Hairspray

I'm not really a musical past 1970 kind of gal but Hairspray isn't bad. Nikki Blonsky was excellent as Tracy Turnblad, a Baltimore teen who sings about wanting to change the world and get on the dance hit, The Corney Collins Show. The music is enjoyable and the plot pretty consistent with the original movie (although I still prefer the cynical 1980s John Waters' classic.) Queen Latifah is great as Motormouth Maybelle. Michelle Pfeiffer did an admirable job as the evil Velma Von Tussle as did Britney Snow as her prissy daughter Amber. James Marsden was really cast well for the Collins part and Amanda Bynes wasn't terrible as the best friend. I thought John Travolta was trying too hard as Tracy's mother but I do give him credit for dancing in a fat suit. My question is, what is the big effing deal about Zac Effron. Yeah, he's cute but blah. Overall the film could have been cut by a good 15 minutes but it was a good 4th of July distraction.

I'm giving this 3 out of 5 Hons.