Word: draggedly
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...shameless rip-off of "Priscilla," the story of two drag queens and a transsexual on a road trip through the Australian outback in fantabulous togs, "To Wong Foo" is the story of three drag queens on a road trip from New York to Los Angeles in lackluster ensembles. In "Priscilla," they are on their way to put on a drag show at a hotel in the middle of nowhere; in To Wong Foo, they are going to compete in a national drag queen pageant in L.A. "Priscilla" had a matron, a misanthrope and a young upstart. What a shock...
...John Waters had manhandled this trite premise, "To Wong Foo" could have been at least funny. In Beeban Kidron's directorial thumbs, it becomes schlock. In the spirit of drag and "gay humor," Kidron tried to camp up the movie, and instead made it forced and silly. Catering to straight middle America, Kidron turns drag queens into freaks and drag shows into freak shows. The Webster Hall drag contest at the beginning of the movie was reminiscent of Jabba the Hut's palace from "Return of the Jedi...
...attempt to make up for the politically incorrect messages in the film (act like a stereotypical 1950s lady and you will succeed in life, drag queens and other gay people are Martians, etc.), the movie is peppered with overt political correctness. Because the trio are presented as asexual, the word "gay" is shoehorned into their lines to appease those ticket-buying gays who might want the movie to be more "out." The homophobic cop is a racist, bumbling fool. The wife-beater is evil and even teams up with the cop. (Of course a man in a dress beating...
Oddly enough, the acting is mostly passable. Leguizamo is convincing and amusing as a woman and thus as a drag queen, even if he has to be an ignorant, dizzy one. As a cross between June Cleaver and Liz Taylor, Swayze succeeds in his matron role. Snipes, however, is a sight gag. Leguizamo and Swayze are graceful and can pull off the drag queen bit, but Snipes looks like a big man in a dress. His obnoxious anti-Latino lines make his character relatively unattractive as well. Blythe Danner, in a small part as an odd local, is subtle...
...drag that plays in Peoria, pays at the box office and preys on filmgoers everywhere...