Rating: Summary: They could have done better! Review: I was very disappointed in the process used to transfer to DVD. The print that was transferred to the DVD appears to be somewhat faded and dirty. However I was most disappointed with how grainy the movie is, I have seen movies that twice as old and older that had better transfers. One other note; for some reason in all of the shots that were in the soda shop they having digitally blurred out the Coca-Cola logo in signs and menu boards. This is distracting!
Rating: Summary: Movie 5 stars; DVD 2 stars Review: Well, like many of you I have waited a long time for "Grease" to be released on DVD and letterboxed to boot! Although I only viewed this disc once...upon watching it I had the full 5.1 surround going on, I noticed that in some sections of the film the sound would drop off and in some places it sounded muffled. How sad. Now, this can probably be explained away in many ways, but I know that my surround system is fine and my DVD player is working great so you can elminate those options. I have DVDs of foreign B-horror movies that sound better than this. Could it be the disc? Maybe? But I've never bought one yet with this problem and I have 280. Could it be Paramount yet again doing a lack luster job in their production. They've put so many of their movies out on DVD that aren't 5.1, maybe they really don't know how to encode their films into 5.1 or don't care if they do it properly. There could be many reasons why this happened, but it is a sight for sore eyes to see Grease with a least a decent anamorphic transfer and on a disc that I won't wear out from too many viewings. Now, let's hope this doesn't happen to Flashdance.
Rating: Summary: The movie is wonderful...the DVD stinks... Review: I was really excited when I heard it was coming out since I grew up with the movie Grease. Great music, strong cast, and great story line. I got home and watched the movie and was very disappointed in the DVD production. Paramount did a terrible job on remastering to digital and I think they need to do a reissue already with better DVD engineers. There were many scenes where they were out of focus. I made sure it wasn't my DVD as I ran many others to check it. The sound for the talking scenes were fine, but the musical singing and dancing scenes had terrible audio. It was very "echoey" and there were some music I could not recognize instantly. All in all, movie is great, DVD stinks.
Rating: Summary: Hickey From Kenickie.... Review: Grease is an interesting thing. It's one of those movies that stays with you and goes wherever you go. Watching it again or hearing any of the songs on the radio is like opening up your own high school yearbook. A trip back through time. A reunion with friends you feel like you know, or could have known. It's a special thing indeed. The movie, as I'm sure everyone knows, was based on a musical. It was made into this film and was released in 1978. The movie became the highest grossing musical in box office history. Rightfully so. The movies takes place in California in the 1950's. Just as Amazon said, this nostalgia was running rampant in the 1970's. We first meet Danny Zuko and Sandy(John Travolta and Olivia Newton - John) having a romantic time on the beach. It all seemed so perfect. We jump right to the beginning of a new school year. Students are coming to Rydell High for the first day of school. Young, beautiful Sandy is coming for the first time. She immediatley meets and befriends pink haired Frenchie(Didi Conn), and her clique of friends known as the Pink Ladies, headed by Rizzo(Stockard Channing). Rizzo is a tough, feisty thing, and Channing gives the role her all in a great and memorable performance. Sandy runs into her summer love, Danny. Danny is the leader of the cool gang in school known as The T Birds. The rest of the movie is pretty much the love and attraction between the two and how Danny tries to regain his cool and not seem like a whipped, lovestruck little puppy. What makes the movie great and undeniably cool and enjoyable is how it is shamelessly great, cool, and enjoyable. Does that make any sense?. It's a bright, colorful, popcorn movie that wants nothing but to be a good, fun movie. It achieves that goal on every level. While the movie is looked on quite fondly by people and lots of younger kids as a nice movie, you really have to look deeper and pay more attention to certain dialogue and lyrics to see how the movie was actually kinda nasty in some ways. I'm sure there are things that would get edited out if I printed them, so I won't. Be on the lookout if you haven't noticed it already. The supporting cast is chock full of memorable faces. Comedy legend Sid Caesar is the gym teacher; Eve Arden is the principal; Lorenzo Lamas is the jock; Eternal nerd Eddie Deezen as, well, the nerd. And, of course, the cameo by Frankie Avalon. The music. I've saved the best for last. The music in this film is pure kitsch, but a lot of it is actually solid songs. With a movie this campy and fun, you can't really expect the songs to be different. It's just that kind of a movie. Olivia Newton - John could sing from the telephone book and I wouldn't care. She has such a lovely, warm, and beautiful voice, she make anything sound good. Who can deny the pleasures of "Greased Lightning", "Hopelessly Devoted To You", "Your The One That I Want", "Summer Lovin", and, of course, "Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee"?. Pure pop done at it's very best. The writing is corny and sometimes cheesey, but guess what?. That's the movie. That's the era it's in. It isn't meant to be anything else. It is what it is supposed to be, and does it very well. The actors are all great. All well suited for their roles. Was John Travolta any cooler?. Olivia is a sight of pure loveliness. If you ask me, she looks even better today at the age of 54. Just gets better with age. Grease isn't a film that is going to be seen as Oscar material(the songs yes), and it wasn't meant to be. It has survived for the last 24 years because it's a good movie that can reach anyone in any age group or race. It's a film that takes place in a certain time, but the legacy will live on for all times. Grease is the word.
Rating: Summary: Classic Movie - DVD ... Review: Paramount made us wait for this gem of a movie, boy did they make us wait. Let me first start out by saying how much I love this all time classic, absolutely no dispute about that. But I'm afraid the DVD is an almost unbelievably poor transfer - from virtually the first second you will notice huge levels of grain on the picture. For me it's just too distracting and made me eject the disc within the first five minutes. The 5.1 soundtrack, what I heard of it, was OK - but again it didn't have the punch I was expecting. I guess for movie like this I was expecting Paramount to pull out all the stops, this HAS NOT happened. I'll stick with my old LaserDisc, very, very disappointing.
