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88Energetic, colorful and packed with strong performances and musical numbers good enough to get by, Sparkle beams brightly.
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Aug 18, 201280Sister is the one you remember; like the film, she's mesmerizing because of her flaws as well as her charms.
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75Sparkle isn't blindingly original but it delivers solid entertainment, and despite the clichés I was never for a moment bored.
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75Sparks' strengths include not just a powerful voice but also a radiant niceness, and that becomes part of the story.
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75Sparkle is a solid entertainment with a winning debut by Jordin Sparks in the title role.
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75Most of the stuff that's new in the new Sparkle, written by Mara Brock Akil (who is married to the director), is shrewd and cleverly considered. The stuff that's old is what people responded to back in '76.
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70The look, styles, dialogue and attitudes all feel more 21st century than 1968, but this new Sparkle still sparkles more brightly than its 1976 namesake, which was a sort of rough draft for Dreamgirls.
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Aug 16, 201270Sparkle is pure melodrama, but it's a high-powered, well-acted, entertaining melodrama. You may not always believe it, but you won't be bored.
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67Sparkle may wind up as Ejogo's breakthrough but will forever be remembered as Houston's swan song, and a glimpse of what her next life chapter might have been. What a talent. What a waste.
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67Sparkle is never more than an overheated mediocrity. The one thing it isn't, however, is dull.
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63While Sparkle doesn't give the audience a lasting memory of Houston's voice at its most soaring, it does manage to provide a lingering sense of loss, mixed with celebration and grim irony.
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63Shines brightest during its musical numbers.
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63It's a better movie than what's inspired it, but that fails to explain much. It's like preferring the line at the concession stand to the one for the bathroom.
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60The shadow of Whitney Houston's stardom and crushing recent death hang heavy over this midrange movie that promises its female audience at least three good cries during its somewhat overlong run time.
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60Sparkle, while occasionally silly in a way that made a preview audience titter, is decent entertainment.
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60A strong cast, empathetic direction and memorable soundtrack help create a movie that does everyone proud.
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50Sparks, an acting novice, falters when her character must muster gumption or sexual heat. She saves her best for last in a barnburner singing performance, but it's too little, too late – especially with the memory of Houston's one song – a heart-stopping gospel number – still ringing in the ears.
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Aug 18, 201250These numbers, frankly, display a professionalism and confidence that most of the rest of the movie can't match. And yes, that's the bad news.
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50The only time Sparkle evidences energy is during the song performances, of which there are too few. The half-baked melodrama provides an unappealing and overlong buffer between them that fails to justify the nearly two-hour running time.
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50For a movie called Sparkle, the absolutely least interesting or central thing about it is Sparkle (and Sparks), although the "Idol" singer does bust out one impressive performance.
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50The film spends so little time developing its characters, apart from all that expository dialogue, that it's like asking audiences to care for paper dolls. And Sparkle never delivers on the promise of its most famous song by giving viewers something they can feel.
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50In many ways Sparkle is a bumpy ride. The editing is haphazard, the cinematography too dark, and there are holes in the story. If the new songs on the soundtrack are effective Motown pastiches, most of them pale beside their prototypes. But diluted Motown is better than none.
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50The forebear's underwritten melodrama has been supplanted by Tyler Perry–like soap operatics and much jawing about the Lord, riots in the Motor City, marriage proposals, and maternal heartbreak and disapproval.
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Aug 16, 201250Sparkle deals in such well-worn rise-and-fall music-bio tropes that it's hard to blame it for simply coasting on narrative shorthand at times. But the lackadaisical storytelling can inch toward outright laziness.
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Aug 16, 201250Whitney Houston's death is just about the only thing that gives the film real, albeit mostly unintentional, life.
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Oct 1, 201240Sparkle isn't "Dreamgirls" – but fans of schmaltzy showbiz fairytales should enjoy it.
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Aug 16, 201238Anyone who has seen "Dream Girls," "What's Love Got To Do With It?" or even "The Doors" will find themselves in familiar (if inferior) territory here.
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25Whitney Houston deserved better than to go out onscreen with this botch job remake of a 1976 soap opera that never deserved another thought.