I Wanna Dance With Somebody (2022)

[Frank Cox]

The music of Whitney Houston. If you want to listen to Whitney Houston singing, then this is the movie to see.

Other than the music, the rest of the movie doesn't have the drama and intensity of the other musical biographies I've played recently: Bohemian Rhapsody and Elvis. Those were downright thrilling in parts. This happened and then that happened and then the next thing after that; it's all by the numbers and it's ultimately has the same excitement as reading the Whitney Houston wikipedia article.

The "hero/good guy" throughout the movie is record executive Clive Davis. By golly, he's also one of the producers of the movie! What a coincidence!

A lot of the uncomfortable stuff that could have been gripping stories either get really brief mention or get skipped over completely. Even her death is just on-screen text: oh by the way she died - at the end of the show. Another missed opportunity for something dramatic but there's lots of those throughout the movie. I think they're working so hard to not offend the real people who were involved in all of this that they lost the spectacle and excitement that you expect to see in a movie of this nature. There's nothing here that makes you squirm, there are no no triumphs, no tension or wow look at that.

But it does have Whitney Houston's music, so if you're a Whitney Houston fan then this movie is worth seeing for that reason.

I'm not, so it's not a movie for me.

Hopefully the fans will come to see it this week.

[Mike Blakesley]

I was in the music business throughout her career, and I can tell you that Clive Davis did play a huge role in her success. I always wondered how she and he got along after she started slipping off the rails, so to speak... but if there was any bad blood it sounds as if it was pretty much glossed over in this movie.

There's a documentary about Clive Davis himself on Netflix, which I've been meaning to watch but I never seem to find a couple of spare hours to watch it when I don't have something else I want to watch.

[Mike Blakesley]

Based on the opening weekend numbers it looks like a pretty bad flop, sad to say. Her story did have a horrible ending, and it hasn't been all that long ago, so maybe that turned people off.

The producers of ELVIS probably got the right idea -- instead of focusing on the man's life, they focused on his manager. The happy ending was that he had a successful career, even though he died early. But Whitney's last few years were pretty awfuland were all over the news.

[Frank Cox]

There just aren't any hurdles to surmount or mountains to climb. Successful person becomes more successful doesn't make a compelling story if there aren't any obstacles along the way. It leaves nothing to cheer about or cry over. There could have been, I'm sure, but it's just not there.

[Jon Dent]

There's no redemption arc in Whitney's story. After the highs of the early/mid 90's it was a steady downward decline. It's not like "Bohemian Rhapsody" where they could spin the illusion that Live Aid was some kind of 'comeback' to cap the story. Whitney's story is very sad and tragic, and being honest about that doesn't sell records, which is all this movie is really trying to do. Clive Davis is one of the producers for goodness sakes.