Sparkle 2012

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: Sparkle, while occasionally silly in a way that made a preview audience titter, is decent entertainment. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: ...the movie is an unholy mess of awkward staging, uneven pacing, and contrived 'big scenes'... Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: If the film is a sudsy show-business Cinderella story in which Emma's youngest daughter, Sparkle (Jordin Sparks), ascends to glory, Houston's presence makes it a cautionary tale. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: The performances through "Sparkle" are strong - Sparks has a gentle, sweet little-sister quality that draws you to her, nicely balanced by Ejogo's smoldering fire - and the colorful 1960s costumes (by Ruth E. Carter) and elaborate hairstyles are a kick. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: [Sparks] has an appealing presence and an open, expressive face, but by design, the film keeps her passive and out of the spotlight until the finale. Read more

Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: "Sparkle" 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. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: It'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. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: You know what? It works. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: It's nice that "Sparkle" honors the memory of Motown's heyday; if only it could have lived up to those standards. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Houston's performance proves that this could have been the first step not merely in a comeback but in a major re-invention. She had the instincts of a superb character actress. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: Generally improves on the source material as much as possible while still succumbing to some of the same hoary showbiz beats. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: The 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. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: It's a fun, sudsy tale of show-biz ups and downs, with an endearing Sparks in the title role as one of three singing siblings in Motown-era Detroit. Read more

Bruce Diones, New Yorker: Noteworthy only for featuring Whitney Houston's last screen appearance. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: A strong cast, empathetic direction and memorable soundtrack help create a movie that does everyone proud. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: Often seems like a flat, straightforward Supremes biopic in its adherence to seemingly pointless scenes and exposition. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Where the original Sparkle was a ghetto melodrama with equal parts mob and music, the Akils have refashioned it into a saga of family rupture and reconciliation. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Sparkle is an assembly of parts and pieces from other, better movies - an overly familiar jumble of cliches mashed together. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Sparkle shamelessly piles on the cliches, but it's an entertaining ride throughout. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "Sparkle" isn't blindingly original but it delivers solid entertainment, and despite the cliches I was never for a moment bored. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Whitney Houston deserved better than to go out onscreen with this botch job remake of a 1976 soap opera that never deserved another thought. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "Sparkle" was made by smart people who built on their star's strengths, accounted for her weaknesses and didn't lean on her to carry the whole picture. Read more

Jon Bream, Minneapolis Star Tribune: As the insecure, innocent ingenue, Sparks, 22, seems a bit tentative at first. But like her character, she gains her footing. Read more

Kevin C. Johnson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Energetic, colorful and packed with strong performances and musical numbers good enough to get by, "Sparkle" beams brightly. Read more

Courtney Shea, Globe and Mail: Anyone 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 ... Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Tika Sumpter [is] the best actress of the three ... Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: A bright and breezy musical that puts a breath of spring in this clammy late-summer season. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The melodramatic story is familiar, though the talented cast makes the most of rather tired material. Read more

Andrew Barker, Variety: Sparkle 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. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Village Voice: The 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. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "Sparkle" trafficks in the same gorgeous Motown style -- sonic and visual -- that made the original film, and "Dreamgirls" after it, such delectable fun. Read more