Rating: 
Summary: The last of the oldtime movie musicals
Review: There's almost no one between the ages of 45 and 30 who can't sing all the words to "Summer Days, Summer Nights," and that's probably the best testament to the enduring popularity of "Grease," which was really the last successful movie musical in the great Hollywood tradition. The film was the most financially successful musical ever made, and when it was released it was almost impossible to go anywhere in America or Europe that summer without hearing the film's hits on the radio.The central casting was just about ideal, with John Travolta perfect for the narcissistic and endearingly dumb Danny Zuko and the pop singer Olivia Newton-John as the virginal Sandy Olsen (originally Sandy Dumbowski in the stage version, but they had to explain Newton-John's accent and made her, somewhat bizarrely, a visiting Australian exchange student). Newton-John is extremely likeable and enchantingly pretty (with her highly etched cheekbones and big wide eyes): it's a real shame she never had the film career she deserved, because she is exceptionally winning in this film. Her singing is lovely too, although her big number ("Hopelessly Devoted to You") was written by her usual songwriter John Farrar and doesn't sound like any other song in the film's score. The rest of the cast is fair to middling, with Eve Arden basically walking away with the rest of the film as an Our Miss Brooks-like principal. Didi Conn makes the only real favorable impression out of the actors attempting (largely unsuccessfully) to convince us that they're teenagers. Stockard Channing is far too old to play Rizzo (although she's quite fine in both of her big numbers), and most of the actors who play the T-Birds are fairly annoying--they seem to be Borscht Belt comedians on special loan to Rydell High (that must be some exchange program). The film is not without its puzzling points: you never seem to figure out why the televised national dance competition is being held with only the Rydell kids participating, or why the final song celebrates how much the characters like one another when they seemed largely unable to stand one another at all during the rest of the film. But its worth watching just for Travolta and Newton-John, and above all for the fine choreography ("Summer Days, Summer Nights" is a particular standout).
Rating: 
Summary: Finally on DVD...was it worth the wait?
Review: "Grease" has finally been made available to own on DVD. Was it worth the wait? Yes and No. The DVD version is really no different than the 20th Anniversary VHS released in 1998. The retrospective intreviews used in this release are the same exact ones used in that edition. The movie looks and sounds great. You do have the option of selection a Dolby Surrround or Dolby 5.1 Digital soundtrack. The original theatrical trailer is also included but as theatrical trailers go it's nothing to shout about. DVD is such an interactive medium and "Grease" is such a movie classic I feel Paramount short-changed it's fans with such a sparse, uneventful DVD release. A songbook?!!? for crying out loud any true fan who doesn't know the lyrics to any of this movie's songs by heart wouldn't own the movie to begin with. In 1998 Paramount released a 20th Anniversary Edition laserdisc of "Grease" which included a never-before-seen deleted scene. Why wasn't this scene included in this DVD release? Go figure. The only advantage this DVD has over it's many VHS incarnations aside from the great sound and video transfer is the easy access to it's musical numbers and scenes. Even "Rocky Horror" got better DVD treatment. Oh well, maybe for the film's 50th Anniversary, until then I guess this will do.
Rating: 
Summary: It`s the word
Review: Seeing all the Dancing and hearing all of the songs in Grease always makes me wanna get up and dance. That probably sounds corny but I'm probably not the only one that feels this way when watching Grease. This movie is a perfect movie to watch at sleepovers or whenever. The songs are all very catchy and cute. My favorite song would probably be "You're The One That I Want" which is sung at the end of the movie where Sandy and Danny are together at last after they had an arguement. Olivia-newton John and John Travoltra are great in this movie. Nobody could play them any better as well with the other characters. The movie is one movie to make anybody want to be a teanager again or want to be a teenager for the first time if they haven't been a teenager yet. A great buy.
Rating:
Summary: a great classic film
Review: I simply cannot put into words how much I HATE this stupid film and its godawful soundtrack, which were all over the place -- sort of like a roach infestation in an abandoned apartment building -- in 1978. I hold this anachronistic piece of crap and its unrealistic, annoying stereotyping of a decade personally responsible for having the most annoying '50s caricatures invade my life and, even worse, for prolonging the singing career of Olivia Newton-John, a no-talent Barbie doll.
