The Reel Rejects - GREASE (1978) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!

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Starting point is 00:01:06 Everyone keeps forgetting to mention the genres, including myself. So I'm just going to start the intros that way. Then we will go into Citizens of the Reject Nation. All right, ladies and gentlemen, if you're listening to us on Apple and or Spotify, Aaron Alexander and myself, myself being the great John Humphrey. watched the classic 1978 musical that is set with the 1950s backdrop

Starting point is 00:01:37 a film starring Olivia Newton and John and John Travolta that movie is of course Greece familiar with some choruses before going in sometimes it took me a while before I was like oh wait I do know

Starting point is 00:01:56 this song and it happened quite a few times and of course we've seen the iconic imagery many times especially of john travolta yeah very true it's very ingrained in pop culture yeah it's a very this is interesting film because it's stranger than i expected it to be like i think i get it because i one of my favorite movies of all time is i believe it's George Lucas's second movie. Return of the Jet. It's called American Graffiti.

Starting point is 00:02:33 Have you seen it? No. American graffiti takes place in the 50s, and it spans like a 24-hour period or maybe less than that, actually. And it's just follow. It's like a slice of life, following around people before

Starting point is 00:02:47 that are going to say goodbye to each other when some of them are heading off post-graduation. It's in romance. is like Ron Howard's in it, Harrison Ford's in it. Way. And then there's like Rebel Without a Cause, which is 50s. And again, kind of like the plot is not very clearly defined. There's an exploration of life in a way.

Starting point is 00:03:10 And this took me a while to adjust to it. I was like, okay, it's a hangout movie. Because there's not really much stakes in the film. And even when it comes to. stakes that doesn't mean end of the world or someone's life is on the line like i want one movie a franchise i covered here recently have you seen the diary of olympic kid movies i don't think so no well i love them because it's it's just like youth teenager problems but they're so vital and important to this main character that it feels like life or death but when you like look back you're like

Starting point is 00:03:50 now it's not but it feels like life or death so the stakes feel very real in those very one of those right or like super bad like oh this is very life or death to them and this movie doesn't even have that really that effect you know it's i'm not expecting real life or death things but something that feels of serious consequence it's a fun vibrant movie with amazing choreography and the songs are characters in it of themselves because i feel like the song kind of supersede the actual film itself like the summer loving song i've heard song at karaoke so many times release lightning i've heard i've heard so many of these songs and not really so much about the movie but i've heard the songs itself and it and i find that very fascinating

Starting point is 00:04:40 because when it comes to musical movies oftentimes it is because of whatever the movie is that's why the song is so famous right and it seems like some people maybe even just love these songs because of the movie or some people just love the songs on their own or maybe they love the movie because of the songs yeah when a lot of the movie isn't actually songs a lot of it is just people talking so there's there's more to say um I got kind of a lot of my mind about it I haven't really said what I thought Aaron what's your first thought when it comes to Greece. This movie is an interesting experience. It is a film that is more about the vibe than it is about its story. It has the two leads of Danny and Sandy. And I guess they're technically the leads,

Starting point is 00:05:35 but it kind of goes off in different directions and is about different things and has a lot of scenes that are more about the energy and the experience of what it's like within this time of life than it is about, you know, building up their romance and like, it's kind of lighter than I expected it to be, because when you see the cover of it of Danny and Sandy, you even have the film opens, you expect it to be this kind of epic 50s start a star cross lover's experience. But it's not exactly what it is. It's kind of more of this ensemble kind of group of guys and girls and just like the shenanigans of what it's like to grow up in the 50s. um with these characters and

Starting point is 00:06:18 i i can't quite say i've seen a movie like it before and i've seen movies that are musicals both on this channel and my own personal time and it does technically sometimes follow that cardinal rule what i feel makes a great musical which is stories songs that advance the plot and or give us greater insight to the characters and it it does that in some of its numbers or at least like some of the more classic numbers that are more stayed within the consciousness of pop culture like summer 11 gives you that alternate perspective of like the guy and the girl and then you're the one that i want two of the biggest numbers in the show or in the movie and then you have these other ones that don't really kind of go anywhere like the one with like the high school dropout and that's just like okay we just had this little aside to shit on this one girl okay that's that's fun i guess um sure so I don't know, man.

