Can't Dance

Hairspray, the movie.

The music wasn't bad, and the Tracy actress could sing. The good news sort of ends there.

I tried to overlook the movie's shallow racial pieties - it was a musical after all. John Travolta has been entertaining in a wide variety of movies. Unfortunately, his turn here as Jabba the Hut (or something) isn't one of them. Michelle Pfeiffer, luckily enough, was pretty much unrecognizable as the villainous villainess. Christopher Walken did what he could with what he had to work with.

More serious was the lack of any discernable wit. This kind of movie really does need to be funny.

Catastrophically for a movie about a dance contest, there was very little good dancing on display. Why not, I wonder?

I suppose I was spoiled. I happened to catch a little bit of an old Gene Kelly movie the other day.

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