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July 20, 2007
At the Movies: 'Hairspray' entertains, but misses Waters' kitsch
By CHRISTY LEMIRE
AP Movie Critic
AP Movie Critic
The world probably didn't need another film version of John Waters' 1988 romp “Hairspray” any more than it needed a Broadway musical version of it. The whole cycle reeks of that movie-of-a-stage-production-of-a-movie debacle that has tainted the legacy of “The Producers.”
| HAIRSPRAY |
 Director: Adam Shankman Cast: John Travolta, Nikki Blonsky, Amanda Bynes, Christopher Walken, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley, Queen Latifah, Michelle Pfeiffer Rating: PG for language, some suggestive content and momentary teen smoking Running time: 117 minutes |
Having said that, this new brand of “Hairspray” is a hybrid of its predecessors: enormously entertaining but with only faint traces of Waters' signature dark, kitschy humor. It is, in a word, safe — one you would ordinarily never use to describe Waters' work.
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Previous columns:
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