Starting point is 00:07:16 I can say I was never bored watching it. I like the performances. I like John Travolta in it. I think he had such a dynamic energy. And he's very much this guy who has a lot of charisma. And you see he's very popular around the town. You know, he's popular with his community or with his friend group. Clearly, he's popular with the ladies.

Starting point is 00:07:37 And he has this sort of shame that he felt. And it's interesting kind of watching this. Weird comparison that I felt with a high. school musical in a sense even though obviously this movie came out way before high school musical with like the girl who's kind of not as popular maybe she's new she's literally new to the school and he's the popular guy who's ashamed to kind of embrace the girl you know and like the world that she belongs to and whatnot but um i don't really see on a little hot take i think high school musical did a little better but you know this is a a classic one so you know you need movies like this

Starting point is 00:08:12 to walk so high school musical can run And, you know, I definitely respect it for all that it's done and all the things that it's inspired in pop culture, you know, like classic karaoke moments with the songs that I mentioned earlier. And even, I'm sure, it's inspired like some dancing sequences. Like, I can imagine, and I can envision back that some things in this movie inspired aspects of hairspray, you know, even with John Travolta being in it, I'm sure as an homage at the fact that he was in Greece. So, so we didn't know anything about this movie before watching it. We didn't know anything about hairspray. No. We were very much surprised to see what that movie was actually about.

Starting point is 00:08:55 Yeah, for sure, for sure we were. And I thought, but you know, like you, like this movie I feel like has a lot of stereotypes and archetypes that you sort of expect in with the error that this takes place in. And I thought hairspray was just going to be more like what this movie actually. actually was and to my surprise that movie has a lot more of a social commentary and deals with race you know and this movie has one race with five black extras in there just chilling in the back way to be part of this school five shop with chips in the cookie yeah like I think one of my favorite elements that I haven't really said this about a movie I think even on this channel is the background work of every everything that was happening in the film because almost every shot there was so much life in every single shot not just in i mean yes the part of the art design of whatever they had produced there but it just felt very much alive with how they directed the background players and i i found myself in so many scenes just watching what was going on in the background same even though they

Starting point is 00:10:08 would they would do a lot of these master shots a lot of these wide shots where you wouldn't really have singles on yeah uh i mean i'm assuming you know what that means but single is just when it's just on one person and they wouldn't really have singles on anyone a lot of the time unless they were having a solo number but even sometimes in their solo numbers it's kind of when they would dial back some of the background stuff that was going on sometimes but usually you would just kind of get a wide shot of everything going on so you had so much life zipping around the entire time which is a part of what made it feel like the culture of this time was really brought

Starting point is 00:10:47 to life. I did not expect that. I don't really notice those things, but I feel like this movie had a great handle on it. John Travolta is magnetic. I grew up watching Saturday Night Fever, which is very different. Have you seen it? No.

Starting point is 00:11:04 Very different. It's disco era and it's very R-rated. But kind of like what John I remember what John Travolta said about his character in that movie because his character is kind of an asshole in that film. And he said that he wanted the film to be in that film that when he dances, people love him. And that's sort of what I felt about this movie.

Starting point is 00:11:29 It reached a point. I found that in the first like 30 to 40 minutes, perhaps, I was really enjoying this movie like a lot. I was loving it. And then it started to hit me like, okay, there's not really a plot here. it's kind of random there's really not much at stake it's kind of an odd film it is and i found myself getting slowly less emotionally invested as it kept going and more just like all right because we're just hanging out with him and there's nothing wrong with that um but like even like the way the romance is illustrated between sandy and and danny i didn't i thought it was just kind of weird

Starting point is 00:12:10 and not like I was strongly rooting for them. It was a little shallow. Because I feel like with musical number, with music and movies, one musical is just a very powerful emotional thing that kind of we all connect through, right? But I feel like with especially the combination of film which is this medium that allows us

Starting point is 00:12:28 to peer into someone's experience and a musical, I feel like that has a capacity or potential to be the epitome of the emotional experience. And I don't feel like this movie really, capitalized on having a story that involves these two lovers that are going through this thing. Grant, does it have numbers? Sure. But I feel like maybe, like for example, like the, oh, Sandy, like, why do you hurt me? Why did you leave me? I feel like that number could have been a lot more powerful if it wasn't where it was placed because it just ends up feeling a little melodramatic.

