Glitter Blu-ray offers solid video and mediocre audio, but overall it's a poor Blu-ray release
Billie Frank is a talented young singer struggling to make it big in New York City. With plenty of will and determination, a voice like an angel, and the help of a handsome nightclub DJ, she will quickly learn that the roller coaster ride to success is as treacherous as it is glamorous.
For more about Glitter and the Glitter Blu-ray release, see Glitter Blu-ray Review published by Martin Liebman on January 9, 2017 where this Blu-ray release scored 2.0 out of 5.
Is this the best time for Mariah Carey's Glitter to see a surge in notoriety with its release to Blu-ray? The world-famous singer was recently
embarrassed by a faulty New Year's Eve Times
Square performance in front of the entire world, and it was only a couple of years ago that a the raw vocal feed from a Holiday performance leaked to the world's horror. They say all publicity is good publicity, so maybe her recent headlines will spur on a few extra Blu-ray
sales for her film, which is itself widely hailed as a cinema disaster, a movie desperate to find that cult audience that embraces the most popular of
bad movies. As it is, Glitter needs no introduction but
everything it can latch onto to help it find a new audience for its latest release. And for whatever may be right or wrong with the movie, it's at least a
fair bit
better than the superstar's latest flubs that once again see her in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
A star is born.
Billie Frank (Mariah Carey) grew up in an orphanage after being separated from her mother at a young age. She's a talented vocalist who, along
with a couple of friends from said orphanage, are slowly working their way up the music business ladder. She and her friends are
hired by a man named Timothy Walker (Terrence Howard) to sing backup for a fledgeling, no-talent performer. Billie's voice quickly captures her
employers'
attention, and when her vocal track supersedes the star's, her career gets a serious kickstart. She's discovered by a producer named Dice (Max
Beesley) who promises to buy her out of her contract with Walker. Billie's star and stock in the industry soar, she begins a romantic relationship
with Dice, and she seems on top of the world. But will the realities of the cutthroat music business stymie her creativity and slow down her search
for the mother from whom she was separated so many years ago?
Glitter tells a terribly generic rags-to-riches story that offers a softly lined "edgy" look into the cutthroat music business where everyone's
interest is in the bottom line, except for the artist, of course, who yearns only to use her music as an outlet to tell her story, explore her
(you've got me feeling) emotions (deeper than I've ever dreamed of), and maybe even reunite with her long-lost and deeply
troubled mother, herself, of course, once a singer, too. Glitter can't find anything of value to bring to the genre, content to allow Mariah to
radiate her beauty and demonstrate her familiar (once?) vocal range and stylings. Less a meaty movie and more a crudely put together vehicle
meant to propel its lead to stardom in front of the camera rather than only behind the microphone, the filmmakers have forgotten to ensure that
the parts and pieces around its lead are capable of keeping up with the vocal talent Carey brings to the performance and the star power she brings
to the movie.
All that said, Glitter just isn't apocalyptically awful. It's certainly a bad movie, but to label it amongst the worst of the worst is to
undersell its would-be case study companions in awful moviemaking. Glitter is certainly nothing special. At the very least, it
puts its pieces together competently and, even as the narrative lacks any genuine interest or novelty, it stays true along its linear A-to-B journey. It
just lacks identity, even in its lead. Replace Carey with anyone who can carry a tune and there wouldn't be an inch of difference in the end
product.
Its problem isn't a lack creativity -- rehash movies are nothing new -- but rather its lack of authenticity, its linear focus on the face and voice rather
than
surrounding that face and voice with anything noteworthy or capable of lifting them higher. Director Vondie Curtis Hall (Waist Deep) seems content to simply capture the action, not shape it
to better suit it, happy to simply point-and-shot and allow the film's simplest superficialities, as well as Carey's beauty and vocal talent, to carry it
to whatever fate awaits.
