Supercute

Amanda Bynes as Penny Pingleton in Adam Shankman's version of Hairspray was totally great. In fact, the cast in its entirety pretty much did an amazing job of not stealing the show. Travolta's, what I'm guessing was a B-More accent totally saved his performance and what a great dance number towards the end of the film.

Walken was wasted a little, but you can blame that on Travolta, most of their scenes were with each other and it could have been Travolta's fault for not playing up the Waters cringe-factor. Edna Turnblad should have been played as a man in drag.

What seems totally obvious is how much of a better movie Hairspray is than Dreamgirls. Both films are versions of each other in a way. And I guess for that matter Across The Universe falls into this category, but maybe I'm generalizing.

Although Across the Universe succeeded in discovering the obscene underside of the Beatles. In the scene where Jude storms the anti-war protest office singing to Lucy the song "Revolution," Julie Taymor plays the seen as sardonic.

Dreamgirls is played too straight. The playful tone of Hairspray and Across The Universe appear contemporary through their use of distancing.

Also, Hairspray had much better songs.