Good Morning, Baltimore; I Got It!

Hairspray: The Movie Musical

(If you want the synopsis of the film, click here.) 

I always had the curiosity: if stage versions of musicals were adapted to the big screen would it work?

Some do, ie, Grease.  And some don’t, ie, Rent (if though I think it should’ve been promoted better).

This is one of the “do’s.”  Although the ending has been slightly changed, it still works to almost an exact to its counterpart.

I did notice some continuation edit mistakes, but that’s just me using my college degree. 🙂

John Travolta playing Edna Turblad is delightful.  Even though it’s been almost 30 years since Grease, it was just wonderful watching him dance and sing in that beautiful fatsuit he had on. 

Michelle Pfeiffer as Velma Von Tussle was very convincing as the former beauty queen turned tv stage manager.  Her singing voice is fiesty as ever.  I still can’t believe she was in Grease 2.

James Marsden was great.  One can’t help but wonder that all that smiling must hurt.  And yes, Scott Sommers/Cyclops has a wonderful tenor voice.  Once again my thinking lead me to this conclusion: Boy, thank god Boogie’s Diner was only one season. 

Queen Latifah part of Motormouth Maybelle was better than the original one in the 1988 non-musical movie.  Strong singing voice.  

Allison Janney part of Prudy Pingleton, even though small in part, was second to Amanda Bynes’ Penny Pingleton in comic relief.   I’ve only known Allison as CJ on the West Wing, but her humor in that was a very dry in nature.

But, the biggest surprise, as in the roles of the adults, was that of Christopher Walken.  His Wilbur Turnblad was wonderful.  He was the cat’s meow.

As for the kids, newcomer Nikki Blonsky was excellent as Tracy Turnblad.  She looked like she was really having fun whether she was in character or not.  Zac Efron as Link.  Once in a while I was thinking Elvis with cuter eyes.  Elijah Kelley as Seaweed.  Another cute with a great voice.  And lastly, Brittany Snow and Amanda Bynes.  Who knew they could sing?  Surprise to me.

Last, but not least, props go to the producers and directer, to include John Waters and Ricki Lake in cameos.  (John Waters is seen as a flasher and Ricki Lake plays a talent agent.)

***********************************************

I got it!  I got it!

The last book of the Harry Potter saga arrived at my doorstep around 11:30am today. 

I’m only in the first pages of the first chapter.

I should finish this book by week’s end.

I do have a life. 🙂

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The movie is much darker than the previous. 

Imelda Staunton plays Delores Umbridge perfectly.  Just as I would have imagine the character adaption. 

Emma Thompson, albiet her character Sybil Trelawney is only a few minutes worth seeing, still makes me laugh.  The thick eyeglasses remind me of that character in Office Space.  I couldn’t help laughing to myself in wishing that her character was going to say, “Don’t touch my red stapler or I’ll set this place on fire.”

But, what I really liked was the death scene of Sirius Black.  It wasn’t too dramatic like I would imagined. 

As like the others in this series, great visual effects.  And the audio edits were wonderful–no need for sound when we can see how Harry reacted to Sirius’ death.

 The only disappointing factor is that the film seem to go too fast. 😦 

 Now to anxiously wait for the 2-disc DVD. 🙂

Back from PA!

I am back from spending time with sis and family over the Easter holiday.  Here’s a few diddies:

• My Brother-in-law.  He’s a great husband and father.  On Tuesday, he’s was showing me where my younger neice goes to pre-school.  My older neice gave him this “but Tita just got here” look.  “I’m just going to show her where your sister goes to school and then I’m bringing her home, okay?!” “Okay,” my neice says quietly. 
• Church.  My sister and family are church visiting, which one of their friends dubbed that to being a “Cheaster.”  That’s when you visit a church on Christmas and Easter.  The church we visited on Easter was Church of Christ.  The service was that of “old school” since I’m now very used to having a semi-contemporary church service.  I am, though, a bit unconfortable to having a women preacher at the pulpit.
• Shopping.  The state of PA has NO SALES TAX on appearal, so that makes me very happy.  Happy to the point where I bought an extra duffle bag to bring my new stuff in. 
• Meet the Robinsons.  The new Disney film is both shown in standard and 3-D.  We saw it in the latter.  I forgot to wear my contacts that day so wearing 3-D glasses over my eyeglasses had to take some adjusting to do.  The film was funny.  But, the best scene was where the dinosaur was chasing Louis and his master said something like, “Why aren’t you chasing the boy?!” The dinosaur says something like (via subtiltes), “I have a big head and tiny arms.  I don’t think this plan was thought through.” 
• Hockey game.  I saw the Baby Pens shutout the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 6-0 on Wednesday night.  Former H-town Aero Petr Ratchuk still plays with puck, but he was +3 for the night.
• Snow.  It snowed while I was up there.  It ranged from light to heavy, but none of it was sticking to the ground.

 Well, that’s all I can recall folks. 

Suhhhweeet!

