Double Platinum (1999) Reviews

• Diana Ross' finest film since Lady Sings The Blues

  alanbill10742000-07-01

  I am a huge Diana Ross fan, and as such I was compelled to watch this movie just to see her. What I found, however, is that I actually FORGOT that I was watching Diana Ross and really began to believe that this person was Olivia King (her character), which to me is the sign of a good actor and script. The story concerns a wannabe singer who abandons her young child (played by Brandy) to pursue what becomes a Diana Ross level-of-success singing career. As the film progresses, the two are reunited. What ensues are some extremely moving scenes between the two as Miss Ross attempts to gain her daughters forgiveness, respect and love by helping her with her own fledgling singing career and trying to be the mother she never had. There are some great songs by both artists. Several of Brandy's biggest hits are featured, and Miss Ross performs some of her most enchanting music in years, particularly the ballad 'Someone That You Loved Before' and 'He Lives In You' (both featured on her album Every Day Is A New Day, which is well worth purchasing). An exclusive duet was written for the two stars by Diane Warren - Love Is All That Matters, and is featured as a duet in the film. Both the DVD and video versions feature a promotional video clip by each artist.

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• Not as bad as you might think

  robman-51999-09-15

  Expecting the worst I was actually pleasantly surprised at Double Platinum. Granted this won't win any Emmy's, it is a pleasant way to kill a couple of hours. Both Diana Ross and Brandy sing and act very well, and the score is excellent. There are worse ways to spend an evening.

• Double Platinum features Diana Ross, an Oscar nominee and popular singer, in a very good performance in a film that could have been better but which is not bad.

  dgarrett312002-02-21

  Diana Ross received good notices for her work in Lady Sings the Blues, including approving comments from leading film critic Pauline Kael, and also from noted literary writer James Baldwin, one of the leading African-American writers of the 20th century. She also received an Academy Award nomination for that performance. Her performance as a woman suffering from a severe mental illness in the television film Out of Darkness received very good reviews in 1993, two decades after Lady. Her performance as a woman who sacrifices her family to achieve success as a singing star in Double Platinum was much awaited--Ross should have made many more films than she has and so her performances are highly anticipated. In Double Platinum, she presented a sensitive but determined woman, elegant, self-confident, tormented but disciplined, a believable success, a fascinating but mysterious personality. The film was not deep--it told us nothing we did not already know about family or success, but both Ross and Brandy had good singing and acting moments, doing the kind of work people who get more attention from the media--cover stories, award nominations--would be glad to do. Just as Ross had much success in the past, she now seems to have to fight a great deal of negative assumptions, an odd karmic reversal.

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• Not so much double platinum, more fool's gold.

  Victor Field2001-01-20

  Further proof that Americans aren't as tasteless as many Brits insist comes from the news that this TV movie was a resounding (and deserved) flop when it aired on ABC - Diana Ross' first film since "The Wiz" casts her as a singing superstar who abandoned her daughter (played by Brandy) in her bid for superstardom, and now wishes to a) get back into her life and b) give her a hand in making it herself. The two stars also served as two of the FIVE executive producers, making this a vanity project times two - our divas take it in turns to exercise their lungs, and if you're a fan of either you may enjoy it on that basis alone. But unfortunately the laughable dramatics and inability to believe the two women could be related (in anything other than egomania) makes this tough sledding. You may find yourself wishing that the fisherman from "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" would show up and finish Brandy off once and for all - and go after Miss Ross for good measure. And as for Diana's clothes - WHY?

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• Isn't there a law against waste of talent on this scale?

  PaulineDorchester1999-05-18

  Never mind Diana Ross (who is actually not half bad) and Brandy Norwood, and never mind the utterly insipid music. What makes this movie an outrage is how it wastes the time and talent of several of the best stage actors in New York. It does not even show them off at their best: while I yield to nobody in my admiration for Roger Rees, he simply is not convincing as an American, and to give Brian Stokes Mitchell a non-singing role in a musical simply boggles the mind. Of course, this really isn't a musical at all. A musical is a work in which songs are used to advance the plot and establish and develop the characters. This, on the other hand, is a series of music videos surrounded by dialogue that this film does not bode ill for the revival of the television musical.

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