HAIRSPRAY - - - A Bonafide Crowd Pleaser

[Dark_Angel]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 2:46am

I've just returned from the 12:01 am showing of HAIRSPRAY here in Miami and I have to say this movie is one of the best to come down the line this year.

I never saw the original stage production but I am a big fan of the 1988 John Waters original and this musical adaptation does it's original source material justice.

Nikki Blonsky is a revelation. She was born to play this part her spunk, energy and charisma light up the screen. Her singing, acting and dancing are so on point. A truly well rounded performer. I see a bright future ahead of her. "I Can Hear The Bells" was most definitely a highlight.

Amanda Bynes was cute and quirky as Penny Pingleton and although I wished she was given more screen time she excelled at everything she was given to do. She has a nice singing voice which was a pleasant surprise.

Zac Efron was a capable Link Larkin. He did a nice job, especially in the "Without Love" number.

Elijah Kelly blew me away as Seaweed. Great singer, great dancer, very charismatic and his scenes alongside Amanda Bynes were priceless.

Brittany Snow was fine as Amber Von Tussle but she failed to top Colleen Fitzpatrick in the role. Her Amber needed to be a bit bitchier and brattier.

Michelle Pfeiffer chewed up the scenery as Velma Von Tussle. Her performance was on the money and her slinky rendition of Miss Baltimore Crabs was funny. She looked like she was having alot of fun up there.

Christopher Walken was so adorable as Wilbur Turnblad. He looked like he truly loved his little Tracy, the apple of his eye. He was the perfect doting father always encouraging little Tracy to dream big and be her absolute best at whatever she set her sights on. His scenes with Blonsky were very touching.

Queen Latifah was so good as Motormouth Maybelle, just the right amount of sass and attitude the role required. She did a great job with her numbers. Excellent performance.

Taylor Parks as Little Inez has quite a set of lungs on her and the girl can dance up a storm and she's so adorable. Loved her!

Alison Janney was sadly brutally underused but she what she did on screen got plenty of laughs from the audience. Wish she was given more screen time.

James Mardsen as Corny Collins. What can I say. Exceptionally talented and so charismatic. He has a really good singing voice and his little dance steps during "Nicest Kids in Town" drew applause from the audiences. Who knew "Cyclops" had it in him. He really impressed me. Someone give this guy a lead in a Broadway show PRONTO!

John Travolta...what can I say? This man OUTDID himself! He was funny, sincere, heartwarming and heartbreaking as Edna Turnblad. A woman breaking out of her shell to accept the big, beautiful big-hearted woman she is. He knocked me for a loop! Kudos to him for being able to break out some crowd pleasing dance moves while wearing a "two-ton" fat suit! Just amazing from beginning to end!

All the numbers were top notch but of course the definitive show stopper "You Can't Stop The Beat" had the audience I was sitting with clapping in time to the beat of the song.

Several numbers drew applause from the crowd: "Beat", "Run and Tell That", "Without Love" and "I Know Where I've Been".

A rousing good time at the movies and a crowd pleaser reminiscent of the reception given to the original "Grease" back in 1978.

This one is gonna be a classic. Loved it and I'm planning on seeing it again real soon. Shankman, Wittman, Zadon, Merin and the entire cast should be extremely proud of themselves.

[Miss B. L. T. Down]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 3:26am

I loved the movie too. I smiled from beginning to end. I loved the cast. Nikki was a doll. She has such a bright future if she makes some smart choices. I was never anti-Travolta so I didn't need to be won over by him. I loved him. :) I loved Walken and Mardsen too. Efron was effective too. I was anti-Bynes but she was good even if her role seemed really diminished.

All the numbers were top notch but of course the definitive show stopper "You Can't Stop The Beat" had the audience I was sitting with clapping in time to the beat of the song.

I must respectfully disagree. I LOVED 99% of the movie. I loved how all the numbers were staged except for this one. Honestly, I think I'm the only person disappointed with the way YCSTB was used in the movie. There were far too many cuts for my taste. I wanted to hear the song all the way through. My friend had never seen or heard Hairspray, and I really talked up the great ending song beforehand. When we left the theater, I asked if she liked the song and she said she couldn't remember it since they kept stopping and starting it so many times. I couldn't blame her.

