I’ve run into a slight problem while trying to write a review for this film. I still remember it very clearly, so that’s not the problem. I hit a roadblock in trying to compare this movie-musical to its original incarnation, which I have not seen. Hairspray is a movie-musical based off of a Broadway musical which was based off of a non-musical cult film from Director John Waters. Waters is one weird dude and his films typically reflect that. Waters had little to no involvement with this musical version and I think that was a mistake.
Even though I have never seen the original Hairspray and have only seen bits and pieces of Waters’ work, I was expecting more of his signature weirdness to come through. Instead, we’re treated to a glitzy Broadway confection that fancifully portrays a coming-of-age story during the early days of civil rights and integration. It’s bright, it’s loud, and it’s Broadway.
If you're new to my site, allow me to point out to you that I am not a big Broadway fan. At least not neo-Broadway. Movie musicals based on bright fluffy Broadway hits don’t turn my stomach, but they bore me to tears. I’ve never been a big glitz and glam kind of guy and all the Hollywood tricks that serve to cheese up an already cheesetastic production grow on my nerves with amazing quickness. Silly transitions, extra digital grading, overdone lighting- it’s all just too much for me to appreciate.
Combining the excesses of Broadway with the excesses of Hollywood grinds my gears. It’s gross, it’s gaudy, and it’s gratuitous. People complain about the excess of blood, gore and nudity in today’s string of successful torture porn films, like the Saw and Hostel series. Yet, nobody calls films like Hairspray on their needless excesses. In fact, most embrace them. Hypocritical, paradoxical- I don’t quite know what to call it. Basically, the excess of schmaltz and camp pull me out such films.
While I understand that Broadway likes vibrant colors and crisp looking costumes, I found myself unable to get past the fact that virtually all of the clothing in the film looked like it had never been worn before. The colors I can get past, because I don’t know if those styles didn’t exist back in the day, but when only a few characters actually look like they live in those clothes, my suspension of disbelief checks out.
The inclusion of John Travolta as an obese, middle-aged woman also didn’t earn any points with me. I do know that in the original version of Hairspray, a notorious cross-dresser played the part now played by Travolta, but Travolta just seems to be there for the yuck-factor. Of course it’s funny to see a famous actor dress up like a woman, but the joke overstays its welcome rather quickly. After the first few scenes, seeing Travolta in a fat suit had no effect on me.
Overall, it just feels like this film is missing something and I think it’s the edge that John Waters’ films are known to contain. By adding songs and removing Waters from the creative process, it seems like they watered down the tone of an otherwise better film. And we all know that hairspray and water don’t work well together.
To really give an accurate review I’ll need to watch the original Hairspray and then re-watch this version. Until then, my rating is mostly subjective.
After a career-revitalizing role in Pulp Fiction, John Travolta was thrust back into the limelight of Hollywood. All of a sudden he was a leading man again, and everybody was knocking on his door. Whether he was trying to cling to the aura of cool that he embodied in Pulp Fiction, or whether he was trying to play himself once more against his former squeaky clean, charming roles of old and some recent ones, Travolta takes to the silver screen as a conniving Air Force pilot bent on stealing nuclear weapons.
While Travolta’s physique is less than perfect, his co-star’s acting chops are even more suspect. While Travolta’s career was on the up-swing, Broken Arrow catches Christian Slater close to where his stardom and career sputtered out. Nevertheless, Broken Arrow spits out a fairly black and white good guy vs. bad guy action flick with predictable results and a handful of slick stunts.
Travolta and Slater play a pair of pilots running stealth bomber exercises over the Utah deserts with real nukes. Travolta has masterminded a plan to steal the nukes and ransom millions from the US government. Slater catches on to the plan, but just a tad too late, as he is jettisoned from the aircraft before he can stop his former partner. He does, however, manage to muddle up the delivery of the nukes by parachuting them off-target.
Slater teams up with a park ranger and they set off to do what the US government seems incapable of doing, despite their resources: find and stop Travolta.
There are lots of fancy stunts, fights and explosions in this hour-fifty action flick. Broken Arrow was John Woo’s second Hollywood film, and first big-budget film in the States. The martial arts influence is certainly present. The popularity of Woo and his compatriots led to a plethora of films featuring white guy action heroes saving the day via wicked kung fu moves. Unfortunately, the acting isn’t as slick as the action.
