We went to see Hairspray last night.
Wow. I haven’t laughed so much at a movie this year since Hot Fuzz. It is missing a little bit of John Waters’ twistedness–except for the brilliant opening number “Good Morning, Baltimore” in which Waters appears as a flasher–and, as the Mrs. pointed out, I miss the beatniks (Pia Zadora and Ric Ocasek) and the exploding hair, but as a film of a musical of a film goes, it’s awesome.
Nikki Blonsky was perfect as Tracy Turnblad, the plump-but-perky dancer and star-gazer. And the rest of the cast was great as well. Michelle Pfeiffer was comically wicked. Christopher Walken was terminally goofy. Queen Latifah was…well, she was Queen Latifah! But if John Travolta weren’t already in my Book of Cool for “Pulp Fiction,” this would give him a spot.
If this movie doesn’t take home a bucket-load of Oscars, I’ll eat my copy of Chicago.
I can’t wait to see it! I saw the cast on the Today Show Friday, and, they were great!
awesome! i’m glad you gave it a good review – now i know it won’t suck! i’m taking the Pete out to see it this weekend (though he says he’s only going cos i want to. i think he’ll enjoy it in the end.) he hasn’t seen the John Waters original. (he is missing out.)