Metacritic Movie Ratings
Hairspray Reviews

A sample of reviews from critics across the country.

• 91

  out of 100

  Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman

  A fizzy and delirious high-camp message-movie musical that may just turn out to be the happiest movie of the summer.

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• 88

  out of 100

  Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert

  Just plain fun. Or maybe not so plain. There's a lot of craft and slyness lurking beneath the circa-1960s goofiness.

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• 80

  out of 100

  The New York TimesA.O. Scott

  The overall mood of Hairspray is so joyful, so full of unforced enthusiasm, that only the most ferocious cynic could resist it.

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• 80

  out of 100

  Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano

  What it offers isn't really a nostalgic look at a "more innocent time" so much as a saucy wink at a casually vicious time that is constantly being sold to us as innocent.

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• 80

  out of 100

  VarietyDennis Harvey

  It's one of the best Broadway-tuner adaptations in recent years -- yes, arguably even better than those Oscar-winning ones.

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• 75

  out of 100

  USA TodayClaudia Puig

  John Travolta may stand out as a plus-size laundress who is hesitant, drab and retiring, but Hairspray is a consistently flashy, rousing and rambunctious movie spectacle.

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• 70

  out of 100

  The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen

  John Travolta takes on John Waters in Hairspray, and the result is anything but a drag in this appealingly goofy, all-singing, all-dancing screen adaptation of the Broadway musical based on the 1988 film.

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• 70

  out of 100

  Wall Street Journal

  In the musical numbers, where by rights Mr. Travolta should shine, he's almost out-danced and certainly out-charmed by Edna's better half, Wilbur (Christopher Walken), who is one of the movie's great assets, an oasis of calm amid the twisting and shouting.

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