Starting point is 00:13:01 I'm like, oh, you just wanted to screw her and she left. And then why won't you leave? Why did you leave me? I was like, okay, if like there's this emotional crescendo, maybe that would have hit a little harder. Um, but the, the isolated musical numbers in them, in of themselves are very entertaining, very good. Yeah. And that's what I mean is like, I feel like when you love this movie is because of the musical numbers. And I, I think this is one of those pieces. We've seen, I've seen plenty of movies here that have a lot of nostalgia for people that I do not have a nostalgia for because I'm reacting to it. That I end up really loving just for what it is today. This does strike me as a movie. I'm sure there's, plenty of people who will watch it in their 20s, 30s, whatever, for the first time and love it. The vibe that I get that this is probably generally more of a nostalgia film.

Starting point is 00:13:52 Like if you grew up, drew up on it, you love it kind of film. I'm not saying that's the only reason you would love the movie. Like I said, you could be in your 20s and 30s, perhaps to love it from watching it the first time. For me, I can't say I loved it. I thought I was going to love it. Like the first 30 to 40, I was like, I'm going to love this movie. I was really digging it. I really felt like I was getting what they were going for.

Starting point is 00:14:16 But then it did start to become a little bit more shallow. Like the plot is basically stuff happens during their last semester in high school. Like, that's the plot. Stuff happens. And sometimes Sandy and Danny are getting along. And sometimes they're not. And there's a weird barrier in their communication. and self-acceptance.

Starting point is 00:14:40 And I guess her arc is where I feel like I'm a little dumb and I must have missed something. I guess her arc is, you know, going from more innocent, a little bit more of a pushover to someone who's a lot more confident in herself. Like she transforms, but it seems like she kind of transformed herself

Starting point is 00:14:59 aesthetically for Danny. That's what it felt like. Yeah. Because they're like, no, do the cigarette thing. You're going to be cool. He's going to think you're cool. Yeah. So I was kind of wondering, actually, this is where I was confused.

Starting point is 00:15:12 Because it's a 1978 movie, and I don't know if I missed the mark here, if I'm wrong. Is this movie sort of a satire? It's not a parody, but like a, perhaps parody, but is it like a satire of the era that it's based off of? Like with a certain type of archetypes and the machismo, masculinity, things that those can be played very sincerely. It's just there were certain elements where I was wondering, is this situation? In their approach to what they're doing that's it didn't even get like very fantastical They're literally like fly off the car It's the sky at the end of the movie

Starting point is 00:15:44 You know, so I didn't I didn't know because they're kind of covering like a lot of beats from a lot of these different types of movies While sometimes taking an opportunity to zigzag into a weird comedic direction like the girl with the With the makeup beauty song and being like you're gonna fail Like just go back to school You know sometimes it did feel satirical. Yeah, you know what this is feels like this movie would be a very entertaining stage play like absolutely something to go to and i wonder if like what the was a movie created first or because i think there is a stage version of greece so i wonder yeah a thousand percent i wouldn't be surprised at all if it was so i wonder

Starting point is 00:16:23 if the stage version was like one of those cases where this is an adaptation of the stage version because i feel like with stage you have this this freedom to be more about the experience of what you're watching rather than be heavy on plot and i think the best musicals in my experience have this combination of those two things like they meet in the middle yeah but i feel like this was more about the event uh and the feeling more than it was about the understanding its characters yeah i'd kind of meet you on i know we'll piss people off to say it i would actually meet you on the high school musical opinion and in all honesty I think the songs here, and, of course, the production kind of blows high school musical out of the water in terms of iconic songs, in terms of, you know, the overall, like, that's a Disney channel movie.

