Hairspray

Okaaaaayyyy.... Here is a high-energy musical movie version of the high-energy musical stage version which was a remake of the original (non-musical) movie. We'd better warn them that any more copies of copies will result in a pretty diluted original.

It's good to see Michelle Pfeiffer ("Married to the Mob") doing comedy again. She started out as quite the comedienne and I've missed that aspect of her skills! She is funny AND attractive as the station manager who wants her daughter to win the coveted "Miss Hairspray" contest on the local daytime show. As you may already know, Christopher Walken ("Blast From the Past") started out as a song-and-dance man, so he is obviously the man for the job as Tracy Turnblad's father. He even made it convincing when he sang "Your Love is Timeless" to John Travolta ("Swordfish") as his zaftig (Rubenesque?) wife. The choreography is terrific and it's great to see so many really skilled young dancers coming on the scene again. Yippee!

Loved Queen Latifa...she had some of the BEST lines, and delivered them flawlessly, of course. ("If any more white kids come into my shop, we'll be a suburb!") James Marsden's dance show host wasn't at ALL as smarmy as I expected and I loved spotting "Hairspray" originator John Waters as a flasher in the opening montage during Tracy Turnblad's "Good Morning, Baltimore!" It seems to be an un-credited appearance however, as the only time his name appeared in the credits (as far as we could see) was as a "consultant." By the way, my sharp-eyed friend spotted Ricki Lake as one of the William Morris agents. A much heavier Ricki starred as Tracy Turnblad in the original John Waters movie.

The weakest casting in the entire movie was John Travolta. They worked so hard (and so did HE!) with the fat suit, the makeup and the hair, but his accent was absolutely all over the place, ...some Baltimore, some Southern and some just unidentifiable. I could have made a short list of actors who would have been more convincing, but then again, no one asked...

The movie is lots of fun and you'll enjoy the energy of the dancing, the bright colorful clothes, the big hair, the huge changes in some customs (e.g., the two pregnant women sitting drinking martinis and smoking!), the cars, the TV sets, and on, and on, and on....