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Three of my favorite young people (two daughters and a boyfriend….Brittany’s, not mine) and I saw Hairspray last night. I was expecting it to be good – after all, if John Travolta and Queen Latifah are on board – it has to be a fun ride. What I wasn’t expecting was for it to be great.
I’d read review after review saying things like, “I smiled through the whole movie…” and I kept thinking, No one smiles through a whole movie - unless it’s my husband and there’s a lot of kicking, shoving, punching, and throwing bodies going on. Yet, I lost track of the number of times I caught myself smiling ear to ear.
The entire cast is simply perfect – I don’t know when I’ve seen a better job of casting. John Travolta (Edna) is adorably hilarious as a larger than life mother, Queen Latifah proves that she’s one of the most gifted singers we’ve ever had, and Niki Blonsky (Tracey), Zac Efron (Link), Amanda Bynes (Penny), Elijah Kelly (Seaweed), and James Marsden (Corny) are each mesmerizing.
It’s a wonderfully fun feel great movie and we all know there aren’t nearly enough of those. I’m hoping that it’s such a runaway hit that Hollyood starts shelling them out like they once did Spaghetti westerns.
Go see Hairspray only if you want a toe tapping, fun, feel good, spirit-lifting evening full of smiles. I honestly didn’t want it to end.
by joi on January 22, 2006
in General
We went to see Last Holiday last night. It was my husband’s turn to pick the movie, and when he did so, our daughters and I thought he’d lost his mind. When he said “Five tickets for Last Holiday,” all four of us looked at one another and mouthed, “Last Holiday,” with question marks dancing above our heads. Then we started looking around, trying to be nonchalant, but frantically searching for the movie poster for this particular movie…you know, the one we’d never heard of!
When we found the movie poster, we saw that Queen Latifah was in it, and we’re all big fans of the Queen (Could listen to her sing all day)….so we breathed a sigh of relief – at least there’d be a friendly face in the movie from obscurity!
The movie proved to be very, very, very good. It was terribly cute. The Queen and LL Cool J were amazingly adorable, and quite talented. I don’t want to give away any of the plot that you may be unaware of, because there’s an awful lot to be said for watching a movie without knowing what the next scene will bring. That’s why I often never even read a movie review until after I’ve seen the movie – I don’t want a road map to my movie, I just want to enjoy the ride!
And Last Holiday was a great ride. I hate that there’ve been so many other movies lately getting all the attention – From King Kong to Brokerback Mountain and from The Chronicles of Narnia to Glory Road (Loved them, too!)… Heck, even movies that stunk are getting more attention for their stink than Last Holiday has been getting. Apparently, The New World and Rumor Has It are so bad it’s laughable.
Last Holiday seems to be getting somewhat lost in the shuffle. And that’s a King-sized shame, because the Queen is something to behold. You really oughta see this one! It’s a real feel good movie that’ll leave you feeling….well, good! It has a lot of heart, a lot of lessons, and a lot of fun.
Timothy Hutton, Alicia Witt and Gerard Depardieu are also in the movie. But make no mistake about it, Queen Latifah and LL Cool J are the stars. And they certainly shine.
Joi
P.S. Happy Birthday, Michael, I love you muchly!