Travolta attempts to slide his character all the way to the extreme as the villain. He sneers and jeers and seems to have a genuinely good time playing a borderline psychopath. The problem is that he takes it too far. Travolta just isn’t believable as the unstable mastermind villain, which makes sense. It’s very hard to have a believable villain be both a mastermind and borderline certifiable. The combination of the two results in a jumbled mess. It looks like fun, but it doesn’t comprehend well in the mind of the viewer.
Slater, on the other hand, doesn’t come across as being smart enough to play the hero. His steady, confident delivery, piled on top of a Western-inspired hero theme tune, comes off as a goofy, modern John Wayne impression. I’m not a huge fan of the Duke, but the Duke he ain’t. Between a few lucky guesses and a few lucky breaks, Slater’s hero character ambles along the path to victory and doesn’t work out all too well either.
The plot has more than its fair share of plot holes and flaws (where was Travolta going to hide after getting away?) but enough dazzle and flair to satisfy summer audiences who check their brains at the door. It has the potential to be a fun movie, as long as you try not to think too much about it.
Given a casting change and a few more re-writes, Broken Arrow could have been better than average for an action flick. Instead, we get a guilty pleasure performance by Travolta and a taste of what the future would hold for Slater.
This film typically gets brought up when there is discussion of the worst movies ever made. The granddaddy of them all is Plan 9 From Outer Space, but Battlefield Earth always gets an honorable (or dishonorable?) mention. It was only a matter of time before I saw this movie, and I found myself with the need for something awful and a 3 for $10 Blockbuster coupon.
To be honest, I was disappointed. Battlefield Earth isn’t nearly as bad as people say it is, although it certainly does suck. At times it really seems like the story was fetched right from the pre-writing phase and turned into a movie. While most of the criticism for the film’s lack of achievement is merited, it seems like most people declaring it one of the all-time worst are really just taking potshots at John Travolta and his merry band of Scientologists using the film to promote their “religion.”
But let’s be clear- Battlefield Earth has nothing to do with Scientology. There may be some parallels and allusions to Scientologist beliefs, but Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote this story purely for fun. Sure, his bias against psychiatry shines through, but Scientologists do not believe that this film is what our future will become.
The most annoying thing about this film is that virtually every single shot is on some kind of angle. This little bit of artistic expression gets old and annoying really fast and by the end of the film (if you make it that far) you still are not comfortable with it. The script also suffers greatly. All the terminology, like breath-gas, shows just how big a hack L. Ron Hubbard was as a writer- this is a cheap, pulp novel story suffering from too much overconfidence and indulgence. Some updating would have helped, but even though it was published in 1980, it seems Hubbard decided to stick with the fantastical junk science of the 1930s.
Essentially, Battlefield Earth is just a poorly-constructed piece of science fiction that isn’t very original and would have otherwise been ignored had it not been for Hubbard’s connection to Scientology. However, there are sparks of creativity, but any potential that may exist in this film is buried so far down it would cost tens of millions of dollars for a studio to try and rewrite, salvage and turn it into something fit for theaters. It’s kind of like those cheesy, lame Sci-Fi Channel original movies, except someone actually thought this would succeed in the theaters.
It’s bad for sure, but not bad enough to be immortalized.
Lots of style and lots of attitude make this film work. It also helps that it has a killer soundtrack to boot. John Travolta’s character dreams of escaping his dead-end life in Brooklyn. On the weekends, he finds his momentary escape by becoming the king of the dance floor in the still-underground disco scene.
Despite his popularity on the floor, his dissatisfaction with life continues to grow and he banks it all on winning over a girl and winning a dance contest. The film includes a heavy-handed dose of reality in a dysfunctional world, capturing the hope and angst evident during the time period. Some may think it’s campy now, but the movie isn’t as dated as it would seem, as the common theme of longing for something more continues to this day.
I’ve run into a slight problem while trying to write a review for this film. I still remember it very clearly, so that’s not the problem. I hit a roadblock in trying to compare this movie-musical to its original incarnation, which I have not seen. Hairspray is a movie-musical based off of a Broadway musical which was based off of a non-musical cult film from Director John Waters. Waters is one weird dude and his films typically reflect that. Waters had little to no involvement with this musical version and I think that was a mistake.
