Hairspray

Grade: A-

Against all odds the film version of the Broadway smash Hairspray is a toe tapping pleasure of bouffant proportions, giving Ratatouille a run for its money for the Best Summer Film of 2007. Recent adaptations of Rent and The Producers were critical and commercial bombs, after all, and this reimagining of John Waters's 1988 cult classic was helmed by Adam Shankman, whose inauspicious previous outings include Cheaper By the Dozen 2 and The Pacifier (starring Vin Diesel...need I say more?).

From the infectious opening number - "Good Morning Baltimore"- to the explosive finale tune - "You Can't Stop the Beat" - few hairs fall out of place, though the somber Civil Rights protest sequence feels totally out of a place in a film that redlines the kitsch Richter scale.

John Travolta's transvestite portrayal of Edna Turnblad (a character previously incarnated by Divine and Harvey Fierstein) has drawn fire from gay rights groups that believe a Scientologist has no business playing a queer icon. I say forget Travolta. Not because of his politics, but because his portrayal of Tracy's fatty housewife mom is a drag in comparison to the absolutely stellar work from Michelle Pfeiffer (as the bitch-on-wheels mother of Tracy's rival), Christopher Walken (Tracy's dad) and Allison Janney (Christian Fundamentalist freak mom of Tracy's Jungle Fever-stricken friend Penny). Longtime fans of the original film will undoubtedly chuckle at John Waters's cameo as a flasher in an opening scene.