HAIRSPRAY - - - A Bonafide Crowd Pleaser

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.

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.

:)

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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!

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

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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!

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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. :)

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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....

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wait marc- where is walli in the movie?

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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!:)

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!

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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.

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

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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!'

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