HAIRSPRAY

HAIRSPRAY has a lot going for it...
1 - Brilliant casting - John Travolta, Christopher Walker, Michelle Pfeiffer, and the movie stealing Allison Janey!
2 - A look all it's own - rarley has color been so vibrant in a movie...reminds me of the colorful EDWARD SCISSORHANDS times 10.
3 - A seemingly endless supply of hilarious over-the-top one-liners like "your pork is ready"..."now I've tasted chocolate"..."you're never gonna see that bee-hived harlet again"..."you will live on a diet of saltines and tang") and absolutely classic catch-phrases like "negro-day"..."miss teen hairspray"..."devil child". This is seriously funny stuff.

BUT

Between the great lines of dialogue delivered by the excellent cast we're left with a series of like sounding musical numbers that all seem to run together. They all look and sound exactly the same, and it doesn't take long for them to become just plain boring. More than anything this film reminds me of GREASE...and I could see it catching on as a cult classic in much the same way. It even features a host of young up-and-coming actors who are destined for bigger things (Amanda Bynes, Zac Efron, and James Marsden to name a few). We'll see how time and moviegoers treat HAIRSPRAY. As for me I love the cast and dialogue...but not the song and dance. 3 1/2 of 5 hs