mark.waltz And she's busy doing "The Madison!" The Broadway musical and film version of that long-running show have overshadowed this non-PC John Waters movie that brought him into the mainstream after years of underground movies such as "Female Trouble" and "Pink Flamingos". It also defused the impact of the original film, made not to please the general public, but make an important statement through comedy and music about racism, segregation and more subtly, bullying. It also introduced Rikki Lake to audiences as teenager Tracy Turnblad, a "Hair Hopper" who danced like Gene Kelly and had a lovable, spunky personality that attracted the handsome hero (Link Larkin). It didn't matter that she was chunky-pretty much everybody liked her with the exception "A" group leader Amber Von Tussle, whose snobbish parents (Sonny Bono and Deborah Harry) owned the local amusement park. When Tracy gets chosen for the teenage council of a local dance show ("The Corny Collins Show"), Amber is furious, and vows revenge, especially when Tracy wins Link's heart. It all comes together at a showdown where the two opposites compete for Queen of the Auto Show. In the meantime, Tracy's best friend, geeky Penny Pingleton, wins the heart of Seaweed, the teenage son of black music store owner and local TV hostess Motor Mouth Mabel (Ruth Brown) who vows to make the Corny Collins Show interracial.The top-billed Divine steals the show as Tracy's out-of-touch mother Edna whom Tracy brings into the 60's by giving her a beehive and changing her frumpy house frau dresses into more stylish couture. From the moment Divine snarls, "Keep that racket down, I'm trying to iron in here!", you know you're in camp heaven. Add on Jerry Stiller as her easy going as pie husband, Wilbur (who owns a local novelty shop), Mink Stole (as Corny Collins' assistant) and "Guiding Light" veteran Shawn Thompson as Corny, and you've got the perfect mix of eccentrics and bigots for what many people rank as John Waters' finest film. While not as racy as previous John Waters films, there are moments of non-PC humour that rank up there with Waters' funnest tasteless moments. The title song that opens the film sets the stage for everything to follow. It's a shame it wasn't kept in the Broadway version that sanitized the humour. The major difference between the two film versions was the defusing of the character of Edna; Divine's matron was obviously a volcano ready to explode, while Harvey Fierstein played the part as a butterfly with a sting. By the time John Travolta got to it, all spark was gone, and Edna seemed like a shell of her former self. As for the original version, everybody is letter perfect. Michael St. Gerard delightfully makes what could have been a pompous conceited character extremely likable, while Colleen Fitzpatrick is everybody's teenage nightmare as Amber. Clayton Prince is charming as Seaweed, and Leslie Ann Powers exudes innocence as Penny. As her frantic mother, Jo Ann Havrilla is extremely funny. "Get away from me, you voodoo woman!", she screams at Ruth Brown ("Ooh Papa Tooney, We Got a Looney!), who is simply delightful as she brings black and white teens together as if a Den Mother for "Checkerboard Chicks". Pia Zadora and Ric Ocasak offer amusing cameos as a pair of beatniks. The ending is delightful, although the plight of the Von Tussles is somewhat off-putting.

The_Void Hairspray marks something of a departure for director John Waters; a man best known for his 'bad taste' pictures such as Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble. The film still features Waters' style, but the bad taste is massively toned down and the whole feel of the movie could be described as 'John Waters Lite'. The film is set in 1962 Baltimore and music is the major focus of the film. Waters obviously realised that the style of it would be the major attraction; and as such has taken time to lay it on as thick as possible, and this blends well with the music and storyline. The plot focuses on a corny music show enjoyed by the teens in Baltimore. 'Pleasantly plump' Tracy Turnblad is one of the many obsessed by this show and sets out to get a role as one of the dancers. She achieves her goal and soon becomes a local hero, but she loses some friends when she decides to use her success in order to speak out for what she believes in - namely social integration.While John Waters' style is one of the best things about the movie, in another way it's one of the worst. In his earlier films, the content is generally distracting enough for the audience not to really notice the rather boring directorial style; but this film doesn't have that, and while the style is a big enough distraction at first; it soon becomes clear that the plot is rather lacking and the film becomes dull before we even reach the halfway point. Hairspray stars Ricki Lake in the lead role, and she does a rather good job with it. The role doesn't require any great acting talents, but she is at least bright and breezy for the duration. The rest of the cast is filled out nicely by an eclectic list of names, which includes Debbie Harry, Divine, Pia Zadora and even the director himself in an amusing role as a psychologist. The message regarding segregation may well be a good one; but really it's not all that interesting and isn't put forward particularly well, and that's where the film falls down. Overall, I do like the style of the film and appreciate the ideas behind it; but it's not well executed and I don't rate it among Waters' best efforts.

evanston_dad John Waters acolytes will hate me for this, but I saw the recent movie musical version of "Hairspray" before I saw Waters' original, and I couldn't get over the feeling that the original fails in comparison.Ricki Lake does not have what it takes to play Tracy Turnblad, the chubby girl with the big hair who lands a spot on a teen dance show and becomes a Baltimore sensation. Tracy should be so engaging and lovable that no one can help but root for her, and Lake is definitely not that girl. It doesn't help that the rest of the cast acts like they're reading their lines off of cue cards, or that Waters lost all ability (or interest) in bringing his movie to a coherent conclusion. It's like Waters sets out to make his film too weird for the mainstream, but the directing and acting are too pedestrian to elevate it to the level of camp. So by the end it's just sort of boring.I'm vaguely turned off by John Waters movies. They're always so cheap looking and lazily directed, like no one, not Waters, the actors or the film artists, could be bothered to take anything very seriously. My question is: why should I expend the energy in watching this movie if the people who made it weren't even interested in the project to begin with? Grade: C

julzie61295 Personally, some parts of this movie have left me laughing to death. And these weren't the "meant to be funny" parts. This version of Hairspray is definitely cheesy. However, it was alright. When I saw this movie for the first time on ABC Family, I was really excited. Then, as it began, I was getting the feeling the whole movie would be filled with cheesy jokes and corny acting. ***Spoilers begin here***The scene where Penny and Tracy are watching the "Cory Collins Show" to the time where Penny said "I'm always punished," was where the worst acting took place. The rest of the movie was pretty good, except for the parts where Tracy and her classmates where playing dodge ball, and when the riot broke out at Tilted Acres.All in all, I gave Hairspray a 6/10 for alright acting, good dancing, good laughs and corny (so to speak) moments.