Grease. (Film Only Review.) =======================
The Plot. ---------------- As a summer holiday romance comes to an end, Australian exchange student Sandy and Rock and Roll greased back Danny say there fond farewells. Suddenly things change for both when Sandy does not return to Australia as planned and ends up attending the same High School as Danny and discovers a different side to him in this 1978 film tribute to the Musical.
Storyline. -------------------- Danny Zuko (John Travolta) is a greased back hair rocker who falls for a sweet Australian girl Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John) during a summer holiday romance which sadly has to come to an end when at the end of the summer break Sandy is due to return to Australia with her parents. They say there farewells and Danny returns to his school with stories about the summer romance. Things have changed for Sandy though as she has discovered she will not be returning to Australia as planned and ends up attending High School in America instead with her Cousin Frenchy (Didi Conn).
Things soon take a twist when Frenchy introduced Sandy to her gang of friends 'The Pink Ladies' and Sandy begins to tell them of her summer romance. Rizzo (Sharon Channing) is quick to tell Sandy there is no
such thing as a sweet guy and wants to know this Romeo's name. Sandy reveals it is Danny Zuko who unknown to her actually attends the same High School as they are in.
The plan is set and the couple reunited, but not all goes according to plan when Sandy finds out that Danny has a different side to him when in front of his friends 'The T Birds'. Will the couple manage to rekindle there holiday romance and overcome there image issues. That you will have to watch and find out.
My Opinion. --------------------- I know this film is now showing a great age but that does not change the fact that even know I do enjoy watching it. John Travolta is shot into the halls of stardom after he performed in this film and it is understandable to see why when you consider his versatility as an actor these days and his dancing skills as well as acting in this performance. He brings a strange and yet loveable uniqueness to the character Danny Zuko which in my opinion is very enjoyable.
Olivia Newton-John made her first American film debut in this role as Sandy Olsson and I have to say although she does make the character come alive and believable you can see why she never managed to stretch her film career much further after this performance. She makes her character convincible but yet it still seems lacking in some way, but I feel that is down to her acting abilities.
The T Bird character Doody (Barry Pearl), Putzie (Kelly Ward) and Sonny (Michael Tucci), all play there characters to the full managing to make them both convincing and humorous to watch. The performance of Kenickie (Jeff Conaway) is also very entertaining as he portrays one of the main T Bird members who is a hard man with a loving side.
The Pink Ladies Marty Maraschino (Dinah Manoff) and Jan (Jamie Donnelly) give good character performances and make there roles both fun and entertaining, but I have to say Frenchy (Didi Conn) does drive me mad. She screeches out her lines in a horrible voice, which is enough to crack glass, and makes it fully understandable why she never made any fame from her performance in Grease as I think she drives even the sanest person batty with her character portrayal. Rizzo (Stockard Channing) on the other hand does give us a good performance and makes her character come alive however why they had to spoil it by making her try and sing a song for us I don't know. Yes, Stockard Channing can act and give a good performance, but she cannot sing for toffees.
The Director Randal Kleiser managed to direct all the cast into producing there performance extremely well and gives us a film that even now holds a good deal of entertainment for all ages really. His directing qualities have since been able to entertain us with other great films under his direction such as Flight of the Navigator, White Fang, Blue Lagoon and Shadow of Doubt.
It surprises me that even at the ripe old age of 28 now this film still has appeal to all ages and as a member of the youth that grew up around this film I must confess even now it still holds a great deal of entertainment value in my opinion. Ok we all get a little sick of it after a while, but somehow I still find myself glued to the screen when my daughter wishes to watch it.
Technical Information. ======================== Cast. ------ John Travolta Danny Zuko Olivia Newton-John Sandy Olsson Barry Pearl Doody Didi Conn Frenchy Dinah Manoff Marty Marschino Jamie Donnelly Jan Jeff Conaway Kenickie Stockard Channing Betty Rizzo Kelly Ward Putzie Michael Tucci Sonny Sid Caesar Coach Calhoun
Director Randal Kleiser Certificate PG Year 1978 Widescreen 2.35:1 Anamorphic Languages English - Dolby Digital (5.1) ,German Subtitles English, English for the hard of hearing, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Icelandic, Czech, Polish, Bulgarian, Greek, Arabic, Hungarian, Turkish, Romanian, Danish Duration 1 hour and 45 minutes (approx)
Pictures of Grease (DVD)
Film Scene
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Music / Performing Arts, Comedy - Director: Trevor Nunn, Geoffrey Posner - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, Parental Guidance - Starring: Duncan Preston, Celia Imrie, Julie Walters, Victoria Wood, Jim Broadbent
Oct 3rd, 2006
very helpful by (100%):
