Hairspray
Recently, I went to see the movie, Hairspray, with three of my daughters. I remembered loving the original movie that was made in 1988 with Ricki Lake playing the leading part, so looked forward to seeing a muscial remake of it. I wasn’t disappointed. If you haven’t seen Hairspray, it’s a fun movie to watch.
It’s about star-struck teenagers on a local Baltimore dance show, and Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky), is obsessed with the Corny Collins Show. Every day after school, she and her best friend Penny (Amanda Bynes) run home to watch the show and drool over the hot Link Larkin (Zac Efron), much to Tracy’s mother Edna’s (John Travolta) dismay. After one of the stars of the show leaves, Corny Collins (Jason Marsden) holds auditions to see who will be the next person on the Corny Collins show. Tracy makes it on the show, but then decides that it’s not fair that the black kids can only dance on the Corny Collins Show once a month, and with the help of her parents, friends and Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah), she integrates the show.
The casting is superb with Nikki Blonsky and Zac Efron. Zac’s in the Disney movie, “High School Musical” and “High School Musical 2″ which will be on Disney Channel tonight. I wish we had cable because I know Amanda would love both of these musicals. I heard the first one was very good.
Michelle Pfeiffer does a great job as the nasty Velma in Hairspray. She goes to great lengths to get her spoiled daughter Amber to win the crown for the “Miss Teenage Hairspray” contest. Amber is played by Brittany Snow. I thought it was interesting that Brittany had played a similar part in “American Dreams” which aired on TV but was cancelled. In the TV show Brittany played Meg Pryor. Meg Pryor was a Philadelphia teen in the 1960s who dances on Dick Clark’s locally produced “American Bandstand.” We liked that show a lot and hated to see it cancelled.
John Travolta and Christopher Walken are amazing as Tracy’s parents. I loved watching the scene where Wilbur dances with Edna.
Have you seen any good movies lately?
August 18th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
I wanted to see Hairspray, but with the surgery this summer it just wasn’t meant to be. I will definitely be picking it up on DVD.
Just so you know, the High School Musical movie is on DVD and the HSM II will be out in a few weeks. My daughter adores them, she screamed with happiness as the last scene crossed the television screen. (It was a kiss and she is definitely her mother’s daughter, loves romance.)
BTW I was so upset that American Dreams was cancelled. I actually sent an email to complain. LOL
August 18th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
That’s awesome the second one will be on DVD soon. I want to watch both of them. I know Amanda will love them. I think Emily saw the first one and liked it. She has cable at college.
I love it that your daughter enjoyed the scene at the end with the kiss - there has to be romance in a movie to make it great!
It was bad ending American Dreams where they did with Meg leaving home. I wanted to see if she might return home. That’s great you sent a letter. Sometimes it helps if enough viewers complain.
You’ll really like Hairspray! Emily worked at Showcase Cinemas in the summer so we went to movies for free. It was great!
August 20th, 2007 at 8:37 am
The last movie I saw at the theatre was Shrek 3 with my little granddaughter. We also watched HSM and HSM 2 on DVD this past weekend.
A really funny movie on DVD with John Travolta that I just watched was WILD HOGS. Loved it!
August 20th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Christy,
We saw WILD HOGS, too. Didn’t you just love Dudley? He was hilarious and had great lines. It’s a fun movie. I didn’t see Shrek 3 but my kids did. I want to get both HSM soon.