Comedy in which two \”"girls\”" compete for the star position on Baltimore’s Corny Collins dance show.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 7-SEP-2004
Media Type: DVDJohn Waters made his bid for PG respectability with this enjoyably trashy comedy about the racial integration of a teen dance show on Baltimore television in the early ’60s. Waters, as always, makes a virtue of junk culture and the powerful emotional forces it can represent as kids vie to get on the show. Meanwhile, a parade of former stars (Pia Zadora, Debbie Harry, Sonny Bono) and pseudostars (Divine, Ricki Lake) cross the screen, playing freakish characters absorbed by thoughts of fame. (Waters himself turns up as a weirdo psychiatrist.) This transitional film for Waters is rough going at times and not as interesting or funny as his later features Cry-Baby and Serial Mom, but it’s worth a look. –Tom Keogh
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March 5, 2010
#1
I saw the stage production and thought that since it was good the movie would be good also. I was very wrong. The movie is awful
March 5, 2010
#2
I think this is a rip off at ANY PRICE over 50 cents! it’s a terrible movie and almost impossible to follow. if you want to see a hairspray movie watch the remake!!! it’s MORE than a night and day difference! DON’T BUY THIS MOVIE!!!
March 5, 2010
#3
I’m not a big fan of John Waters or the genre, so I wasn’t expecting much. I realize that everything about this was very tongue and cheek. Fans of Divine may enjoy it, but I felt the jokes were stale.
March 5, 2010
#4
I will admit that we saw the new theater version before we saw this original, so that my have tainted our thoughts, but my family of five felt this was slow. It had some funny parts, but they were few and far between. It had a good message, but it was a bit jumbled and not very clear. I don’t want to compare it to the new, musical version, but it’s hard not too. I read all the reviews talking about all the dancing and the music. We didn’t find the music memorable. There are some good dance scenes, but not enough to outweigh the rest of the film. It’s well-done as far as the acting, but it’s not very well written. I did appreciate the positive reviews that mentioned stories about the actual television show and growing up in Baltimore. That gave me a little more understanding about the background and I really appreciated that. I just have to say that I think the newest version is everything the original was, but a lot more. More dancing, more fun, more colorful. We were hoping and expecting to enjoy this original version a lot more than we did.
March 5, 2010
#5
I only recently watched this and didn’t realize beforehand that it was not really a musical. I much prefer the newer version. It’s just not the same without the music.