Unfortunately, those performances cannot save the film, either. Carey is a much better singer than she is an actor (at least she was when
Glitter
released). She emotes with basic movements and never finds her character's soul, favoring a simple superficiality rather than a nuanced core that
better, even average, performers capture in roles not much more complex or demanding than this. That said, the script gives her next to nothing
with which to work, and her rather unremarkable performance only matches a largely unremarkable character shaping at the script level.
Supporting performances are fine, though again fall victim to a lackluster script that challenges them to do little more than show up, get in
costume, and know their lines. Even good actors like Terrance Howard and Dorian Harewood can't elevate the material, not necessarily because (it
seems) they don't want to -- they don't sleepwalk through the movie -- but because it's like asking a Major League ballplayer to get in the box
against a pitching machine throwing meatball after meatball right over the heart of the plate: it's not a challenge but rather that "walk in the park"
level of ease
that shows in every frame.
Glitter arrives on Blu-ray not with a shiny, sparkly transfer as the movie's name might suggest but, maybe better, or at least more expected, a
rather simple and straightforward and never at all offensive 1080p presentation. The film opens in the past with a decidedly bleak, practically
grayscale
picture. As the action shifts to the "present" of 1983, it falls into its routine and displays a much more naturalistic contrast and color scheme. The
platte isn't at all noticeably vibrant, but its baseline neutrality is a strength and it's enjoyably presented with enough core level accuracy to please. The
image appears healthy and filmic, retains a very light grain structure, and never appears digitally tinkered or noise reduced. Details don't exactly leap
off the
screen, but the cinematic texturing allows faces, clothes, and environments to find a good, basic level of finer point detailing that, combined with the
greater 1080p clarity the Blu-ray affords, presents the movie in a fairly good light. Black levels are never offensive and skin tones appear fairly
accurate. The only truly noticeable issues comes by way of opening title wobble and the occasional pop or speckle marring the print, but such are
minimal. Even with the
antiquated MPEG-2 encode (which might be a new trend for Mill Creek), there's not much room for real complaint.
That Glitter contains a multichannel 5.1 soundtrack -- even in a lossy configuration -- is welcome, but the presentation isn't without it warts.
First, and chief amongst them, is a decided reservedness, a hush that renders music and dialogue in particular occasionally hard to hear, presented at a
low inherent volume even with the home theater set at reference level. Even heavy dance club beats heard around the 10-minute mark don't offer any
sort
of energy or low end weight. Vocal and musical clarity are decent enough in a rather crude, "get the job done" sense, but prioritization and authority
are again both real concerns. The track does offer a smattering of content spread beyond the front. Sirens wail in the background at the seven-minute
mark,
microphone drop reverberation in chapter eight is nicely spacious, and a fair sense of open space, environmental reverberation, and music presentation
at a concert hall in chapter nine are nicely engaging through the entire stage. The track is baseline effective, though shallow dialogue makes it a
problematic listen.
Mill Creek's Blu-ray release of Glitter contains no supplemental content. No in-movie "Pop-Up" menu is included. The top menu offers only a
"Play" button. Subtitles must be toggled on or off in-film via the remote's "subtitle" button.
Glitter isn't a very good movie, but it's not really as poor as it's made out to be. Better to call it "painfully generic" than just "painful." The
movie tells a competently put together, baseline rags-to-riches tale with an "insight" into the music business as seen through the eyes of a burgeoning
superstar. It brings nothing new to the table, Mariah can't act very well, and the script gives neither her nor her co-stars anything meaty with which to
work. It's not worth watching, but it's not worth trashing, either. Mill Creek's Blu-ray offers decent video, uneven lossy audio, and no supplements. Skip
it.
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Mill Creek Entertainment will add two new titles to its Blu-ray catalog: H.B. Halicki's Gone in 60 Seconds (1974), starring H.B. Halicki, Marion Busia, and Jerry Daugirda, and Vondie Curtis-Hall's Glitter (2001), starring Mariah Carey, Max Beesley, Terrence Howard, ...
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