{"id":8074,"date":"2007-11-25T19:20:43","date_gmt":"2007-11-26T00:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=8074"},"modified":"2007-11-25T19:20:43","modified_gmt":"2007-11-26T00:20:43","slug":"hairspray-2007-2-disc-shake-shimmy-edition-dvd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2007\/11\/25\/hairspray-2007-2-disc-shake-shimmy-edition-dvd\/","title":{"rendered":"Hairspray (2007): 2 Disc Shake & Shimmy Edition (DVD)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"51bCPEJjfvL\"<\/a>Alright, I\u2019ll just come out and say it. The remake of \u201cHairspray\u201d is great. There. Maybe it\u2019s because my expectations were high, maybe it\u2019s because I\u2019m such a fan of the original \u201cHairspray,\u201d or perhaps it\u2019s my utter obsession with everything Brittany Snow, but \u201cHairspray\u201d is damn good. The music is energetic, the pacing is competent, and shit will you find yourself tapping your feet from minute one. I was hoping it would be good, but in a way I also wanted it to fail. The original \u201cHairspray\u201d is my favorite John Waters film after all, and I just didn\u2019t think anyone could live up to it. You have great references to the original, Michelle Pfeiffer returning to the musical genre, and John Travolta in drag once again doing what he does best. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s much to hate in this. Sure, in the end it pretty much attempts to take away the surreal atmosphere Waters inserted, but hell the acting, the choreography and pretty much everything is top notch.<\/p>\n

And it also helps that there aren\u2019t many modern musicals that are above mediocre these days, so \u201cHairspray\u201d is a great breath of fresh air and ranks somewhere behind \u201cOnce.\u201d Some people may enjoy it more than the original, and that\u2019s great, but the original still holds a candle. Moving on, \u201cHairspray\u201d sets down in 1960\u2019s Baltimore where Tracy Turnblad dreams of dancing on the Corny Collins show. And in spite of her considerable girth and the antagonizing of spoiled snob Amber Von Tussle, she becomes a sensation which she risks in favor of the Civil Rights movement. Thankfully while this film is a bit toned down in terms of racial epithets, the civil rights themes are still here and very powerful. What the writers do is emphasize the character of Motormouth Maybelle and her children who manage to pose an important role in the battle for equality based around ending the \u201cNegro Day\u201d at the Corny Collins show and just letting everyone in to dance.<\/p>\n

Queen Latifah gives a great performance as Maybelle who doesn\u2019t rhyme everything she speaks, but is a dignified African force of nature who wants bigger things for her people. As much of a fan I am of Christopher Walken, and trust me the man is versatile, he just doesn\u2019t hold a candle to Jerry Stiller. In here, he\u2019s simply a grown man acting like a fool, when in the original Stiller embodied this immature childish persona who somehow managed to raise a socially aware and intelligent daughter in the process. Walken has very little to do here, and as a cast member he contributes very little, even though the parents this time around don\u2019t play much of an important part in Turnblad\u2019s life, beyond Edna. In the category of \u201cHuh?\u201d, the whole plot device of Velma attempting to break up the Turnblad\u2019s marriage through seducing Mr. Turnblad not only made no sense, but had no overall importance in the bigger picture.<\/p>\n

It was merely padding, and a way to give Michelle Pfeiffer a reason to further demonstrate her singing abilities. Upon a second glance, her musical number is overwrought, unnecessary, and completely questionable. What was the point of Edna appearing at the house setting it up to have Edna come in during an inopportune moment just for Walken\u2019s character to make up with Edna only minutes later? It simply added no forward motion. \u201cHairspray\u201d is a lot of fun, regardless, and as one who tends to dislike most modern musicals, it says a lot that I had goose bumps for most of the running time. Shankman takes the stage persona and combines it with almost the same camp and surreal kitschy quality of the original and brings us an awfully raucous little adaptation of the musical remake of the original. It’s a confusing equation, but a fun movie. Hell, this movie was great, I\u2019ll happily admit. It pays respect to the original while also carving its own image as a truly good musical. It\u2019s a possible contender for one of my favorite films of 2007, and almost competes with \u201cOnce,\u201d as the best musical on the last ten years. It\u2019s worth a watch for fans and casual movie-goers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alright, I\u2019ll just come out and say it. The remake of \u201cHairspray\u201d is great. There. Maybe it\u2019s because my expectations were high, maybe it\u2019s because I\u2019m such a fan of the original \u201cHairspray,\u201d or perhaps it\u2019s my utter obsession with everything Brittany Snow, but \u201cHairspray\u201d is damn good. The music is energetic, the pacing is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[219,302,438,559,700,835,874],"class_list":["post-8074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-comedy","tag-drama","tag-h","tag-john-waters","tag-musical","tag-remake","tag-romance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}