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Product Description: Film version of the musical about high school life in the 1950's.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: TRAVOLTA/CHANNING/NEWTON-JOHN
Title: GREASE
Street Release Date: 09/19/2006
Domestic
Genre: MUSICALS (THEATRICAL)Amazon.com essential video: Riding the strange '50s nostalgia wave that swept through America during the late 1970s (caused by TV shows like Happy Days and films like American Graffiti), Grease became not only the word in 1978, but also a box-office smash and a cultural phenomenon. Twenty years later, this entertaining film adaptation of the Broadway musical received another successful theatrical release, which included visual remastering and a shiny new Dolby soundtrack. In this 2002 DVD release, Grease lovers can also now see it in the correct 2:35 to 1 Panavision aspect ratio, and see retrospective interviews with cast members and director Randal Kleiser. All these stylistic touches are essential to the film's success. Without the vibrant colors, unforgettably campy and catchy tunes (like "Greased Lightning," "Summer Nights," and "You're the One That I Want"), and fabulously choreographed, widescreen musical numbers, the film would have to rely on a silly, cliché-filled plot that we've seen hundreds of times. As it is, the episodic story about the romantic dilemmas experienced by a group of graduating high school seniors remains fresh, fun, and incredibly imaginative. The young, animated cast also deserves a lot of credit, bringing chemistry and energy to otherwise bland material. John Travolta, straight from his success in Saturday Night Fever, knows his sexual star power and struts, swaggers, sings, and dances appropriately, while Olivia Newton-John's portrayal of virgin innocence is the only decent acting she's ever done. And then there's Stockard Channing, spouting sexual double-entendres as Rizzo, the bitchy, raunchy leader of the Pink Ladies, who steals the film from both of its stars. Ignore the sequel at all costs. --Dave McCoy
Customer Reviews:
- SHOO BOP!: What american would not love JOHN TRAVLOTA and OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN in "GREASE"!! When I first saw this movie I was only a kid and I knew all the songs and I actually thought high school was gonna be like RYDELL HIGH!
- One of my all time favorites: 30 years and I never seem to get tired of this movie. This movie inspired so many plain Janes and the soundtrack is just good fun to sing a long to. John Travolta was handsome and cool and Olivia Newton John was just adorable. Rah. Rah. Rydel High!!!
- music quality lacks: Well of course Grease is a great movie, so no probs there... But when it gets to a song, it sounds like a bad studio recorded version-- so you're somewhat taken out of the moment/magic of the movie. Maybe it was hard to convert to a DVD??
- Grease: John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John star in this '70s version of the '50s. Olivia came from Australia and won the hearts of music fans. "You're The One That I Want" is the hot number here. The pair dress in black. "Tell me about it, stud!" Grease appeals to successive generations. Male/female duos perform Summer Nights to karaoke tracks. The film exaggerates. There were no T-Birds or Pink Ladies where I was from. The cast of Grease was long since out of high school, ranging in age from 19 to 35.
- Original Soundtrack DESTROYED !!!: While the re-mastered video gets a big thumbs up, the audio couldn't be worse. The ramped up sound fx are tolerable and in some cases an improvement on the original. However, they (sound fx) are too 'in your face'. All audio sounds very compressed. It seems they tried too hard to make sure you noticed the changes. The music tracks are a different monster. They are terrible!!! The original tracks are not simply re-mastered. Many additional audio tracks have beeen added. And badly I must say. The reverb's used are stupid big and overbearing. The many additional layers of instrument tracks tends to bury the lead vocal on some tunes! Surround sound is stupid over-done and exaggerated. You will need to turn up your center channel alot to clearly hear lead vocal parts or better yet, turn off your surround sound and watch in stereo. Even in stereo, this is the worst audio re-mastering i've ever encountered. New instrumentation sounds very generic and electronic and clearly was laid over a complete 2-track recording, sounds a bit like karaoke instruments, not 'in the mix' but on top of it. Like one guy with a pc/sequencer re-did the whole soundtrack. And some songs were changed alot, Olivia's 'Hopelessly Devoted to you' has drums and full instrumentation from the very beginnig, it doesn't 'kick in' on first chorus, like the original. They took a 1970's movie, set place in the 50's, and now has music that sounds like 1990's bad pop. I assume this was an attempt to sound modern. This re-master clearly misses the mark from an audio standpoint. The video is superb and the DVD extras are a nice addition.
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