Cry Baby (Director's Cut)

Crybaby is an essential John Waters film. It's a musical set in the fifties with Johnny Depp and Ricki Lake. It's by John Waters, so you know it's going to be funny. And it is. It's the height of camp and fun and just wonderful!

Buy it!

Being written and directed by John Waters and Johnny Depp not playing a gay drunken pirate is all this movie needs to be good. Add the fact that Cry Baby is an original version of the cliched movies that have the same plot as Grease. John Waters is a modern day critic of American society and his movies add comedy to the criticism. All his movies are classics and Cry Baby is no different.

The DVD features Commetary by John Waters, deleted scenes, and "It Came From Baltimore" which is a behind the scenes Featurette. The price is good the movie is great, what is stopping you from buying this?

Great movie. Really Enjoyable. Got my 15 year old cousin to watch it and she loved it. Great cast.

This movie holds a special place for me. The fact that my grandpa in the 50's lived in Baltimore and he was a Drape! That man had alot of wild stories. Drapes as John Waters talks about was a gang in Maryland and term used for juvenile delinquints. Suffice to say I often wonder if John and my grandpa ever crossed paths. In fact the character Crybaby is alot like my grandpa he was white trash, he'd been to juvie, he rode a motorcycle, had a leather jacket and a greasy ducktail. He used to swipe cars and get into fights. He also was a musician with band called Rich Rocket and the Automobiles. It was a Rockabilly band he did a song called "Shaking my Dice" a euphemism for you know what, after watching a film warning about the solo act him and his buddies came up with this song as a joke. My Grandpa said they did a 45, the flip was a cover of Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire" they pressed copies only for the band and after he died I looked all through the attic to find it to no avail I was pretty pissed and sad. His stories and bravado made me want to be a Drape and Rockabilly greaser.
Your probably wondering what this has to do with the movie. Alot, when I was a kid me and my grandpa watched this movie in theatres. He snuck me past my parents who wouldn't let me ever set eyes on a John Waters film. I had a good time and so did my grandpa. He thought the movie vulgar and little stupid because he had become a born again Christian but overall I saw that gleam in his eyes and he said it brought back memories. This movie is hilarious and some of the music in this film is really hokey and corny. The Rockabilly stuff is pretty good since Rockabilly veterans Dave Alvin and James Intveld worked on those numbers. Its pretty surreal and crazy overall it is a mind trip and a delightful one. My grandpa if he was alive would recommend this movie. The DVD has interviews with John Waters, the cast and crew. Waters talks in length about the real Drapes which I found interesting and there is commentary. Some of the musical numbers could've been done a little better, but all in all as my grandfather said after leaving the theater with a smile on his face: "Swell, pretty swell."

Even though Cry Baby is an above-average comedy movie, the thing is, more often than not the storyline is more *silly* than it is actually funny. Johnny Depp's character was pretty good, but he wasn't as much of a bad guy or rebel as you'd believe. Just because he goes around driving a motorcycle and taking a few punches in the face doesn't mean he's a believable bad guy. His character was lacking in that area, in my opinion.

I also felt that the grandmother of his girlfriend (the GOOD girl who sings happy 50's-style rock tunes, instead of the more loud and outrageous Elvis Presley-like rockers intended for the troublemakers) wasn't entirely in character for the majority of the film. I mean, she tried so hard to flat out HATE teenagers who rebel against their parents to the point where she actually stood up to a crowd and mentions how she will not be brought down by them. But then, a short time later when Depp showed up to her granddaughter's musical thing in a motorcycle, for some reason the grandmother forgot that she was supposed to strongly dislike teens who rebel and didn't mind at all that her granddaughter opted to drive away with Depp. Strange.

The musical parts were okay, but most of them were 50's style rockers. You know how the music sounds. No need to elaborate on that.

A pretty decent movie with a few flaws in the way. Pick up some of Depp's other superior movies, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Secret Window.