Hairspray (2007) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

U.S. 2007
Director: Adam Shankman
Cast: Nikki Blonsky, John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah, Brittany Snow
Rating: PG
Release Date: July 20th 2007
Running Time: 1 hour 56 minutes

The Movie Review

Hairspray film still 1


HAIRSPRAY
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

Fate…no one knows where it'll bring you. See that film still above? It's John Travolta. Yes, after making the girls went crazy in his 70s movies, Saturday Night Fever and Grease as the hunk who is great in dancing department. In 2007, he once more appears in a musical movie taking the theme of the 60s and the 70s, but this time as a big fat mom! Haha, I love seeing him in the fat suit! He's adorable...

However Hairspray is no longer centers on Travolta, but on a great newcomer in the movie industry named Nikki Blonsky. She roles as Tracy Turnblad, a happy plump if I may say, who spends the afternoon with her friend Penny Pingleton (Amanda Bynes) watching The Corny Collins Show, an extremely famous TV dance show managed by the bitchy Velma Von Tussle (Michelle Pfeiffer). The naive Tracy really only wants to sing and performs in The Corny Collins Show, but in doing so she finds walls blocking her way. From her kind-hearted but worrier mother, Edna Turnblad (John Travolta), her rival Amber Von Tussle (Brittany Snow) who is also the daughter of Velma Von Tussle, to a more complex problem concerning skin colour a.k.a racism.

But the ever-optimistic Tracy still sings her way to create a better place which echoes "Integration not Segregation". She is more than welcomed in the black community and even makes friends with Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah) and Seaweed Stubbs (Elijah Kelley) where Tracy could learn some cool R & B moves. Will Tracy ever get to appear on that show?

Chill of excitement was running down my spine and happy goosebumps was what I felt, for Hairpsray surely made my day with all those groovy songs, and those songs are not just great (although being great is more than enough), but the songs are feel-good songs which wrapped in an actually sensitive issue, racism. Between the black brothers and the white dudes.

The underlying theme is even better than the last year Dreamgirls, because Hairspray is not about personal life, and it's not about selfish things, yes it's about a dream of a girl, but a dream for a better life, to live together in harmony.

Back to Grease, minor critic to that dance movie is how could school boys and girls be really that good in dancing like professionals do? But in hairspray that flaw vanishes, for there are good reasons for the ending scene that everybody can dance, of course, they are TV personalities in a dance show!

Hairpsray, for which I think and agree, deserves 5 stars. When watching other musical movies, I did admire them and even awestruck to see how excellent those singers/actresses are, but seeing hairspray has evoked a different feeling, a feeling of wanting to be with them, to be on that stage singing with them. Now, that's an excellent emotional involvement!

Hairspray film still 2