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76
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60
9
17
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37
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53
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66
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45
Box, The
61
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55
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43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
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29
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23
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80
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61
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39
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30
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34
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60
Funny People
32
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27
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41
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39
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46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
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55
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66
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69
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58
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47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
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33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
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42
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28
Pandorum
63
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86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
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30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
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35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
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88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
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73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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58
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96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
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39
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78
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61
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66
Afterschool
xx
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58
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72
Amreeka
48
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73
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62
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55
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76
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86
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13
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70
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35
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71
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66
Black Dynamite
51
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xx
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76
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35
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26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
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45
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81
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70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
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57
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62
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65
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69
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59
Collapse
44
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82
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75
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82
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67
Departures
xx
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71
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xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
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24
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85
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55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
64
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
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63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Hairspray

Universal acclaim
Based on 37 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 142 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama | Musical
Written by:
John Waters (1988 screenplay)
Mark O'Donnell (musical play)
Leslie Dixon
Directed by: Adam Shankman
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 20, 2007
DVD: November 20, 2007
Running Time: 94 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG for language, some suggestive content and momentary teen smoking
Starring Nikki Blonsky, John Travolta, Amanda Bynes, Queen Latifah, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Allison Janney, and James Marsden
Based on the 1988 John Waters’ cult classic, Hairspray is the story of Tracy Turnblad, a big girl with big hair and an even bigger heart, who has only one passion—dancing. When her dream of becoming a regular personality on “The Corny Collins Show” comes true, she wins many fans and becomes an advocate for integration. (New Line Cinema)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
New York Post Lou Lumenick
The best and most entertaining movie adaptation of a stage musical so far this century - and yes, I’m including the Oscar-winning "Chicago."
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
A feel-good musical that, for a change, actually makes you feel good.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
In its entirety, Hairspray has the funny tilt that only a director-choreographer like Shankman can give to a movie.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Albert Williams
With its wisecracking screenplay, period-perfect pop score, and Shankman's splashy choreography, this may be the funniest, dancingest screen musical since "Singin' in the Rain."
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
A great big sloppy kiss of entertainment for audiences weary of explosions, CGI effects and sequels, sequels, sequels.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Broad and funny, its sensibility is very campy and it's out to be loved by everyone.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
A fizzy and delirious high-camp message-movie musical that may just turn out to be the happiest movie of the summer.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
So good at what it does that it can exhaust you: In the later going, one big number follows on the heels of another so quickly that it feels more like an opera than a regular musical.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The film's an irresistible time capsule of that Camelot summer, blending girrrrrl power, social consciousness and faux-'60s pop with the fizz of a soda jerk whipping up a root beer float.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Just plain fun. Or maybe not so plain. There's a lot of craft and slyness lurking beneath the circa-1960s goofiness.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
If you look fast, you'll see Waters himself in a cameo (as a flasher; what else?), proof the new film is in touch with its dyed roots.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
What it offers isn't really a nostalgic look at a "more innocent time" so much as a saucy wink at a casually vicious time that is constantly being sold to us as innocent.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
The overall mood of Hairspray is so joyful, so full of unforced enthusiasm, that only the most ferocious cynic could resist it.
Read Full Review >Variety Dennis Harvey
It's one of the best Broadway-tuner adaptations in recent years -- yes, arguably even better than those Oscar-winning ones.
Read Full Review >Empire Will Lawrence
Offering plenty of body and a lot of lift, Hairspray gels kitsch styling with show-stopping tunes to mould a memorable musical.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
Shankman and his screenwriter, Leslie Dixon, prove you can make a lightweight Broadway musical into big movie fun.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Steve Davis
If ever there were a happy summer movie, it’s Hairspray. But for all its bubbly musical numbers and effervescent good humor, this film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical feels oddly lacquered -- it’s John Waters by way of Disney.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Less polished but more fun than "Dreamgirls." Both are drag revues at heart, one funny, the other serious. I prefer the funny one.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The film isn't deep or thematically rich or filled with amazing characters. Instead, it's an excursion into song and dance, and works admirably on that level.
