Hairspray

My favorite musical on stage is "The Producers" based on the comedy classic by the same name. When I heard they were doing a movie with almost entirely the same cast, I was thrilled. It had to be hilarious... wrong. While it was funny, it just didn't live up to the greatness that was when I saw it on stage both times. It was flat and seemed sort of like "here we go through the motions." From what I have heard, that is the problem with the movie of "RENT" (which I hate the music of, and thus will not be seeing that until Kayla forces me to). So I heard about a Hairspray movie, another musical comedy that on stage I enjoyed. Then I heard Travolta was cast as the mother, and I had doubts... then I saw him in make up and I had MORE doubts.

Then I saw the movie and all doubts I had were gone. From the moment this movie starts it is fun and has you smiling from beginning to end, just what it is trying to do. Funny, touching, surprising, and downright entertaining are the words to describe this movie.

Tracy Turnblad is an teenager in Baltimore, and loves living there. She isn't the best student, mainly because she fantasizes every day about being on the Corny Collins Show. Of course, her favorite day of the week is Negro Day on the show. One day, when she is sent to detention she meets Seaweed and decides to do his moves on the open auditions for the Corney Collins Show. She gets on, and it upsets the lead dancing girl and her mother. They must get her off the show. They need to stop her from doing these "negro dances" and they need to outright stop "negro day." Well, Tracy and her family and friends just won't let that stand.

This movie is just so damn entertaining, but don't be fooled by the PG rating, this is not a film for little kids. The funniest lines, in my opinion, come from Michelle Pfeiffers character and it is DIRTY and hilarious. In fact, Pfiefer is just as hot as she was back in 1992 when she dawned the Catwoman outfit and she plays the role perfectly. So evil, so nasty, and so funny. Britany Snow plays her daughter, and does a fine job but since she is almost always opposite Pfeiffer, she just doesn't come off as nasty and mean. Which she isn't supposed to, but I still feel it detracted from her performance. Of course, the apple of her and Tracy's eye, Link, is played by Zac Efron. Efron freakin' ROCKED MY SOCKS in this movie. I hated him in High School Musical, but here Efron proves here he is a real actor and a damn good singer, way better than that chump they have dubbing him over in HSM. There are moments he is being a jerk, but underneath everything the look in his eyes always said "I care" and that is very hard to do. Sheesh, I thought I would never say that Efron is good simply from the extremely bad taste he left in my mouth after I saw the movie of High School Musical for the first time, but he has won me over and so much more. I must say that at first I wasn't convinced on Amanda Bynes either. Even when watching the movie it took a while for me to warm up to her, it took until one scene and I was convinced. That scene was when she first met Seaweed, she is at the same time very funny, and to quote my friend Ray "sexy." I don't know how to explain it, but she is. Speaking of Seaweed, he is truly the big find of this film. His singing is great, his dancing is great, and his acting is great. There is nothing that Elijah Kelley can't do and he ROCKS! I'm sure we will see many more things from him in the future. Christopher Walken plays Tracy's father, enough said. Nikki Blonsky plays the overweight bundle of energy in this movie and she is adorable and very lovable. She is so happy and optimistic throughout the entire movie and does what she feels is right, that and she is a very good singer and dancer. She is also attractive enough that it is not unbelievable that Link would go for her. This was her first professional acting gig, and to have the weight of an entire movie with all the big names stars in this must have been a daunting task, but she pulls it off flawlessly. Especially when she is on screen with everybodys favorite scientologist...

John Travolta. Entering the theater, I believed Travolta would be terrible. I didn't think he looked believable and I KNEW he wasn't playing the role as I believed it should have been. But I was wrong, wrong about him all together. Yes, his accent goes EVERY where but he is so good in this role. He brings a loving and maternal quality to the role which has never been there in any interpretation I have seen. I mean, you have always loved the mother, in both versions (movie and original theater production) but here Travolta really gives Edna a soul and just has fun with the character. Especially when he is dancing. It is very clear that Travolta has had a very VERY big urge to get back into serious dancing (none of that Pulp Fiction shit, but that Saturday Night Fever shit) and he shines through with every move. In fact, his number with Walken is the funniest part of the movie, in my opinion but at the same time, it is also an incredibly sweet moment.

Speaking of the singing and dancing, it is all great. The lyrics and music are funny and catchy. I swear Marc Shaiman needs to do all the music for musical comedys that get turned into movies cause he seems to be the only person to get it right in the past years. For the people who don't know, he is the man that helped co-write the funniest movie musical of all time: South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. He knows how to write dirty, and hilariously satirical songs, such as the song that the kids on the Corney Collins show sing about being the "best kids in town." Great stuff.

In short, if you don't have a smile on your face from the beginning of the movie to the end, you must not have a heart.