The original 1976 movie starred Philip Michael Thomas, Irene Cara and Lonette McKee but Whitney Houston and Jordin Sparks are bringing a modern hint of glamour to Sparkle. KellyĬurtis Mayfield, Kier Lehman, André DeJuan. Watch online Sparkle movie in Full HD/DVD/ipod/divX All Qualities are Here It is written by Mara Brock Akil, Howard Rosenman. It is produced by Debra Martin Chase, TD Jakes, Curtis Wallace, Salim Akil, Mara Brock Akil. Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and including in HeldenFiles Online, He is also on Twitter (as and Facebook.“Sparkle” is new drama movie 2012. And there are those Mayfield songs.īut this still feels less like a sustained movie than an excuse to release a new soundtrack. The new film does try to make its characters stronger, especially in the way it handles Satin’s abuse of Sister. The earlier Sparkle is far from trouble-free, after all. Luke is attractive and earnest, and not asked to be much more even a song that was a Stix-Sparkle duet in the first film (where Philip Michael Thomas played Stix) includes him for a few notes, then turns it over to Sparks.īut even as I poke at the shortcomings in the new film, I wanted to like it. While Ejogo makes an admirable effort, I still prefer McKee’s transcendent earlier performance. Houston is good, especially in a Sunday dinner scene where everyone - including Michael Beach, as the family pastor - is on game but her acting never reaches the level of her singing.Įpps is very effective in his smiling villainy. Sparks’ acting is a work in progress, although she does sell a scene late in the movie where Sparkle describes all the songs she has written. Kelly song with flying metaphors, but it gives her a chance to tear up the stage and remind people of why she won American Idol. Still, Sparks closes the movie’s story with One Wing, yet another R. The old songs hold up, although I am not convinced the performances will make me forget any of the earlier renditions. Those flaws play out, as does a romance between Stix and Sparkle, in between musical numbers, most of them drawing on the classic Curtis Mayfield songs from the 1976 movie. But Sister, who has had some rough times, wants more money than Levi can muster and soon enough is drawn to Satin, only to find that his money glosses over some serious flaws. Stix wants to manage the group his cousin Levi (Omari Hardwick) wants to date Sister. Indeed, the opening of the movie has her demonstrating how to show up an established club singer played by CeeLo Green. Sparkle is really the driving force in the group, writing its songs, but Sister is the centerpiece onstage, more than willing to bring the sexy to get attention. The film focuses on a trio of sister singers - Sparkle, Sister and Dolores (Tika Sumpter). (The script is by Mara Brock Akil, who did better work on the TV series Girlfriends. While the earlier Sparkle had its share of screen problems, the new film is also messy, with odd shifts in tone, clumsy insertions of period music (Cannonball Adderley, Sly and the Family Stone, Aretha Franklin), and a plot that might be even more implausible than the original. Indeed, considering Houston’s own untimely demise, some moviegoers may wince when Emma asks her daughters, “Was my life not enough of a cautionary tale for you?” (The splendid Dreamgirls it is not.) It’s a familiar tale, whether the one this movie sets in 1968 or more recent real-life agonies. Getting that sparkle has its price, and some characters end up paying heavily in this glossy, erratically paced and shot film. And the new film, even more than the older one, features main characters who have at some point wanted that kind of sparkle, whether it’s Sparks and Ejogo’s characters, or the comedian Satin (Mike Epps) or the manager Stix (Derek Luke) - or the women’s mother, Emma, a failed performer played by Whitney Houston in her last film role. But that’s somewhat misleading, since the main dramatic force comes not from Sparkle, but her older sister, known mainly as Sister, rendered with unforgettable force by Lonette McKee in the previous film and with more deliberate sexiness by Carmen Ejogo in the 2012 remake.īut Sparkle also indicates the bright lights of a stage, the glitter of the gems that reward success. One is that it is the name of the character in the movie: an aspiring singer played by Irene Cara in the 1976 original and by Jordin Sparks in the new version. Sparkle is a title that can be taken two ways.
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