Review of Grease (1978) by Simon H — 06 Jun 2014

For starters, I am aware that I am naturally not the target audience for a movie like Grease, and I know I'm very late to actually viewing it, yet I still find myself disappointed in it.

The one thing Grease does get perfect is the musical segments and its choreography. Whilst most songs have been heard countless times outside of film, they were still fun watching them performed with the various cast and set pieces. Most musicals always have a fair share of forgettable songs, I found Grease to have chosen to present their songs wisely to avoid this problem. I also can't fault the cast either and feel they all bring something to their parts.

Now onto what I didn't like. I could be the only person with this opinion but it was enough to make me feel different about the film. Nothing against the cast playing the parts but I really disliked both lead characters. Even for anyone who hasn't seen Grease, it is fairly obvious that both Danny and Sandy were going to end up together at the end of the film. This is an ending that I didn't feel would have been an ending that would have actually worked with them both as real people. Firstly, I found Danny to present such behaviour constantly that I just couldn't understand why Sandy would be stupid enough to continue to care about him. Then Sandy went on to make a decision that didn't please me at all. In order for her to be happy with Danny she decides to not only change her look, but also her personality. I thought this was a really stupid move in the character and if I had any respect for her in the first place, this would have been lost straight away. I feel it isn't the greatest message to send out to your audience.

Other than that issue, I just couldn't accept the cast as playing teenagers in school. I know other movies have done it in the past but Grease was a bit too far in the aging in my opinion. I accept this is from the late 70's and that it could be me being picky, but I just couldn't enjoy the film as these problems were on my mind the entire time. I know many won't agree with my score but ignoring the music, I feel what I said represents the film in my eyes.