I have to admit going into 'Hairspray', I thought I was going to get a pretentious schmaltzy formulaic musical with so-so performances....BOY WAS I WRONG! This movie was just a joy to watch. From the catchy opening number ('Good Morning Baltimore') to the sensational finale ('You Can't Stop the Beat', my fav) the film just had a wide-eye innocence not seen in movies for a looooong time.
And all the performances were fantastic. Nikki Blonsky is my new favorite young actress, she really blew it out of the park with the infectious Tracy Turnblad. As for Travolta, I so wanted to hate on his performance but I just can't, his/her Edna Turnblad was hilarious and endearing. Queen Latifah was awesome as usual, and Michelle Pfeiffer was devilishly good as the movie's villain. As for the rest: James Marsden turns in his best performance ever as Corny Collins, Amanda Bynes is lovable and funny as Tracy's BFF Penny, Elijah Kelly was ridiculous as Seaweed Tubbs, and I have to admit even Zac Efron was really good here (FYI, I hate 'High School Musical').Also while I'm not a huge fan of musicals, this is the first one that had me toe-tapping. I've never toe-tapped during a movie!
In conclusion, 'Hairspray' is definitely the biggest surprise of the year. It doesn't matter if your male, female, old, young, black, white, latino, Asian, gay, straight, whatever, I can promise you if you give this film a shot, you'll leave the theater with a big ol' smile on your face.
'Hairspray' is without a doubt one of the best of 2007 so far. 9.5/10
And all the performances were fantastic. Nikki Blonsky is my new favorite young actress, she really blew it out of the park with the infectious Tracy Turnblad. As for Travolta, I so wanted to hate on his performance but I just can't, his/her Edna Turnblad was hilarious and endearing. Queen Latifah was awesome as usual, and Michelle Pfeiffer was devilishly good as the movie's villain. As for the rest: James Marsden turns in his best performance ever as Corny Collins, Amanda Bynes is lovable and funny as Tracy's BFF Penny, Elijah Kelly was ridiculous as Seaweed Tubbs, and I have to admit even Zac Efron was really good here (FYI, I hate 'High School Musical').Also while I'm not a huge fan of musicals, this is the first one that had me toe-tapping. I've never toe-tapped during a movie!
In conclusion, 'Hairspray' is definitely the biggest surprise of the year. It doesn't matter if your male, female, old, young, black, white, latino, Asian, gay, straight, whatever, I can promise you if you give this film a shot, you'll leave the theater with a big ol' smile on your face.
'Hairspray' is without a doubt one of the best of 2007 so far. 9.5/10