Kinda weird: having been converted from a movie to a stage show and back into a movie, the new Hairspray (due July 20) looks strikingly like John Waters’ original film from 20 years ago, only with better-looking actors who occasionally break into song. Still, something seems off. I don’t think it’s newcomer Nikki Blonsky, who may prove to be a find on the order of Ricki Lake in the original. I don’t think it’s Michelle Pfeiffer and Christopher Walken; they’re both hamming it up a little much, but the material kinda calls for it. On the other hand, Queen Latifah is nowhere near the force of nature Ruth Brown was (of course, Brown had been in showbiz about twice as long as Latifah when she played Motormouth Maybelle). And John Travolta makes a pretty decent fat lady — he really looks like he could be Blonsky’s mom — until he opens his mouth. Man, I really hope my misgivings are unjustified, but I’m starting to fear that this new Hairspray will be less than divine.
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Comments (1-15) of 22 Add your comment
Oh my god. I can’t wait for that movie! That looks like a really fun time.
I completely agree about John Travolta. I was not at all excited when I heard that he would be playing Edna Turnblad. The trailer did nothing to change my mind about that. Otherwise, the movie looks great!
Ha Ha…less than Divine…I see what you did there!
On the official website they have some song clips up, and I’m worried now too. Everything sounds too polished and modern-y. It sounds like they used Autotune like crazy on that Efron kid, or even a vocoder.
How was Christopher Walken hammy?
This looks good, I’m not familiar with the first film, nor the musical. But this looks promising. of course last time I said that about a musical was with Dreamgirls, and that was majorly dissapointing… so I’m caustically excited.
Yeah, his voice somehow sounds off…was it maybe his mangled attempt at the elusive Baltimore accent?
I felt the same way when I heard that John Travolta was taking on Edna. Oh how I wish they could have gotten Harvey for the role – Now that would have been divine!!!
Travolta’s accent just cost them my $7.50. He’s atrocious.
I think the movie looks great and really captures the spirit of the show… but I have to agree about Travolta. I was surprised how little of him they showed in the trailer. He is the main character and what little of him I saw looks disappointing.
Its very hard to capture it as well as Harvey Feinstein did on broadway, but why does he look so bad? He is an accomplished actor singer and dancer, but he does not sound good here…
The movie looks like loads of fun and I’m keeping my hopes up on how good it’ll be. Though I can’t feeling that it will die a horrible, painful death at the box office. What were they thinking having it open the same day that the last harry Potter book is released??
I was able to see about 20 minutes of footage about two weeks ago, introduced by the director (who was so excited he appeared to be inches away from having an exploding head). The film looks fantastic, the trailer doesn’t do it justice. The weakest link appears to be Travolta – the accident is totally distracting, the character cartoonish in a very bad way. However, I predict the film will fail, it’s not a summer movie; Dreamgirls, which had a stronger story was a failure at the box office; people don’t see musicals anymore, it’s not something the majority of the move going audience cares about.
Believe me, leaving Travolta out of the trailer as much as possible was intentional.
OK, of course nothing will compare to the original but I didn’t think this looked 1/2 bad (except for Travolta). It looked like it stays true to the original with better production values (more money). I actually think I’ll see it and probably will enjoy it.
Hopefully it will be fun…but what is up with Link’s hair? Ew.