I doubt even with another leading lady at the helm, “Glitter” could have risen above abysmal and become remotely watchable. It’s such a cliché and monotonous by the book tale of instant fame, that it barely deserved to be made in to a film. Writers Kate Lanier and John Wilder don’t give any new material or bring anything fresh to the table story-wise, yet simply dole out mindless cliché after cliché relentlessly. Mariah Carey’s woefully misguided “Glitter” is the story of Billie Frank and how as a young child she was left in an orphanage by her drug addicted mother. She and two other orphans form a friendship and a bond and Billie makes an oath that someday she’ll grow up and make it into a huge singing star.
Tag Archives: Drama
Rock Star (2001)
Chris ‘Izzy’ Pole is a hardcore fan of a famous rock band named “Steel Dragon” and passionately sings the lead for a tribute band called “Blood Pollution”. One day he gets a call from the agent of “Steel Dragon” to come an audition for the band as the lead singer and he’s ecstatic. When he passes the audition he gains instant fame but soon learns it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. One major fault of this is the incredibly watered down and cliché plotline. I’ve seen these plot devices and characters in a lot of other and better rock biographical movies before.
Joe Somebody (2001)
Joe Scheffer is an honest workaday man who loves his daughter. One day while driving to work with his daughter Natalie he gets harshly humiliated by a bigger man in the parking lot. After feeling embarrassed, he decides to prove himself to his daughter and begins taking karate lessons with a washed up action star Chuck Scarett to seek revenge on the bully. But after a while, he begins to wonder if fighting is the best way to solve the problem and if being a man means fighting or just being an honest man to the people that matter in life. Comedies, family comedies especially are very lame if not predictable nowadays, so it was a treat watching an original one like this.
Deuces Wild (2002)
As sleek and visual as this movie is, it’s not one of the best gangster movies I’ve seen; It’s possibly the worst. We get a nonsensical, clichéd movie with a contrived plot and go-nowhere characters. First off, the cast, though big, is pretty useless. We have a paper thin love story between Renfro and Balk that is very reminiscent of “Romeo & Juliet” yet comes off as forced and seems too much like a plot device.
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Betty Elms is a wide – eyed optimistic actress who arrives in Los Angeles looking for stardom on the big screen. She manages to stay at her famous actress aunt’s house and discovers a beautiful woman (The gorgeous Laura Elena Harring) who was in a car accident after an attempted murder. Together, the two will form a bond and attempt to unravel her identity, but… is everything in this tale as it seems, or is it simply a facade for the real story at hand? I must admit, upon first viewing I was ready to mercilessly bash this film left and right like a punching bag, but then I realized that this movie has not only left an impression on me but I’ve had so much fun trying to solve this confusing enigma of a tale that I’ve grown rather fond of it. I really like this film.
Crossroads (2002)
Ah, those summer times when you and your friends went across country with a stranger to get a record deal in L.A. Anyway, In pop music star Britney Spears’ debut performance, she plays shy girl Lucy who graduated from high school and one night decides to take up a pact her and her ex-best friends made up when they were toddlers. That night, all three girls in ruins take up on their pact and one of them decides to go across country on a road trip to land a record deal in a contest from a record company.
Joy Ride (2001)
Two very very stupid characters dive head first into a barrage of ridiculous moves that ultimately get them in deep. That’s the difference between this and “Duel”. In “Duel”, the main character is an innocent man being torment, throughout this movie, the main characters ask for it. The reason why Paul Walker’s character doesn’t deck Steve Zahn’s character is beyond me. This is somewhat reminiscent of Spielberg’s “Duel”, though the two don’t compare. You never get to see the driver “Rusty Nail” much. I thought it increased the tension of the movie and made him very mysterious.