Pittsburgh Penguins stay in Pittsburgh, PA!

According to reports on tsn.ca, the Pens have reached an agreement with the city for the financing of new a $290 million facility.  (Thanks to Capt’n Bosh of playoffbeard.com for the heads up.)

3 DVD Weekend Shopping Spree

Emergency! Season 3

Another season of my favorite LA paramedics.  Their hair is a little longer and the script and acting is still campy as ever.  But, that’s what I loved about the show.

Musicares Present A Tribute to Brian Wilson

I would have given it 5 stars, but when you have established artists screwing up lyrics (Michael McDonald, “Don’t Worry, Baby”) and basically singing without any heart (Shelby Lynne, “Surfer Girl”), it just ruins the rating. 

Anyway, there very good renditions of Mr. Wilson’s songs.   Jeff Beck’s (“Surf’s Up,” “Surfin’ USA”) and John Legend’s( I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times) were great examples of that.

But, the two that stood out in mind was Jamie Cullum along with Fred Martin & the Levite Camp’s “Sail On Sailor” and, believe or not, the Backstreet Boys’ “When I Grow Up to be a Man.”  The latter should’ve had help from Mike Love as their bass vocalist, though. 😉

Peter Pan 2-Disc Platinum Edition

I’ve always loved Disney’s version of Peter Pan. 

But, still, the part with Tiger Lily bores me. 

Oh well.

The movie is fully restored and has the usual extras piled on the second DVD (behind the scenes going-ons and a couple of music videos — Paige O’Hara, who, if I remember correctly was the singing voice of Belle in Beauty and the Beast and some teen group.  Sorry, I forgot the latter’s name.  Must be getting old. 😉 )

Music and Lyrics

Without being redundant, you can find the synopsis here.

Basically, it’s boy meets girl, boy looses girl, boy gets girl back kind of movie. 

I always thought that the 2 stars (Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore) do exeptionally well in romantic comedies.  The movie does tend to go slow in the middle (the boy-looses-girl part), but it ends up well and predictable.

Scene stealers: 1) Kristen Johnston (Third Rock From the Sun), whose character had a major crush on Hugh Grant’s Alex Fletcher.  The scene where she literally pushes people to get to the front of the stage at a high reunion is hilarious.  2) Newcomer Haley Bennett, who plays the Britney-Christina type character, is convincingly cast as such.  She really does sound Britney when she singing.  3) Scott Porter (NBC’s Friday Night Lights, off-Broadway’s Alter Boyz).  Even though his roll is minute–you only see him at the opening credits’ music video*–he plays his 80’s character wonderfully with his exaggerated arm and hip movements.     

 The music, on the other hand, does bring me back to those days of guys wearing tremendous amounts of makeup (ala Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran), goofy choreography (think Wham!’s Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go) and skinny ties.  Major props goes to Fountain of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger for writing the 80’s pop-style songs.  Adam also was one of the song writers and singers behind Tom Hank’s That Thing You Do!  Also Martin Fry of ABC for being one of the vocal coaches. 

One of the best movies, even though cheesy, I’ve seen.

*Here’s the music video shown during the opening credits:

Paul McCartney’s The Space Within Us

For those who didn’t get to attend Sir Paul’s recent tour, here’s another behind the scenes and on-stage glimpse of the goings on.

I am, though, a bit disappointed that a clip from the Philly concert wasn’t included.  It was when he invited 6-yr-old triplets, who were dressed as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, on stage to sing the chorus of its namesake song.

Other tidbits included: the wake-up song to the shuttle astronauts (“English Tea”) and the infamous scene where he inadvertantly falls into the piano pit during the concert in Tampa.   

Ballroom Dancing

I netflixed these this past week:

Mad Hot Ballroom

A documentary about 11-yr-old kids from various public schools in New York City learn about ballroom dancing.  Great candid interviews from the kids and teachers on their thoughts about ballroom dancing.  It just amazed (or maybe reminded) me on how the world is viewed and understood from that age. 

It was so good that I bought the DVD.

Take the Lead

A semi-biographical movie about Pierre Dulaine (watch Mad Hot Ballroom first to know who he is) and the high school aged kids he teaches. 

Although the script needed help, the dancing did not.

Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School

A recently widowed baker finds hope in tragedy when he helps a stranger involved in a car accident on his way to a promised rendevous at a dancing school.

It’s one of those movies that if you come in the middle, you don’t know what’s going on. 

The movie is a bit slow for my taste.  The only character I liked was Donnie Wahlberg’s Randall who happens to be the best dancer in the class.

High School Musical

My curiosity was peeked when I received this from Netflix a couple of weeks ago. 

I watched it through, sort of.  Like my niece, I fast forwarded through the dialogue to get to the musical parts. 

I have to admit that I liked it’s choreography–something that even I can do.  After all, it was by Kenny Ortega, who choreographed Dirty Dancin’.  The songs were also catchy, especially the last (We’re All in This Together). 

But, admittingly, it made me want to watch Grease.