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
This Hairspray really is a lot of fun -- colorful, sassy, and brisk.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
John Travolta may stand out as a plus-size laundress who is hesitant, drab and retiring, but Hairspray is a consistently flashy, rousing and rambunctious movie spectacle.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Delivers an even bigger sugar rush than the hit Broadway musical.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Though the film is too slick and heavy-handed in its pro-integration sloganeering, and it's burdened by Travolta's ill-conceived star turn, its infectious high spirits and catchy tunes still pack one hell of a sugar rush.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
For all the flash and flutter, the movie overall lacks, well, HEFT.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
Hairspray isn’t all that bad, frankly. The songs are catchy, most of the leads are engaging enough (Blonksy and Bynes especially), and there’s just enough low-key subversiveness to keep everything from getting too saccharine.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Travolta, looking believably pretty and sweet under layers of fondant Latex, is a wholly different incarnation of Edna. And he's not bad. But that right there is the problem with Hairspray: It's all so "not bad" that it isn't nearly enough, even when Shankman and his cast work hard to send it soaring over the top.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman
In the musical numbers, where by rights Mr. Travolta should shine, he's almost out-danced and certainly out-charmed by Edna's better half, Wilbur (Christopher Walken), who is one of the movie's great assets, an oasis of calm amid the twisting and shouting.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
Adam Shankman's movie of the Broadway Hairspray gets better as it lumbers along, but there’s something garish about its hustle--it’s like an elephant trumpeting in your face.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
The movie version of the hit Broadway musical Hairspray is perfectly pleasant--I smiled to myself all the way through it--but it’s not as exhilarating as the show.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Peter Marks
When Hairspray is twisting and shouting and swiveling its hips, you can even dare to believe a great society is waiting in the wings.
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
This movie-turned-stage-show-turned-movie-again is intermittently tasty, if a little too frantically eager to please.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
John Travolta takes on John Waters in Hairspray, and the result is anything but a drag in this appealingly goofy, all-singing, all-dancing screen adaptation of the Broadway musical based on the 1988 film.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
What completely undermines that appearance is Shankman's chronic inability to shoot the damn scene. His camerawork is so stiff it should be interred in a pine box.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Scott Foundas
The movie is visually flat: not pasty and garish in the Waters signature style, but merely serviceable and competent in the worst tradition of Hollywood "professionalism."
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 142 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Javier M gave it a10:
Great movie and great songs. "Hairspray" is a very funny spectacle for all family. Zac Efron and Nikki Blonsky sings like the angels and her characters are unforgetables.
Christina K. gave it a10:
A great movie, loved every minute. Great songs too.
Harris K. gave it a2:
Puh-lease. I can't believe a movie with a few catchy songs can automatically get starred reviews! This movies story is extremely cliche and very cheesy. Even all the songs sound the same.
Heather R. gave it a10:
Excellent! The songs are very catchy; they never get out of your head! From the first note you fall in love with Niki and Penny. They make a great team and whole cast makes the movie a feel good flick. T They just don't make a lot of movies that are happy anymore; all you see is tears and blood. This movie is awesome and anyone should go see it, then ( just like I did ) go buy the songs of ITunes!
Mike gave it a1:
Very colorful, likable for the first 15 mins, and then it just became annoying! Travolts sucks a woman, he didn't look like one, didn't move like one, or speak like one. Also this is a "MUSICAL" so why are actors singing when they don't have the talent too sing!
Lenny C. gave it a3:
If you have never seen a train wreck, watch this movie, it is an hour and a half boring music video with no let up, i felt like sceeming,, "STOP THE MUSIC"
[Anonymous] gave it a1:
A terrible, overlong, bland, stupid, unoriginal, overblown, hammed-up waste of space, for reasons that are too glaring and all-consuming to even begin discussing here.
