Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody
audience Reviews
, 92% Audience Score- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars"I Wanna Dance With Somebody" is a biopic film that tells the story of the legendary singer Whitney Houston. Directed by Kasi Lemmons, the film explores Whitney's rise to fame, her struggles with addiction, and her tumultuous personal life. As a viewer, I was disappointed with the film's portrayal of Whitney's life. The title of the movie, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody," led me to believe that I was going to witness the highlights of Whitney's career and celebrate her life. Instead, the movie focuses heavily on her personal struggles, leaving me feeling saddened and emotionally drained. One of the film's saving graces was the performance of Naomi Ackie, who plays Whitney Houston. Ackie brought a sense of authenticity and depth to the role, and her portrayal of Whitney's vulnerability and pain was heart-wrenching. However, the movie missed many good moments in Whitney's life, such as her performance of "One Moment In Time" at the Olympics and her duet with Mariah Carey on "When You Believe." These are moments that defined Whitney's career and should have been included in the film. So, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" is a disappointing biopic that fails to celebrate Whitney Houston's life and career. While Naomi Ackie's performance is noteworthy, the film misses the mark in capturing the essence of Whitney's greatness.
- Rating: 2.5 out of 5 starsLong. And boring. superficial.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 starsPerformance awful truth to story unbelievable content all over the place didn't give me enough I was actually waiting for it to end
- Rating: 3.5 out of 5 starsBefore Whitney Houston was inducted posthumously into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, a few studio executives have been summoned to make a biopic of the most popular multiple award-winning African-American songstress with RCA label's mogul Clive Davis who launched the singer's solo career forty years ago. Davis has since become Houston's lifelong friend, her confidante and even a father figure she needed in her heyday when her own had a fallout and broke her heart over money in his last breath. A decade over Houston's demise, this last holiday's musical was necessary to vindicate the media's critics on the pop star's high brow attitude and speculated domestic situations. Dubbed and always ranked The Voice above every come-and-go artist and all her peers, Houston remains the only black singer who beat Beatles and Elvis Presley with two decades of empowered ballads and diva-ish dance floor hits under her belt. An original motion picture soundtrack comprised of her new, classic and reimagined signature songs was released by RCA Records. A few gems for listeners to recapture some of her best vocal scores in those overrated but underappreciated years. Rising star Naomi Ackie lent a few of her vocal notes here and there in the film. TRISTAR PICTURES led the production in association with Compelling Pictures, Black Label Media, Muse of Fire, Madison Entertainment, TSG Entertainment II and Primary Wave, co-host of the posthumous singer's 60th birthday celebration at W Hotel Hollywood with Sony and the Estate of Whitnety Houston during the recent Grammy-week-long event. All eyes are now on how the biopic of Madonna will turn out next year after the pop queen wraps up her ongoing world tour.
- Rating: 3.5 out of 5 starsA walk through the history of her voice, her relationships and ultimately her downfall. Well acted for the most part, the songs tell the story and they're strong. Other than taking more dramatic license or taking someone else's perspective, I don't know how they could've done it much better.
- Rating: 1.5 out of 5 starsThe creators of this movie seemed to have employed the dice-rolling method of telling a story. They take various plot elements and roll the dice to see which part of the story they are going to tell. Then not really finish that part of the story before rolling the dice again to see which part of the story they will tell next. Occasionally they will show the best performances. However they will also occasionally show the somewhat mediocre or "merely good" performances. Assuming that Naomi Ackie is doing the singing (and not lip-syncing to previously recorded material) her singing is definitely top notch. Those in charge of the movie made a good choice in picking Naomi Ackie to play in this role (again, assuming she isn't lip syncing). However, because of the randomness of the story telling, I couldn't really relate to it other than enjoying some of the good performances. It didn't really give me all that much information about Whitney Houston other than what I already knew from following the news. The part of the story where she leaves her lesbian lover for Bobby Brown isn't anywhere near as heart wrenching as it should have been (she crys for a few minutes and then gives her ok after Whitney asks her for it). Again because of the randomness I really don't get the impression that Whitney had any feelings about anyone at all. Or if she does, she doesn't seem to have them for more than 5 minutes at a time. Getting pissed off at Bobby Brown for cheating on her for example, only seems to result in some tough words for about 5 minutes, then divorcing him (which was probably good for him since he probably gets a lot of her money). In real life, maybe Bobby Brown has actual remorse, but I don't get the impression he does from watching this movie.
- Rating: 2.5 out of 5 starsWell for starters I feel like the actress that portrayed Whitney Houston didn't look or resemble anything like the legendary singer and the lip singing wasn't the greatest and could have been better. If your gonna play a Pop Icon like Whitney Houston you need to be 110% about it and I feel like the actress who played her wasn't. Also Although the storyline was mostly true I feel like the movie showed more of the low points of her life then good. There was so much more to Whitney Houston then was shown in the movie. I Also wanted to point out the fact that the actor that played Bobby Brown was absolutely horrible he looked nothing like the real Bobby Brown and his portrayal of the singer was also absolutely terrible he put way to much of the "Thug" act into the character then Bobby really was. All and all the movie could have been better....
- Rating: 3.5 out of 5 starsThis movie was overall good, but was kind of disappointing. The casting isn't so great. There are countless women who actually look like Whitney Houston and can do better mouth movements/impressions of her than Naomi Ackie did in this biopic. When Naomi was portraying Whitney when she was on drugs, she didn't look like she was on drugs. Sure she looked a little tired, but that's all. Towards the end, as the movie went to Whitney later in life, I was surprised to see that there wasn't a different actor. "Whitney" looked young and no different from the first scene in the movie. Although this movie could have been a lot better, I would recommend seeing this movie to Whitney lovers.
- Rating: 3.5 out of 5 starsI enjoyed the movie and I thought Naomi Ackie was terrific in a tough role. Unfortunately, it felt like they only scratched the surface and could have delved deeper and cut some scenes that were more superficial or we saw in real time. It was a good movie though and I recommend it as a rental or streaming but glad I didn’t pay to see it in the theater.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 starsThis biopic was pretty good. Naomi Ackie, Stanley Tucci, Nafessa Williams, Ashton Sanders, Clarke Peters, Tamara Tunie, and the rest of the cast did a pretty good job in this movie. This true story about the life and career of Whitney Houston, one of the greatest singers of all time, was dramatic, depressing, and tragic. It really shows you what her life was like and what she went through along the way. If you haven't seen this movie yet, check it out sometime. It's worth watching.