The plot of this movie is a joke, presenting a cornball romance novel theme that wouldn't even pass as a third-rate soap opera, all dressed up in leather jackets and poodle skirts. And it sends a great message to the young women of America: In order to get the man you want, be a slut -- or at least sell out your real personality.
As for Vinnie Barbarino ... I mean John Travolta ... being a singer, well, then I'm FDR! The soundtrack is every bit as awful as the film it's part of (hmmm, at least there's symmetry!): Cloying, obnoxious, pseudo-rebellious dreck sung as if they've all inhaled helium, with melodies so pitiful it's amazing anyone bought this nonsense. But what do I know? With enough relentless hype, they managed to sell the soundtrack as well as tickets to the film and prove P.T. Barnum was right again.
I'll grant that musicals aren't intended to be realistic, but even as fiction, Grease has about as much to do with the '50s -- particuarly the music -- as the Village People. If you want to know what really mattered as far as rock 'n' roll in the '50s, I offer you these names: Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Link Wray, Gene Vincent, Little Richard. Real music, unlike the sound pollution spewed from this so-called film.
Rating:
Summary: "If you can't be an athlete, be an athletic supporter"
Review: Many conversions from stage to film lose spontaneity, also one has to pick what songs to add and subtract. Of course because of the public sense of decency many things have to be cryptic. With all of these restrictions this film is able to rival the play.
You will notice that there is a smooth transition from story to dialog to song and back to story. The sound track from the movie is worth buying.
Summer vacation from high school is ending. Danny (John Travolta) and Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) standing on the beach must say goodbye. This is the beginning.
The play is basically of two people Danny and Sandy adjusting to each other while maintaining their respective places in high school society. We see a text book school environment which no one had but parts of the story touch on everyone's life.
Will Danny give up his gang and become a jock just to impress Sandy?
Or will Sandy say goodbye to Sandra Dee to impress Danny?
And who gets the hickey for Kinicke?
Rating:
Summary: The Word is Still Grease...
Review: This movie still has grrove and meaning. The musical numbers are still fresh, and the story is timeless. Set in the 1950s, it deals with two senior high students who fell in love during summer vacation, and accidently meet again their senior year. The cast is charming and the direction is vibrant. Destined to be a Hollywood classic. John Travolta was perfectly cast as the leader of the T-Birds. Olivia Newton-John made a strong feature film debut in the lead. Look for Stockard Channing as Rizzo. She steals just about every scene she's in.
Rating:
Summary: If this came out today....
Review: I don't know if there is enough talent in the whole of Hollywood right now, in 2004, to produce a film that could sustain this level of energy. And that, I suppose, is what the film is all about -- from the ridiculous comic-book credits which have as little to do with the 50s as the spandex pants and Revlon make-up. My personal feeling, when watching this, was that no studio corporation would be daring enough to go for so such a freeform, expressionistic kind of film like this. And what irony too, because Grease itself is about a bygone era! I mean is it just me people?! As for the film, nearly all of the music numbers are top-notch, the story is thin but fun enough --my only complaint is that after the dance-a-thon it derails. Not that big of a deal -- but the beginning of the film has such promise. Travolta singing about sexual frustration with the hot dog animation in the background is a high point.
Rating: 
Summary: Revisionist's review
Review: "Grease" has passed into our shared American experience, and who among us cannot sing along to its justifiably famous songs? But seeing the movie as a child in the theater is much different than watching it as an adult. The last time I watched it, the TV channel provided commentary on a crawl at the bottom of the screen, and the two crucial, gaping flaws with the movie finally crystallized.
First, the age of the actors. God bless `em, but they were WAY too old to be high schoolers. Stockard Channing was 33, or nearly twice the age of her character. I believe Ms. Newton-John was 29. Now, I'm not asking for perfect verisimilitude in a movie, but you can't violate my willing suspension of disbelief so obviously.
The second problem is the location of the school. The T-Birds look like a classic Long Island / New Jersey type gang, similar to the Lords of Flatbush, complete with the accents. But the school has palm trees waving in the background, and the final race, as almost anyone who has watched any movie made in America can tell you, takes place in the L.A. River basin. It creates an inconsistent and inauthentic setting.
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