Starting point is 00:17:16 I feel like there's more, like, but, but, but it had so freaking like life or death for Troy Bolton in that movie. Yeah. Like, what do I do? You know, and there's so much at stake for him, and you feel that as cheesy of a film as it is, you really actually feel. feel that pressure and that in this and what's at stake for him where this falls a little bit more in a high school musical two camp for me where they're like yeah stuff is just kind of happening

Starting point is 00:17:43 or like a high school musical three like high school musical one I think has that great character set up with Troy because it feels like life or death and it's very moving by the end when him and Vanessa Hudgens are singing but this movie does have like a bigger budget

Starting point is 00:18:00 bigger songs and and like I that I've heard so many of these songs in the Zite guys in karaoke people just love these songs that sometimes some of these I didn't even know Summer Loving was from this movie Yeah I think I think I vaguely

Starting point is 00:18:15 That's the one thing I did vaguely know But yeah as we're thinking about it And as we're talking about it Kind of how you said like the life or death thing Because I really the way that the movie starts So after after that initial summer Experience with their opening And it goes into the perspective song

Starting point is 00:18:31 Like the Summer Levin I really thought that his perception of how he's viewed against his friends versus how he's viewed against her It's going to be a real conflict It would be a real conflict It would be a real conflict and it just kind of like blows over after the one scene I was like oh okay And then her being pregnant

Starting point is 00:18:47 I'm not pregnant oh okay And then High School dropout versus beauty school Okay I just go back to high school I was like oh okay it's just like things just kind of keep going up and down And it's like oh okay just but I don't know man I think it's fun I don't think it's trying to be too deep

Starting point is 00:19:05 You know people working like You're looking too deep into it You know it's like Why are you guys criticizing it's fun You know It's what we do We're also gonna break it down We're gonna be honest

Starting point is 00:19:16 We will critique I think that's part of what you make videos for is to critique Yeah If you feel those If you feel those And we're leading with our feelings You know

Starting point is 00:19:26 And you do got to imagine It from our shoes Is that this movie Has been hyped since we came out of the womb and then we're finally watching it and there's been plenty of movies that have had that level of hype that you know we've watched here i'm like this lives up to everything i've heard my entire existence yep and i was i guess i was a bit taken aback by oh this is just kind of like a hangout movie like you're just hanging out there's not much real

Starting point is 00:19:53 conflict there's not much at stake and just things are sort of happening but yes is it fun absolutely Is it impressive? Very much so. Is it vibrant and lush in the way how a lot of this looks great? I love the opening animation. I think John Travolta gives a wonderful performance. And the one who is like pregnant. I liked her performance a lot too. Yeah, and I liked how it's a little bit more mature than I was anticipating. Like dealing with some of the sexuality, I thought was a little bit more mature than I was anticipating it to initially be. and yeah the background work like I said there's still stuff I really appreciated the hell out of and I overall enjoyed it from beginning to end I just found myself going from loving to thinking it was fine in the back and forth experience of this journey that I was on and that's about it I know that some people will be upset by it but we're just here to be honest yeah I can't say I love it but I can say that I did have fun and I respect the movie for what it is and for what it's done for pop culture and i could see if you grew up on it and perhaps to the time in which it came out it was probably way more effective for sure because we've had such an advancement on so many different kinds of musicals you know like i just watched chicago here a couple weeks ago and a movie was phenomenal and i was like that's one of the

Starting point is 00:21:21 best musicals i've ever seen and yeah so to go to just like a simple hangout movie it's a little bit jarred but like we've seen hairsprit that was that was awesome um i would like to look up some quick trivia because i never do that part of this job oh damn i never do that i just i just want to trivia with greg what does i'm rotten tomatoes as 66% uh audience 87 audience 87 that's actually a little lower on audience i would have anticipated yeah for all the talk there is about it definitely word is greece starts an electrifying john shiverlto while serving up some 50s kish in a frenetic adaptation that isn't always the one that we want yeah i agree okay so i guess it's i guess it's a play first um it was a play first i mean it's saying it's an

