Grease (Rockin' Rydell Edition) (1978)

New York Times
"...A life that is all its own....Loaded with the kind of talent and exuberance you don't often find very far from a musical stage..." 06/16/1978 p.C10

Premiere
"...It's a gum-snapping slice of cinema that's impossible to watch without smiling..." 04/01/1998 p.29

Chicago Sun-Times
"...Pleasant and upbeat....Travolta is an important and enduring movie star..." 03/27/1998 p.34

Entertainment Weekly
"...The enduring appeal of the teenybopping musical spawned a knock-off sequel, a Broadway revival, and countless high school productions..." 10/11/2002 p.61

Total Film
"An era-blending, hip-twitching piece of pop culture, GREASE is still the word 25 years since its release..." 02/02/2004 p.120

Entertainment Weekly
"Never underestimate the power of catchy tunes, Travolta's hips, and a sweet-yet-smutty script." -- Grade: B 09/22/2006 p.79

San Francisco Chronicle 8 of 10
When Travolta made "Grease'' he was 23, thin as a reed and more dazzling than any young male star since James Dean. A natural talent and a terrific dancer, he had a face that the camera couldn't help but love, a supreme confidence in his talent that never grated, and a joy in his work that was breathtakingly radiant...The friskiness of the performers, the choreography by Patricia Birch and most of all Travolta's phenomenal charm give it its value. - Edward Guthmann
 
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
"Grease", a 1970s celebration of nostalgia for the 1950s, is now being resurrected on its 20th anniversary as 1970s nostalgia. But no revival, however joyously promoted, can conceal the fact that this is just an average musical, pleasant and upbeat and plastic...The movie's worth seeing for nostalgia, or for a look at vintage Travolta, but its underlying problem is that it sees the material as silly camp: It neuters it. Romance and breaking up are matters of life and death for teenagers, and a crisis of self-esteem can be a crushing burden. "Grease'' doesn't seem to remember that. "Saturday Night Fever'' does. - Roger Ebert
 
Variety 7 of 10
[2] It's 1961 now at Rydell High, a becalmed, upbeat time when JFK's photo has replaced Ike's on the school wall. In fact, hardly anything is happening socially or musically...Where this film has a decided edge on its predecessor is in the staging and cutting of the musical sequences. Choreographer and director Patricia Birch has come up with some unusual settings (a bowling alley, a bomb shelter) for some of the scenes, and employs some sharp montage to give most of the songs and dances a fair amount of punch...Pfeiffer is all anyone could ask for in the looks department, and she fills Olivia Newton-John's shoes and tight pants very well, thank you. Caulfield is a less certain choice.
 
ReelViews 8 of 10
Grease is a perfect way to become immersed in the recent past. Not only was it one of the top box office draws in 1978, but it capped off a decade of '50s frenzy (that began, ironically, with the off-Broadway opening of the play Grease in 1972). The stars were '70s icons, with John Travolta having come off his phenomenally successful outing in Saturday Night Fever and Olivia Newton-John having made her American acting debut after repeated stays atop world-wide pop charts. The songs are '50s style hits that have shown their enduring popularity. The soundtrack for Grease sold well in 1978 and is still going strong two decades later...Grease boasts what all successful motion picture musicals have: likable stars, a simple but not trivial plot, and a lot of enjoyable music. Familiarity with the soundtrack is undoubtedly one of the reasons for the film's popularity -- several of the songs have achieved pop hit status. Who can't recognize "Grease," "Hopelessly Devoted to You," "You're the One that I Want," "Greased Lightning," and "Summer Nights"? These may not represent great music, but they're a lot of fun to listen to, as their abiding appeal proves...Grease works as a musical, a comedy, a light romance, and a gentle satire of teenage life during the '50s. In part because of its persistent high spirits, it's a delight to watch, even 20 years after it first appeared on the screen. There's no doubt that Grease has a devoted legion of fans, so it will be interesting to see how well the movie performs at the box office. After all, it is readily available on video tape, and, unlike last year's big re-release, there are no restored outtakes and enhanced special effects. The only things Grease has to rely upon are its reputation and its music. For me, at least, that's enough for a trip to the theater. - James Berardinelli
 
The Onion A.V. Club 7 of 10
Why did people in the '70s love the '50s so much? Was it part of the wave of hippie-provoked nostalgia that unaccountably revived the Gay '90s and the Dustbowl '30s?...Grease arrived both toward the beginning and toward the end of the '50s revival. The stage musical opened on Broadway in 1972, and in spite of middling reviews, it connected with audiences who responded to the catchy songs, tongue-in-cheek sexual frankness, and love-and-loss-in-high-school plot. The 1978 movie version follows more or less the same model, but adds songs with more of a late-'70s pop-disco feel, and adds iconic performances by Olivia Newton-John (as the squeaky-clean girl who learns to be a little rough) and John Travolta (as the agile punk who learns not to care so much about his image). Director Randall Kleiser, in collaboration with Grease's original choreographer Patricia Birch, combines the best of "new Hollywood" and old, creating still frames that look like snapshots in a high-school yearbook, yet filled with crazy background action, like a cross between a Robert Altman comedy and a Mad magazine margin-doodle...Grease's gender politics are pretty screwy, and its understanding of the '50s amounts to a few cultural signifiers: hot cars, leather jackets, soda shops, and dance contests. But there's a reason the movie remains a slumber-party staple, and it isn't the muddled "don't worry about what other people think" message. It's more the film's dreamy look, and the way we learn more about Travolta and Newton-John through the lies they sing in "Summer Nights" than through any line of dialogue. Grease is a pure pop construct, fueled by movie-star poses, hit songs, and persistent audience fantasies of being an acceptable kind of "bad." Barry Gibb-penned disco theme aside, Grease doesn't really belong to any one era. It's like it's always existed. - Noel Murray