Grease

My sister Marilyn and I are huge fans of the movie Grease so we were really excited that it was being released in theaters again to commemorate its 45th anniversary (what?) as part of Fathom's Big Screen Classics series. We went to see it last night and we both loved it (we tried hard not to sing along to every single song but we may or may not have been successful).  Grease is the quintessential high school movie featuring a love story between bad boy Danny Zuko (John Travolta), the leader of the T-Birds, and Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John), a good girl who has recently transferred to Rydell High from Australia.  They have a summer romance but it takes a little help from the rest of the T-Birds (Jeff Conaway, Barry Pearl, Michael Tucci, and Kelly Ward) and the Pink Ladies (Stockard Channing, Didi Conn, Jamie Donnelly, and Dinah Manoff) to get them back together by graduation.  I love all of the songs, especially "Grease" during the opening and end credits, "Summer Nights," "Hopelessly Devoted to You," "Greased Lightnin'," "Sandy," and "You're the One That I Want," and the choreography is so much fun and definitely stands the test of time (I actually prefer the movie adaptation to the stage version because of the new songs that are used and the choreography).  I love Newton-John (it was a little bit sad to see her on the screen after her recent passing) and Travolta as Danny and Sandy because, even though they both look way too old to play high school students, they have so much chemistry together, especially during "Born to Hand Jive." I also really love all of the cameos by popular stars from the 1950s, such as Sid Caesar, Eve Arden, Alice Ghostley, Joan Blondell, and Frankie Avalon.  Finally, even though I didn't grow up during the 1950s, I love all of the nostalgia for the era with all of the leather jackets, letterman sweaters, poodle skirts, malt shops, drive-in movies, and fantastic cars.  It was so much fun to see this on the big screen with my sister and we are now looking forward to seeing The Birds in October and A Christmas Story in December as part of the Big Screen Classics series (go here to see all of the movies in this series).

Note:  Every time I watch this movie as an adult I am always really shocked by the suggestive lyrics because my sisters and I used to sing them at the top of our lungs whenever we watched it as kids!