Glitter (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Dolby Digital Trailer-City Audio Commentary Music Video-Loverboy Music Video-Never Too Far Filmographies-Cast & Crew Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Center Stage
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	100:18
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (74:09)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Vondie Curtis Hall
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Mariah Carey Max Beesley Padma Lakshmi
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$36.95	Music	Various

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Hindi English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Call it morbid curiosity, but I volunteered to review Glitter. I approached Glitter, as I do with all my reviews, with an open mind. After all, I have enjoyed (and bought) some movies that were critically trashed, such as Driven. However, Glitter is truly bad. In fact, it's a real stinker. Glitter is a painfully slow yawn-fest. While there was not much that anyone could do about the script and acting once the movie was in the can, the tedium could have been alleviated with some editing. This movie could easily have been twenty minutes shorter. My finger often reached for the remote, but my duty as a reviewer forced me to endure all 100 minutes. And believe me -- I felt every one of those minutes!

    Billie (Mariah Carey) is a talented back-up singer, who is given her big break by a DJ turned Record Producer named Dice (Max Beesley). Billie and Dice fall in love. Billie becomes a star and their relationship suffers as he is left behind, etc. etc. I'm sure you can fill in the rest. It's all been done before, and much, much better. I must add, however, that this is a very stylised production. There is extensive use of a number of clever techniques, including time-lapse photography, jump-cuts, slow motion, and varying the speed of the image and sound. But all that 'glitters' is definitely not gold.

    Glitter is essentially a vehicle for Mariah. Let me openly admit that I am a Mariah fan. I remember hearing her first single, Vision Of Love, and thinking 'that's not possible -- no one can sing like that!' Her vocal range and power of delivery is astounding. She can hit notes that are outside the range of many operatic sopranos. With her five-octave voice, in my view she is technically the greatest singer in Pop music, male or female. Mariah is also the only female artist to have 11 consecutive No.1 singles in the US, and she remains the biggest selling female recording artist of the 1990s. For example, her album Music Box sold over 24 million copies. To put that into perspective, if she had only sold half that number, it still would have probably been one of the biggest selling albums of that year. She has also been lavished with a number of awards, including a few Grammys. Finally, apart from being amazingly talented, she is also gorgeous.

    Mariah's numerous talents, however, do not necessarily extend to acting. While she's not as bad as Madonna, she's close. Anyway, she may surprise me yet. Until then, Mariah, please stick to music videos. By the way, I don't blame her for this bomb. She was just an innocent bystander.

Video

    The transfer quality is up to the usual standard of Columbia Tristar. In other words, it is breathtakingly beautiful. Again the oft-asked question comes to mind -- 'why do some of the worst movies get the best transfers?'

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The image is quite sharp, as evidenced by the sharp details in the great aerial shots of New York. The black level and shadow detail are great, as evidenced by all the darkened night-club scenes. There was no low level noise.

    The colour is purposely muted for the prologue of the movie, but the image soon bursts into a rich palette of well saturated hues. The bright lights of New York City nightlife really take advantage of this, and the skin tones are accurate.

    There were no MPEG artefacts or film-to-video Artefacts. Some scenes, such as the aerial shot sweeping over Brooklyn (Suspension) Bridge, were begging for aliasing, but there was none. Absolutely perfect!

    A lonely film artefact appears at 77:27, and you can probably count the rest of the film artefacts on one hand. I viewed this movie on an 82cm widescreen television, and these artefacts were tiny insignificant pinpricks, hardly worth mentioning.

    There were a few rare examples of edge enhancement, such as the very mild halos at 19:53. Again this was me being very picky, and it was hardly worth mentioning.

    Three sets of subtitles are present on this DVD, and the English subtitles are accurate.

    This is a RSDL disc, with the layer change placed during Chapter 21, at 74:09. It is smooth and not disruptive.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two audio tracks on this DVD. Apart from the English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track, there is a director's commentary in Dolby Digital 2.0 (surround encoded).

    The dialogue quality and audio sync are excellent on the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track.

    The musical score is credited to a number of people. The songs and associated music were written by Eric Benet, Terence Blanchard, and Mariah Carey. There is also additional music by Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, and Big Jim Wright. As you may have guessed, most of the music is Dance, or Hip-Hop, but there are a few pieces which involve atmospheric sounds and piano doodling.

    For a musical romantic drama, this movie has a fairly aggressive surround presence and activity. The  rear speakers are used effectively to help carry the score and provide ambience, often at the same time, such as the during the scenes in the nightclub (e.g. 9:23), or at a concert (e.g. 85:36).

    The subwoofer is also utilised very effectively to support both the score, for example the Hip-Hop music with seriously deep bass, and the sound effects, such as the fire at 6:29.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are a number of extras on this DVD.

Menu

    An animated menu with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Music Videos

    Two music videos are included. They are both presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. They are for Mariah Carey's Lover Boy (4:40) and Never Too Far (3:03).

Filmographies

    This may have been included as an explanation (or excuse) to the audience. Glitter is the Director's second movie. It is also Mariah's first starring role, as she has only 'appeared' in one other movie.

Theatrical Trailer - Glitter (1:45)

    This trailer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

Theatrical Trailer - Center Stage (1:42)

    This trailer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

Director's Commentary

    This is an adequate commentary by the Director, Vondie Curtis-Hall, but if you listen to him tell it, you'd swear he's made 100 movies. He often refers to how he likes to work, and what he does when he's directing to get the best out of the actors. Vondie, you've directed one episode of television, and this is only your second movie, and it's a stinker!

    Glitter was released on DVD in Region 1 in January 2002.

    The Region 4 DVD misses out on:

• A Pan & Scan version.
• French Dolby Digital stereo surround-encoded sound track.

    The Region 1 DVD misses out on:

• Nothing

    I prefer neither version, but if I had to pick, I would favour the local release for its affordability, and superior PAL image.

    If you're thinking of renting (or buying) this, do so at your own peril. Please hire the infinitely better Rockstar instead. While the basic story premise for that movie is the same, it's all in the execution.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is excellent.

    The extras are plentiful.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall