Glitter

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Glitter is the week's only major Hollywood release, and it offers considerable escapist entertainment while hitting an affirmative note.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

And above all, the film is lacking in joy. It never seems like it's fun to be Billie Frank.

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

Glitter is, if nothing else, comfortable with what it is, namely earnestly made, wholehearted schlock.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

This is the worst performance by a pop star in a dramatic role since Madonna suited up for "Shanghai Surprise."

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Helplessly clichéd, predictable and unaware of its own lameness, it could easily become a camp classic on the order of "Grease 2" and "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

Washington Post Megan Rosenfeld

We don't have much space to tell you about Glitter, so we'll be blunt. This star vehicle for singer Mariah Carey is primarily a showcase for her breasts.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Even the soundtrack doesn't rescue the movie from its tedious banality.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Glitter, the kind of movie only 11-year-old girls who dot their i's with hearts would find bearable.

Boston Globe Joan Anderman

It touches on universal themes of love, friendship, and family. Suffice to say it falls dreadfully short.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

It's doubtful that even a real actress could have triumphed over the rusty tinsel of Glitter, a hapless, retro-'80s ''Star Is Born.''

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

"Zis is not verking! Zee glitter cannot overpower zee artist!" That, in a sentence, sums up what is wrong with this picture.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

It doesn't help that Glitter is such a derivative mishmash of cinematic and real-life situations that it's nearly impossible to count all the ways.

TV Guide Steve Simels

A butt-numbing exercise in tedium, sporadically redeemed by moments of unintentional hilarity.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Take the G out of Glitter and it's litter.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Glitter does no one any favors.

Variety Robert Koehler

Glitter deserves yet another title: "A Star Is Dull." As phony a vehicle as one could possibly concoct for a wannabe movie star, pic carries Mariah Carey into a swamp of gloppy melodrama.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

A heart-wrenching debacle from the starting gun.

The New York Times Lawrence Van Gelder

Mostly dross, an unintentionally hilarious compendium of time-tested cinematic clichés that illustrates the chasm between hopeful imitation and successful duplication.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

I desperately wanted Glitter to be trashy and over-the-top, to be so courageously awful. As it is, it isn't nearly bad enough to be that kind of good. It's simply there, all dressed up with no place to go, and that's the most damning thing you could say about it.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

Just when you think it could not get more ridiculous, Hall, Lanier, and Miss Mariah go that extra mile.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

Assure Patient, who has paranoid delusions about Jennifer Lopez being molded into the new M______ C_____, to rest easy because Lopez has never made a film as bad as Glitter.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

How could a major studio -- in this case 20th Century Fox -- put its name on a production with a dim-bulb, tone-deaf script that piles howler on howler? Why couldn't someone save poor Ms. Carey from herself?

New Times (L.A.) Robert Wilonsky

Worst movie of the year.