Love 99% of the film though.

Updated On: 7/20/07 at 03:26 AM

[mateo]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 3:33am

I don't think I have ever smiled through an entire movie before- and it is almost a lil awkward when you catch yourself smiling.

I tried to take the smile off my face a few times- but its impossible.

:)

[Parks]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 4:01am

Just got in from a screening in Dallas.

LOVED IT! I started to get a little ADD during certain parts in the 2nd half of the movie (probably because I was sleepy going into the movie anyway), but it was VERY entertaining and energetic!

Nikki--she really surprised me. I was shocked in the first classroom scene...when she wasn't smiling. I only see this girl smiling in interviews and all the clips they show of her. She gave an incredibly energetic performance and was just terrific!

John--Wow, I was so scared of this man at first, but as I kept watching more and more clips, I got more and more excited about his performance. He looked absolutely hilarious as Edna. I LOVED him, but the girl I was with DESPISED him. They thought he was very boring and didn't have any energy, when I think he was just trying to make Edna a little more realistic and human, which you have to do when making a stage to screen transfer.

Amanda--alright, I seriously thought I was going to hate her. I wanted to--but my God, the girl was HILARIOUS with everything she did. She really needed more screen time along with Allison. Everytime they were on, the audience was laughing.

Michelle Pfeiffer was fine. Not incredible, but she got the job done.

Zac-He was good. Liked him. I'm not happy about that though. I've never been a Zac fan...so I'm a little bitter towards Hairspray for changing my mind. :-P

Queen Latifah-She was a little...not too exciting, in my opinion. She still did a nice job though. I guess I've never really been a huge fan of the character Motor Mouth Maybelle...

Elijah-very energetic and was just perfect!! :)

Now--the one person who I really wish had been someone else--Christopher Walken. The man is about as exciting as watching paint dry. I've never liked this man and Hairspray didn't make me like him ANYmore. I'm sorry--but he just about killed You're Timeless To Me. He was funny in a few scenes--I will give him that, but he was easily the weakest link, in my opinion.

Now--a few things.

-Mama I'm A Big Girl Now being cut makes sense to me, sort of. I miss the song, but I think it makes the film work better. With this song, we would have seen a conflict between each of the mothers and their daughters--but in this movie, it seemed like Velma and Amber were more like...friends than mother and daughter. It worked nicely, but I definitely miss Mama I'm a Big Girl Now.

-About the thing with the cutting of You Can't Stop The Beat--I completely agree. I personally thought it was a little too long. :-P

-New songs--New Girl In Town didn't quite seem right to me. I love the song...but I didn't quite feel that it fit. It felt a little awkward... However, Ladies Choice was GREAT! The audience loved it. Kudos, Marc :).

I'm too tired to contribute anymore. Goodnight :-P

[musicman_17082]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 4:50am

You lucky, lucky people who have theaters that did a midnight showing!!!

As for me... I am patiently awaiting Hairspray's arrival in my town tomorrow night!

I am so incredibly excited. I'm catching the HAIRSPRAY premeire and then heading over right after for the HARRY POTTER 7 book premeire! CAN you think of a better night?!

I'm so stoked! Particularly excited about seeing Nikki Blonksky! Everything I've seen of her so far just seems amazing!

[algy]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 6:15am

I'm off to see the movie in about 45 minutes. So excited!

[Weez]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 6:35am

I'm off this afternoon an' all. I'm a bit sad though that my local many-screens Odeon has decided to shove it into a tiny 51-seat screen. I guess with 'Harry Potter' and 'Transformers' and 'Shrek 3 'and all that palaver kicking around they want the bigger screens for what's most likely to attract large groups of children, but it's still depressing dagnabbit. XP

[JHartnow]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 9:31am

I've got this afternoon off, too. I mean, c'mon, it's HAIRSPRAY! Totally worth it. I'm seeing the first showing in Columbia, SC at 12:45 this afternoon and also again tonight at the prime movie hour. I'll report back on audience reactions...but I'm sure it's going to go over really well.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 9:32am

Holy SH*T JHart . . . I am going to Columbia, SC to see the movie at the Sandhills 16 theater tomorrow. YAY, another S.C. person!

