![]() ![]() ![]() Comparably fine performances are also turned in by a charmingly boyish pre-"Miami Vice" Philip Michael Thomas as the group's patient, gentlemanly manager, Dorian Harewood as McKee's venal, aggressively amorous hound dog boyfriend, and perennial blaxploitation baddie Tony ("Hell Up in Harlem," "Bucktown") King as a dangerously seductive, smooth operating, stone cold nasty gangster. Irene Cara, Lonette McKee, and Dwan Smith are sensationally sexy, vibrant and appealing leads - and great singers to boot. All the obvious pratfalls of instant wealth and success - egos run destructively amok, drugs, corruption, fighting to retain your integrity, and so on - are predictably paraded forth, but luckily the uniformly excellent work evident in the film's other departments almost completely cancels out Schumacher's flat, uninspired plotting. The story, loosely based on the real life exploits of the Supremes, prosaically documents the arduous rags-to-riches climb of three bright-eyed, impoverished black teenage girl singers who desperately yearn to escape their ratty, unrewarding ghetto plight and make it big in the razzle-dazzle world of commercial R&B music. ![]() Reviewed by Woodyanders 8 / 10 A very warm & engaging, but clichéd rags-to-riches showbiz filmĪ remarkable example of cinematic alchemy at work, with a trite'n'turgid lump of lead script (penned by numbingly mediocre Hollywood hack nonpareil Jole Schumacher, no less) being magically converted into a choice chunk of exquisitely gleaming 24-carat musical drama gold thanks to brisk direction, fresh, engaging performances, spot-on production values, a flavorsome recreation of 50's era New York, an infectiously effervescent roll-with-the-punches tone, and a truly wondrous rhythm and blues score by the great Curtis Mayfield. So it's in her memory I dedicate this review. Houston as the mother, my heart broke when I realized she wouldn't live to see the result which will be released this August. When I read the obits of Whitney Houston yesterday and found out about her involvement in an upcoming remake with Jordin Sparks as the title character and Ms. The drama was maybe a little too quick the way they were presented but overall, I very much liked Sparkle. It was also a nice treat to see Don Bexley-best known to me and others as Bubba on "Sandford and Son"-as one of the M.C.'s. The presentations of the performances are very good especially when Ms. The original songs are by Curtis Mayfield who was from Chicago of which I'm also a native of. Philip Michael Thomas also appears as Stix who's originally one of two male members of the group before becoming the groups' manager later on. It's about a trio of Harlem sisters consisting of Lonette McKee (Sister), Dwan Smith (Dolores), and Irene Cara (Sparkle). Reviewed by tavm 7 / 10 Sparkle is quite a charming musical drama about three sisters forming a groupĪfter several years of reading about this musical film, I finally watched Sparkle on Netflix Streaming. ![]()
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