring and fails to be at all entertaining.

2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Uh, Mariah? Don't quit your day job, okay?

New World Smurf | Richmond, Virginia | 09/23/2001

(1 out of 5 stars)

"There's a standard joke about movie trailers that nonetheless rings true--if the narrator solemnly begins, "In a world ..." the movie is going to be lousy. When I first saw the trailer for Mariah Carey's "Glitter" and heard those fateful words, the knell of doom sounded in my mind. Still, when someone offered me a free ticket for a sneak preview I could not resist. If nothing else, it would be good for a few laughs, I thought.But no. "Glitter" takes itself deadly seriously, as does Mariah, and that turns what could have been a so-bad-it's-funny film into 100 minutes of tedium and eye-rolling.The plot, as it usually is for recording artists' vanity vehicles, is simple--Mariah plays Billie Frank, a poor kid from the other side of the tracks (alcoholic mother, absent father, blah, blah, blah) who ascends to divahood with the help of her dj/producer (Max Beesley), who then grows jealous of her success. Anyone who has seen "A Star Is Born" (or "One Trick Pony" for that matter) will know exactly how the film turns out. It roughly follows the path of Mariah's own success, complete with mean Tommy Mottola and Brenda K. Starr clones (FYI, Mariah got a start singing backup for Brenda).What makes the film ultimately ludicrous is that it is purported to take place in the mid-eighties, but the look, slang and fashions are straight outta "TRL," since these days the majority of Mariah's fans weren't even born when Reagan was president. Why this particular time frame was chosen is a mystery. Anyone over the age of 25 who sees this film will have a great deal of fun marveling at what we were supposedly wearing and listening to back then (dreadlocks? rapping? In 1983 we were wearing color-coordinated flouncy miniskirt sets and listening to Duran Duran in the clubs!). And Billie's supposedly self-penned 1983 hit, "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On," was a Robert Palmer song--that came out in 1985! Videos, with the exception of Michael Jackson, were still pretty much straight performance shots, but nope, there Mariah is in a dreamy dance sequence clad in a silver bikini.This movie misses on so many levels it's amazing. At the sneak preview I attended, there were two girls, around 14 or so, sitting in front of my friend and I. Rabid Mariah fans both, they were bouncing around excitedly when the movie began. By the end, they were sitting in as much of a daze as the rest of the audience. As we filed out, one of them said, "I still love Mariah, but that movie was really bad."Out of the mouths of babes ..."

Near-crap

Steven Swain | Rocky Mount, VA USA | 04/22/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

"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!)..."

A retread on very familiar territory leaves a lot to be desi

Cryptic Critic "Kevin" | Central Florida, United States | 07/18/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"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."