Review of Hairspray (2007) by Russell G — 27 Apr 2013
This is not a successful conversion from Broadway to Hollywood. Having seen the stage version of the musical (which is very good) it may have made my distaste for this movie stronger. The music and simple story is still the same they just are not performed well and do not come to life like the play does.
When the movie Chicago got already famous actors to sing it was great because that cast could sing at a high level. Hairspray got established stars that could not offer the necessary talent to sign and dance at the highest level and it gets ugly at times.
Leslie Dixon and Christopher Walken are good but the rest of the cast is out of their league. John Travolta is extremely bad in a make or break role. It also fails to fully capture the charm and style of the 60s, which also hurts it.
Let the movie version go and make the trip to the theater for this one.
This review of Hairspray (2007) was written by Russell G on 27 Apr 2013.
Hairspray has generally received positive reviews.
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