Hairspray (the remake)

Unfortunately my disk was scratched, so at several points in the movie it messed up so I missed several scenes.

Good: I’m a huge fan of the original movie, and the stage show. While its always hard not to compare remakes to the original, I felt this one stood on its own pretty well. It has a lot of the same humor and feel of the original, but makes a lot of it its own. The biggest difference between the two is the budget. John Waters obviously didn’t have this kind of money to make his version. And there are a lot more big names in this one, Travolta, Walker, Pfeiffer. This version is also a lot more colorful and visual, better sets and wardrobes. All thanks to that budget.

Most of the casting is pretty spot on too. The Nikki Blonsky is awesome as Tracy. Heck she seemed like I would want to hang out where in real life. Walken is good at anything he does.

And as a fan of the original it was kind of fun to spot all the cameos of the original cast, sans Divine. Ricki Lake, Jerry Stiller and even John Waters pop up in a few places.

Bad: I really didn’t have any problems with the movie on a whole. There was just one glaringly bad choice in casting, John Travolta. Why? Really, I mean why? So many things wrong with the choice, from his voice to the fat suit. None of it worked at all. Even without comparing him to Divine (no competition). But with the stage show they even had great choices in casting from Bruce Vilance to Harvey Fierstein, both far better choices. And while I like Travolta a lot, this is by far the worst I have ever seen him do.