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Hairspray
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Hairspray

1988
Comedy, Drama
1h 32m
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Avg Percentile 49.31% from 999 total ratings

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(999)
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Rated 29 May 2008
65
61st
Charming and weird. I love that this movie unexpectedly made such a huge cultural splash that even my 63 year-old mother knows who John Waters is, but if she ever saw "Pink Flamingos" she'd have a total aneurysm.
Rated 16 Aug 2007
73
40th
So fuckin' weird! But I had the fortune (or misfortune) of seeing the 2007 version first. The new musical feels as if crafted by a team full of heart and love for the material, this just seems slapped together by J. Waters, not that that's bad, its just not as enjoyable as the musical. I do like the bigger/crazier role Prudence Pingleton plays in the film though and John Waters as crazy psychiatrist, that's comedy.
Rated 19 Jul 2014
95
96th
What a wonderful film. Cannot apply that to any previous Waters films without coming off as a ghoul.
Rated 02 Jun 2008
25
17th
Not good at all. It has an awful cast, terrible acting (by anybody but Stiller, who is ok), and generally a very low-quality production. Watch the 2007 film instead, as it's far, far better. Lacks all the charm and fun of the remake. The music isn't even memorable. I'm shocked at how good the 2007 film turned out, with this as it's source material. This has dated horribly.
Rated 07 Mar 2012
73
44th
Despite some abrasive elements, this remains a fairly tame satire of the 60s, which lacks even the slightly edgier undertones that the musical adopted. There is still a lot to enjoy here (Harry's hairstyles are worth the price of admission) and director Waters is hilarious as a brain-washing guru, but overall the subject matter is dealt with far more succesfully (and energetically) in the later musical version.
Rated 16 Aug 2012
70
26th
Rawer than the remake but lack of polish cuts both ways. It's still too campy for the social commentary to have much impact and the energy is rather uneven.
Rated 30 Jan 2014
78
46th
While its no match for the remake which I just love, its interesting to see where it all started and its still a feel-good film with a similar, yet very different approach.
Rated 28 Mar 2014
90
90th
Quoth the late Sonny Bono: "Segregation now! segregation forever!" John Waters went to Hollywood and managed to create his most genuinely subversive work. Was booted back out promptly (after getting in the overrated Crybaby and the underrated Serial Mom.) Went back to Hollywood (via Broadway) to ruin it with musical numbers and John Travolta.
Rated 07 Aug 2016
53
72nd
"Cry-Baby" and "Cecil B. Demented" didn't hold my interest much, so I wasn't really expecting this latter period Waters to be this enjoyable, but it's just so sweet. :) And, yeah, seeing Divine in his last Waters role makes it poignant all the more. Very charming [gently kicks rat off of shoe].
Rated 22 Aug 2017
85
85th
I just realized that when Bart wears the wig and starts dancing in the John Waters episode of the Simpsons, it is directly referencing this film. How did I manage to go this long without knowing that?
Rated 01 May 2018
75
66th
Waters' family-friendly fluff musical is actually more subversive than his midnight movie shock fests. It's really quite wonderful how he gleefully manages to inject some of his radical attitude into a stiff pop genre, invigorating it in the process. His colorful camp writing & flat storytelling are right at home in a soapy retelling of 60s politics. Charming & sweet but mostly shines in the details. Fitting cast except for Debbie Harry who could never appear anything other than loveable.
Rated 02 Jan 2007
83
73rd
Em honra de Ric Ocasek (1944 – 2019). John Waters é um dos meus heróis artísticos, políticos e morais, mas não é segredo que eu gosto mais dos filmes menos limpinhos dele, não que este não seja um grande filme, mas é menos incisivo do que ele fazia nos anos 70. BlurayRip RARGB.
Rated 20 Jan 2007
43
36th
Not John Waters' finest hour.
Rated 01 Mar 2007
45
25th
Strange film.
Rated 02 Apr 2007
90
86th
John Waters goes PG and is still as subversive as ever. Lovely film all around
Rated 14 Aug 2007
79
29th
Nice to see a cast of John Waters regulars and others (including a back in the day Ricki Lake) indulging in some innocent nostalgic fun.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
78
35th
John Waters tackles lesser bad taste in his enjoyable tale of dance-crazed teens.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
75
77th
A quirky, yet curiously sweet look at the world of dance in the 60's.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
80
73rd
null
Rated 29 Oct 2007
77
92nd
Fresh, original, fun, lively music, great casting, lots of laughs and a great music.
Rated 08 Nov 2007
75
72nd
I'm avoiding the remake. John Travolta in a fatsuit is NO MATCH for the late great Divine. Toe knee :-)
Rated 26 Dec 2007
75
37th
Great cult classic, with great music and good lines! Divine's best in my opinion.
Rated 30 Dec 2007
75
70th
A feel good musical comedy that now is outshined by its 2007 counterpart.
Rated 02 Jan 2008
69
35th
A bit like an old bed - firm at either end but saggy in the middle. This has great promise and in the main manages to deliver. Some slowing of pace during the middle of the film although it's regularly pepped up by Divine and some great one-liners. Energetic and fast paced numbers and lively dance routines help to make this brighter. A good second division musical.
Rated 30 May 2008
55
35th
corny and fun, but too lightweight
Rated 18 Jun 2008
15
15th
Why the hell this movie has so much of a following is beyond me. Trite, supposedly satirical fluff with all the bad acting of a Waters movie, but none of the fun and/or gross stuff.
