Hairspray (2007)

This remake of Hairspray had the same general idea but went about its filming in a totally different way. I agree with Stephanie Zacharek's review. I feel like the new Hair Spray was too modern and also didn't really do the old Hairspray justive. "John Travolta, looking believably pretty and sweet under layers of fondant Latex, is a wholly different incarnation of Edna. And he's not bad. But that right there is the problem with "Hairspray": It's all so "not bad" that it isn't nearly enough, even when Shankman and his cast work hard to send it soaring over the top. Waters is the least subtle of directors, and the meaning of his movie rang out loud and clear enough to dissolve the ozone layer." The acting in this was excessively cheesy but not in the good, humorous way as the old one was. I found myself actually getting pissed off when they started to sing because it was just too much!

This movie is still set in Baltimore in the early 1960s and of course they still wanted integration to happen, obviously for humanitarian reasons, but also to s"ave white kids from being doomed to eternal squareness." I'm not even sure what that means but it sounds right. I guess in this one the African Americans taught Tracy how to gyrate and then she was able to get onto the show whereas, with the old movie she just naturally had talent and didn't have to be taught anything. 

Zacharek also agrees that the music was unbearable and the the older Hairspray was better - "the songs were relatively free of that lacquered show-tuney quality that makes so much show music unbearable, I still couldn't help feeling that the Waters version, with its shoestring-budget aesthetic, its wear around the edges, its resolute unshininess, was infinitely better." This movie was a little too "safe" and less exhilarating for me compared to the older version. The newer Tracy, played by Nikki Blonsky" was as peppy and had the body for all of that enthusiasm but she just was not as good as Ricki Lake to me. She lacked what I loved in Ricki, that attitude.

They did a lot of different things to the plot of this story such as cancel "Negro Day", Tracy didn't get locked up (but was definitely on the run from the police), Tracy and Link didn't kiss/be together until the end, there was a peaceful march instead of a riot, Little Inez (a black girl) actually won the competition and the Corny Collins Show was officially segrated, it was just anti-climactic for me (although Inez did dance the hell out of that song for a little girl!). Where was the drama that we so loved in the original Hairspray??? And well looka here! Zacharek agrees! - "Shankman's "Hairspray" streamlines the story considerably, doing away completely with some of its nuttier, more memorable elements: There's no ticking-time-bomb beehive here. And when Tracy organizes a desegregation march, Link, instead of simply joining in (as in Waters' original), makes a dud of a speech about having to opt out, lest he lose his big chance to become a star. The writers apparently thought they needed to add some tension to the story, and to the relationship. But in the loopy idealism of Waters' original, this whitest of white kids wouldn't even hesitate to join a desegregation march." I LIKE LOOPY!!!

I'm obviously a fan of the older Hairspray. I'd watch that a million times before I conform to the normality of Shankman's Hairspray again. But I must add, last but not least, that Michelle Pfeifer was damn good in this film.