[hushpuppy]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 9:42am

FWIW, I hated the stage production and loved the movie. Saw it at the Ziegfeld last night and had a great time. Try to see it in a theatre with a big screen if you can. BTW: 'Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now' is sung over the closing credits.

[Weez]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 10:27am

Have now seen it. WHAT A MOVIE! I loved every minute.

Although my favourite part was the end credits, where the crowd next to me vocally said they HAD to stay because they needed to know if it definitely WAS Ricki Lake they'd seen.

Me: "Yup, it was Ricki Lake."
Them: "Cool, we thought so!"
Me: "... and the director, composer, and lyricist."
Them: "Oh really?"
Me: "Yup! And John Waters was the flasher at the beginning, and Mr. Pinky was Wilbur in the original, so there were loads of cameos really..."
Them: "Wow..."
Credits: *roll by*
Me: "... including, apparently, one from the composer's dog. O_O"

Marc: THANK YOU. I don't remember the last time I had such a good afternoon at the cinema. :)

[Marc Shaiman]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 10:30am

thank YOU

and how about the placement of Walli Woo's screen credit!!!!! She must have ONE HELL of an agent!

[allofmylife]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 10:44am

I really hope you're getting a great tan from the glow you should be basking in, Marc. You and your partners have created a movie which has outscored "Chicago" by six points on the Tomatometer. Hell, even Moriarty loved it (and you, BTW) on "AintitCoolNews".

Top that if you can....

[JRybka]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 10:45am

I saw it on Monday and I am going to see it again tomorrow at 1pm and then my partner (who did not want to even see it originally) asked if we could go see it again on Wednesday on his day off this week. Of course I said YES!

Marc -- here is hoping you have a super dooper hit on your hands.

[mateo]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 10:46am

wait marc- where is walli in the movie?

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 10:46am

It looks like all the reviews are in on Rotten Tomatoes and Hairspray has a 93% including 100% from the Cream of the Crop critics.

This is certainly better than Oscar-nominated Moulin Rouge which only scored an 78% with a 65% from the top critics and Dreamgirls which had 78% and 85% from the top critics. Even Oscar-winning Chicago only scored an 87% with a 92% from the top critics

Way to go Marc and the entire team behind what one critic called the best movie musical of the century!
93%!!

[Rypm25]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 11:32am

I just got back from purchasing my tickets for tonight to finally see the movie here in Connecticut. I can't wait! It looks like it's going to be a blast! On a side note...the theater has the movie listed on the board as Hairspray 2! And on my ticket as Hairspray 2 as well...so silly!:)

[Pippin]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 11:38am

I saw it last night as part of the philly gay and lesbian film festival. the crowd was in love with it. applause after many of the songs, shouts at the screen, we all had a great time. after the film, a friend said "that film put me in such a great mood, I want to see it again right now." which is exactly how I felt. I am still running of the adrenaline of seeing the film this morning.

I want to add that all my pre-concieved notions were wrong. I really wanted to hate Travolta, but just couldn't in the film- he was practically perfect for the film. I loved him and his heart.

all the teeny bopper actors- bynes, and effron, I thought would be horrible. they were charasmatic and so enjoybable, loved them, especially bynes' wonderfully ditzy, dorky penny.

Queen- I didn't think she would have the singing chops to do it properly- once again I was impressed!! she doesn't sing it like the original, she is much more smooth and not raspy, but it works, she is never too much.

and Shankman- this man has directed some clunkers, so I was nervous, but right from the beginning I fell in love with the film- great pacing, great energy, very, very funny moments, all around great direction.

yes, it's cliche, but don't walk- SPRINT to see this movie.

[cheezedoodle]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 11:43am

Really nice write up from Mick LaSalle in San Francisco this morning -

Enjoyable movies are released every week, but movies that have the capacity to delight -- movies like "Hairspray" -- are few and far between. This film version of the hit Broadway musical not only feels good in the moment but can actually transform a mood, or an entire evening.
That's movie magic, and with magic it's hard to find specific reasons. We might point to the characters, the script or the actors and make a pronouncement, but magic is elusive and has hundreds of components, big and small, from the set design and choreography to the way the light reflects off John Travolta's glitter dress. Better to describe the film's magic than to try to assign reasons for it: This musical comedy sends audiences into the night feeling that love is triumphant, people are kind, and that the universe is a benevolent place. It doesn't make you believe it, but it does make you feel it, and that glow lasts for hours.