Rated 27 Dec 2008
64
40th
Really charming an entertaining, with a great cast and some good musical numbers. Travolta could have been better, but everyone else was fantastic. It's nice to see a movie that has a good message put forward in a way that isn't insulting to the viewer's intelligence.
Rated 10 May 2009
69
47th
I hate musicals. I didn't absolutely dislike this film, but it wasn't all that great, either. Not one I'd recommend if we have much in common.
Rated 29 Jun 2009
4
87th
A thoughtful reflection on race relations in 1960s America. Great cameo by Ric Ocasek and Waters himself is hilarious as the psychiatrist.
Rated 25 Mar 2010
80
66th
Starts off slowly, but works its way into a comedy with both a nice and wicked sense of humor. Having grown up listening to a lot of this music my parents played, it becomes my own little nostalgia trip as well.
Rated 22 Aug 2010
60
54th
There is fairly little to this movie but it's enjoyable nonetheless.
Rated 24 Nov 2010
68
31st
for this troglodite it was the beginning of the end for JW. yeah yeah yeah he had to "evolve", right? He had to "move on as a maturing artist" or some such rationalization for diluting and sapping his ventures of any of the bite and random, manic energy and barely-controlled chaos that reigned over his previous shit. Give me Crackers (or life in Mortville) over bouffanted debutantes any day......Oh..wait....it's for the money? (aye, there's the rub)
Rated 13 Dec 2010
65
57th
Sweet. And a little bit of Divine can do no wrong.
Rated 11 Aug 2011
80
51st
John Waters at his gentlest, although there are plenty of splashes of his trademark grotesquerie. HAIRSPRAY's deals with the love of music (and dance), and the 60s fight for integration, and Waters integrates (yuk yuk) these two themes well, avoiding preachiness while successfully lampooning the excesses of bigotry (and 60s hair). And, of course, the music and dancing are great. Fine acting all around: Divine steals the show in a dual role (as a woman AND a man!). A light, endearing film.
Rated 16 Nov 2011
65
50th
Well, that was fun.
Rated 12 Aug 2012
90
90th
This is my favorite of John Waters' "mainstream" movies. Despite not compromising his basic underground sensibilities a whit, this film is filled with such unmitigated joy and yeah, innocence, particularly in its racial politics, a first for Waters, that I always feel like dancing after I watch it.
Rated 24 Nov 2012
80
65th
Entertaining.
Rated 07 May 2014
6
54th
Breezy, sometimes funny, and very feel-good.
Rated 01 Jul 2014
75
54th
John Waters making a mainstream movie sounds like a really bad idea until you notice Divine keeps making jokes about diet pills and stuff and the whole film has this cheeky, dark undercurrent to it which keeps the bright, cheerful overtones from feeling like too much, but also maintains a sense of earnestness. It's a lot of fun to watch, and the film looks so colorful and bright, and it also plays with its own sense of artifice. Wonderful soundtrack too.
Rated 05 Sep 2015
45
46th
Campy message movie about acceptance with lots of unlikable characters, just to prove the point.
Rated 23 Mar 2018
85
59th
Viewed March 22, 2018.
Rated 14 Apr 2018
53
32nd
Like Cry Baby, Hairspray takes strides towards accessibility and leans heavily on nostalgia, but it's still the product of the director's idiosyncratic talent, so the usual digs at mainstream society are here in abundance along with skewered social commentary. The lampooning of bourgeois norms seems largely motivated by resentment, and Lake's character is an early poster child for fat acceptance. It's entertaining but highly uneven. Newcomers should start with Cry Baby.
Rated 30 Oct 2018
5
73rd
it's overstated how much of a sellout this is, just because of how insane early waters could be. this is still absolutely righteous camp, and it stands out like a pleasantly plump dancer in a sea of stick-thin barbie dolls. "i'm an integrationist. we shall overcome someday." "not with that hair you won't".
Rated 19 Aug 2021
73
61st
Like the other 2 Water's I've seen in that it's so much fun to look at and live in. But it's just a little much for my aesthetic sensibilities. Good looks at the intersecting of race and class in America
Rated 27 Dec 2022
63
20th
Fairly fun film that's set in a very specific time of American culture, and it evokes it well through the passionate acting and dialogue, although the set design could've had a bit more going for it, with almost the whole film looking like it was filmed in a gymnasium. And the content for this film is just too fluffy, with The Message playing out like in a Sesame Street episode, and I unfortunately don't find quite a lot of the dancing to be that impressive. Not John Waters best musical.
Rated 16 Nov 2023
70
42nd
What I'm not that fond of is the second half of the film. Once the integration plot line kicks in, the film seems to go into a bit of autopilot and just rockets through to the fairly predictable end. I like the film, but I much prefer the wilder, more dangerously unpredictable Waters. Pia Zadora and Ric Ocasek playing beatniks should work a lot better than it does.
Rated 28 Jan 2024
60
24th
Ugh I wish I liked this more.
Rated 19 Feb 2024
75
76th
A blast from start to finish, and pretty much 100% a John Waters movie in my book. Female Trouble seems to be based on this unlikely idea of Divine becoming a superstar against all the odds, and for me this says a lot about Waters' and Divine's relationship with the mainstream. I appreciate that Waters believes that it's entirely appropriate for he and Divine (as cultural representatives) to have a place on daytime/primetime television, for example.
Rated 18 Mar 2024
59
75th
It just works.

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