Rating: Summary: Remastered !?? Really....fooled me Review: I have to admit I was pumped when I found out this was coming to DVD. The movie is a timeless classic. The DVD release is of course the quality movie you remember and probably own on VHS. The 1-STAR rating is for such a poor job of quality on DVD (lets not even go off on the cheap cardboard case). Its looks as if Paramount found the worst print of film and threw it on DVD. There are dust speckels and drop ins everywhere (almost like going to see the movie at one of those dollar theatres after the print has been run a hundred times at the first run movie house. What was REMASTERED, I cannot tell, even the 5.1 audio leaves me questioning, but then again quality of picture kills the whole DVD. Come to think of it my widescreen version from 1998 on VHS is a better cut of film. WOW ! I have never said that before about a VHS......
Rating: Summary: Greed Is the Word Review: Other reviewers have noted that this DVD edition offers nothing different from the VHS version released only a couple of years ago. Note also that this edition does not come from the original film elements. Aside from the dirtiness of the print, the lack of extra scenes and the like, notice that most of the Coca-Cola ads have been "fuzzed" out. The image boost of the DVD image makes this alteration particularly clear. It's bad enough that Paramount was willing to alter the film in order to appease a corporate partner during an earlier release of the videotape; it's terrible that we are still saddled with the so-so, handmedown digital remastering of a corrupted print. Director Randal Kleiser has revealed in a September 2002 interview with ... that Paramount plans a reissue in 2004, a version with more extras; potential purchasers who have not yet bought this version may want to hold out a little longer. I should have been more patient.
Rating: Summary: "CHEAP" is the word for PARAMOUNT!!! Review: GREASE is one of my favorite movies, so I give the movie 5 stars but the DVD just one. Paramount is so cheap. There is absolutely nothing "special" about this special edition. The interviews are at least 10-15 years old and the theatrical trailer looks like it was sitting in a hog trough for a few years. The film itself is filthy in several sequences and Paramount did not even animate the menus in anyway or even put any music on the menu screens. I mean for goodness sake...THIS IS A MUSICAL!! I mean how do small, teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy, miniscule studios (Synapse, Blue Underground, Anchor Bay)put out DVDs of obscure titles like: FADE TO BLACK, WATCHER IN THE WOODS, VAMPYROS LESBOS, THE PROWLER, DEADBEAT AT DAWN... etc... And at least have commentaries or animated menus! Even WILLY WONKA, which is hardly going to sell as many copies as GREASE has beautifully animated menus with music. I would love to know why this DVD of GREASE (which will eventually probably sell hundreds of thousands of copies on DVD for PARAMOUNT, or more)does not even have MUSIC on the menus. This is HANDS down the laziest release of a mainstream film from a major studio ever. It really is pathetic considering how they are marketing it like it's gold. PARAMOUNT is the worst studio putting out DVD. They are the most overpriced for the least content. I've always heard from people that PARAMOUNT was cheap...but this really proves it. Remember Malcolm McDowell on the talk show years ago promoting STAR TREK and TANK GIRL? When asked about what films he was in that were coming out he replied, "I'm in a new film called TANK GIRL, and another film that is not TANK GIRL." He refused to promote the film STAR TREK for PARAMOUNT because PARAMOUNT had screwed him in some way with money. We're all behind you Malcolm, give PARAMOUNT what you gave that woman in CLOCKWORK ORANGE. Buy this DVD if you absolutely can't wait for the even more SPECIAL EDITION of GREASE slated for 2004. This practice of releasing 90 different versions of the same movie is called "studio double dipping."
Rating: Summary: Widescreen really makes this one shine!! Review: Having owned this movie on video years ago, I was always irritated about the orange fleshtones, but now "Grease" finally looks good on DVD with accurate fleshtones, some reviewers under me have complained about this movie not having more extras, have they not noticed the double-dip ploy that Paramount is doing, not to worry, they will re-release it in a year or so with all the added goodies, just look at what they are now doing with the "Star Trek" movies, anyway, this is a standard DVD,Paramount usually is not a studio that goes the extra mile, but "Grease" looks good, its "Widescreen" is the one to get, I was really impressed, thi is the movie that made John Travolta, although the case is somewhat different, I suspect "Saturday Night Fever" will be the keep case, as will "Urban Cowboy">(I hope), this is a timeless classic that almost makes you yearn for the good ole' days of the 50's (a much simpler time), & I can say it was worth the wait, although Paramount was the last studio to support DVD, they have finally gotten their act together after dragging their feet the past 4 years, every movie by them except "Indiana Jones" seems to be making their way to DVD.
Rating: Summary: DVD could (and should) have been better. Review: I was so looking forward to the release of Grease on DVD. Paramount certainly made us wait a long time for it but now that it's here I can't believe what shoddy treatment it has been given.Ok so it's an old movie. I expect to see some grain on the film and all in all, I personally am not that disappointed with the picture quality but it all could (and should) have been so much better. To start off with the packaging is a cardboard case that will fall to pieces long before the DVD does. There are no commentaries, no production notes, filmographies, cast/character bios, gallery, outtakes, etc etc. All we get is a static menu, the movie trailer and 20 minutes of interviews with the cast (that were recorded 4 years ago to celebrate the re-release of Grease for it's 20th anniversary in 1998). There is also a songbook for anyone who still does not know the songs after 24 years ! There is a lot more material out there that could have been included - Maybe Paramount are working on a 25th anniversary release for next year and this was just the prototype !
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