The 1988 John Waters film, which inspired the Broadway show, was a lot more knowing and arch and not nearly as funny. What we're seeing here is the rare case of a story faring better the farther it gets from its initial inspiration. In its new incarnation, "Hairspray" is suffused with good nature and lovable silliness, a silliness that somehow doesn't get in the way of the movie's serious points about segregation and integration in the early 1960s.

It's not as though director Adam Shankman strives to find a balance between the silly and the serious. The movie is enormously silly, and yet the movie still carries its serious message thanks to the smart casting of Nikki Blonsky, as the chubby Baltimore girl who dreams of local dance-show fame, and John Travolta, as her rotund mother, Edna. Both Blonsky and Travolta, newcomer and veteran, share a quality of personality that automatically brings the serious and the silly into harmony: No matter how ridiculous these actors may seem, they radiate a kindness and decency that can't be dismissed as a joke. And so their concerns automatically become the audience's concerns.

Against all odds, Travolta is a great Edna. Everything people like about him is in this role, only more so. His playfulness, his impishness, his wise-guy innocence, his comic flair, his sweetness of spirit and his joy are all brought to bear. Plus, he dances, which is the highlight of the picture. Travolta chooses to play Edna not as a drag queen but as a woman -- an exceptionally kind woman who speaks in a thick Baltimore accent and is shy about her weight. Watching him here, the audience has the double experience of laughing at Travolta's antics while being moved by Edna's sensitivity. Curiously, this happens simultaneously, and repeatedly.

Blonsky is a find, a good dancer and an ebullient personality, who is so at home in her body that it becomes believable that the local hunk (Zac Efron) just might choose Tracy over his beautiful girlfriend, Amber (Brittany Snow). Tracy's quest to win "Miss Hairspray," the dance competition on the local TV dance show, puts her in direct competition with Amber and also makes her the enemy of Amber's spiteful mother, the local station manager, Velma (Michelle Pfeiffer). Pfeiffer nails her scenes with a confident, swing-for-the-fences sense of comedy.

More time is spent singing in "Hairspray" than in most movie musicals, with only a line or two of dialogue separating some of the songs. It's a big help that the music is pleasing and the lyrics are clever, and that the songs are beautifully staged. They flow from location to location in ways that feel inevitable. Other numbers, for example the dances on the local TV show, are more presentational, which gives the movie the chance to replicate and play off a style of production number common to TV in the 1960s.

In the end, it's amazing that a film so giddy and silly can land with an emotional impact, and yet "Hairspray" does. The year is 1960, and the time has come to get rid of segregated dance shows, like the ones hosted by Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah) and Corny Collins (James Marsden), and put them together into one popular dance program. "Hairspray" makes you want to believe that goodwill alone brought about those changes in the 1960s. Knowing better turns this lightweight frolic into a poignant experience.


Welcome to the 60's!

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 11:55am

AAAAAAHHHHHHHH . . . I want to go see it now!

[WickedBoy2]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 11:59am

LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!
Ive had the pleasure of seeing it twice now and it is just brilliant. It has a great feeling of the great 60's TV shows about it. John Travolta is just so adorable as Edna, he makes her one hell of a heart breaker. This is gonna be a huge, massive big Summer hit. I just hope 'Potter', 'Transformers' and of course 2 idiots pretending to be gay dont steal its box office thunder
BRILLIANT! BRILLIANT! BRILLIANT!
....damn, i'll just have to again now! Thanks Marc.

[Weez]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 12:11pm

Mateo: she's credited as "Barking dog". I don't remember a barking dog off the top of my head, but I'll definitely be keeping an eye/ear out next time I go. :)

Updated On: 7/20/07 at 12:11 PM

[WickedBoy2]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 12:16pm

Tracy on the dumpster truck in the opening number made the theatre fall apart the twice i saw it!

[Pippin]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 12:29pm

me too!! that whole number is priceless- and the rats! cracked me up!!!

[WickedBoy2]

Posted: 7/20/07 at 12:32pm

Link "I cant eat!"
Edna 'You CANT EAT, get in here"
Priceless, the queens around me were screaming when 5mins later she shouts
'Link, your porks ready!'