Mara Brock Akil Movies
A talented young woman is torn between her dreams and her family in this musical. Sparkle (Jordin Sparks) has been blessed with a beautiful voice and a gift for songwriting, but she's afraid to perform her songs in public, in part because her mother Emma (Whitney Houston), a former entertainer whose career brought her nothing but heartache, refuses to allow her daughters to sing outside of church. But Sparkle persuades her older sibling Sister (Carmen Ejogo) to sing one of her tunes at a talent show, and the reaction proves that Sister has star quality and Sparkle can write potential hits. An ambitious would-be manager, Stix (Derek Luke), persuades Sparkle and Sister to form a singing group with their sibling Dolores (Tika Sumpter), but while the act clicks wit audiences, the sisters have to contend with their angry mother, Sister gets caught up in a destructive relationship with a short-tempered comedian (Mike Epps), and Sparkle finds herself falling in love with Stix. Based on the 1976 musical of the same name, Sparkle proved to be the last major project for Whitney Houston, who died while the film was in post-production; it was also the first feature film for American Idol champion Sparks. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jordin Sparks, Derek Luke, (more)
- 2006
One of two football-themed series of the 2006-2007 TV season (the other was Friday Night Lights, CW's The Game was a spinoff of the old WB network's long-running Girlfriends. Tia Mowry starred as Melanie Barnett, a Johns Hopkins med student who transferred to a smaller college in San Diego, California, the better to be near her football-player boyfriend Derwin Davis (Pooch Hall), a member of the "San Diego Sabers." Though not technically a "football wife", Melanie soon became an honorary member of that hardy sorority, quickly learning the ins and outs of NFL protocol and intrigue. Refreshingly, she refused to be merely Derwin's "arm ornament", remaining her own person with her own ambitions and dealing with the other football players on her level rather than theirs. Melanie's best friend was Tasha Mack (Wendy Raquel Robinson, the single mother and self-appointed business manager of her irresponsible quarterback son Malick Wright (Hosea Chanchez). Also on deck were interracial couple Kelly and Jason Pitts (Brittany Daniel, Coby Bell); as the white "trophy wife" of a black player, Kelly spent much of her time overcoming the prejudice of certain other Sabers and coping with her cheapskate (and possibly unfaithful) husband. Getting off to a rocky start with an unsatisfactory pilot film which had to be completely scrapped, The Game finally debuted on October 1, 2006. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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