Truly Dreadful Film

Excellent but underrated film

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

What a joyful and heartfelt movie this is, and totally different from many other US productions, thanks to John Waters ability to dare to stand out. First of all, this is the final movie from the late (great) Divine, who sadly passed away a short while after the film was released. He is really good in this film, and plays one of the lead characters with humour, passion and with a heart. The film has, as John Waters other films too, many funny, and strange cameo appearances, who are amusing and entertaining. Debbie Harry shows her acting talent in this film too. The story is light and cheerful, but underneath it has a message who deals with a more serious matter, racism. John Waters brings back a world of 50-music and Dance in this film, and it's very well done. This is so much better than the remake and no one can play Edna better better than Divine although John Travolta did his best. Ricky Lake does a good job here, but is not the films biggest asset. A must see.

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.

Hairspray directed by John Waters is one of the first movies that he directed that was mainstream and less obscure/ extreme to cinema goers in 1988.I decided to give the original version of this movie a go before watching the 2007 remake I have seen this movie at least five times and is one of those movies that never gets old or flat after watching it multiple times.My favorite character was Edna Turnblad played by drag queen Divine.I thought this movie was more cruder than the 2007 remake but it was still acceptable to mainstream cinema.I really liked the songs in this movie.This movie was very funny and had some fantastic quotes.This is one of the few musicals I liked.Rating : 9/10 stars.

1st watched 11/12/2008- (Dir-John Waters): Fun and surprisingly watchable John Waters film about an overweight teen trying to make it on a 50's dance show. Rikki Lake is great in the lead and Divine does a good job as her understanding mother. Despite the filmmakers reputation there are very few gross-out scenes and a good anti-racial theme protecting both overweight people and blacks. The movie has a silly premise and approach but actually does a good job of showing how stupid some of the laws against African-Americans were in the fifties and the sixties. The movie also just flat out entertains and doesn't try to take itself too seriously. I'm actually now looking forward to watching other John Water's films because of this one although I'm sure most of them are not as tame as this one.