MR WOODCOCK (2007) ... you kidding me? Tried too hard, but failed miserably. And nice name, by the way. Horrible. D+
HAIRSPRAY (2007)... I was worried going into this one, being a big John Waters fan and all of the original-- but great! Didn't think John Travolta would pull it off, but he did just fine. Music was great! B
Yeah, MR. WOODCOCK was a waste of time. Really, with SOUTHLAND TALES and yet another juvenile (terrible) comedy, does Sean William Scott even have a career anymore?
If anything, WOODCOCK's gimmick is based on exploiting Billy Bob Thornton's hard-ass cinema persona, which is amount to ANALYZE THIS with DeNiro's mob movie work, or MICKEY BLUE EYES w/ James Caan/GODFATHER, and so forth....and they all were lame.
In fact, the only such capitalization of such stunt casting that actually worked which I could think off the top of my head was probably THE FRESHMAN.
MR. WOODCOCK (2007) - **
As for the HAIRSPRAY remake,I prefer the Waters original simply because there is something punk in its original presentation, and more sincere, since its an independent homosexual filmmaker usually working on the outskirts of Hollywood making a small picture about outsiders. It's prime John Waters material, and he's good at it.
The remake, with all the gloss stink of Broadway and the big-studio production and money...is surprisingly good, with credit must be given to the casting of Travolta, Christopher "God Broke the Mold" Walken, and newcomer Nikki Blonsky. Plus, nice to see James "Cyclops" Marsden be given a decent part outside of a superhero picture.
Though with the Broadway opening for CRY BABY, will Waters become the new Romero/Carpenter in being a creative remake tap for Hollywood?
How about SERIAL MOM the musical? Shit, that would be fun...
Horrible. D+