Starting point is 00:22:14 adaptation so i guess it's a play it definitely feels like a play they just kind of filmed 7.2 out of 10 all right let's go here this may be blasphemous to say but i would not mind a like an updated, reworked version of this that is a lot more in depth of his characters, but still keeps the same numbers. I think you just really need to up the conflict with, between

Starting point is 00:22:38 the will they, won't they, or are they going to make this happen and play a little bit more on the adolescent imagery struggles that the movie was setting up. Yeah, if you add maybe like another 30 minutes to this movie, or I feel like that would really allow those things to be fleshed out. And then

Starting point is 00:22:54 introduce like a bomb and some guns and then They don't get some real stakes. And a sky beam. Yeah. They just do that in there at the very end. They got to take the card to take out the sky beam. All right. There's a lot of spoiler.

Starting point is 00:23:08 So I'm going to quickly. Oh, Rizzo's Hickeys were real. Wait, what was real? That seemed like Rizzo's Hikis are real. Oh, wow. I just worked that in. Okay, cool. Olivia Newton and John auctioned the leather jacket and pants you wore in the finale for over 400K.

Starting point is 00:23:26 at a cancer research charity is she Australian look that up my friend um I got you let me see here oh wow okay so cha cha cha was pregnant during uh the scene of the Thunder Road cars damn those people here would like oh man jeffano way okay she was she was she stopped being John Chavros to the start of rehearsals just four days after completing filming

Starting point is 00:24:03 for Saturday Night Fever Wow Saturday Fever was the film that really put him on the map and that's pretty crazy because it kind of becomes like the dance guy when he I think he learned to dance for Saturday Night Fever then he's like brought on to

Starting point is 00:24:17 this is like wow what a perfect little swing here it's his legacy that and so it's another like 50s kind of based one does that have the same hair that's a 70s 60s or 70s movie it's a disco film oh bad okay um yeah so it's a more mature for sure uh it's definitely like R rated uh man I'm just trying to preview these scissors like a billion of them and I'm sure with the most likes I'm sure they're very interesting is that what you do yeah usually all right that's a good idea I don't find anything interesting it's like

Starting point is 00:24:54 I don't know I guess it's a pretty straightforward experience they're the one that I want was filmed in one afternoon whoa that's impressive okay oh no way

Starting point is 00:25:07 fucking John Travolta this guy what do he do he's always had pool even in even some stuff in Saturday Fever I learned about

Starting point is 00:25:15 where he like went in and he like change the editing what he made it better apparently but he did like straight up change the edit um of like dance scenes and stuff so apparently

Starting point is 00:25:28 greece uh lightning was supposed to be sung by the character kennecke uh jeff conaway who i believe that must be the other guy I mean that makes more sense because it was his car that they're working on John Travolta used his clout to have his character sing it

Starting point is 00:25:46 that's so messed up As I was watching, I was like, it makes more sense for the other guy to have this number because it's about his car. But that's wild. At first, Conaway was not okay with it, but he eventually gave in his freaking judgment for free. It's kind of a dick move, to be honest. No, that is. That is a really messed up. That is really messed up.

Starting point is 00:26:09 I like this song. I shall take now. Apparently, Kenneke and Rizzo would get into heated arguments. Oh, passion. Wow, yeah. Highest grossing movie of 1978. What do you know? Where can I?

Starting point is 00:26:24 This sounds so much like all the stories I heard about him on Saturday Night Fever. But he's also vocal about it like John Travolta is. It's not like just murmurs. And then, so John Travolta argued with the director over the end of the song, Sandy. He wanted a close-up of himself instead of the cartoon shot of a hot dog diving into a bum. Leicester got his way. Oh, Elvis Presley. was offered the role of the guardian angel in the beauty school dropout scene oh no way

Starting point is 00:26:51 um alan car's the singer okay uh alice would have still been alive when this is made that's right jeff connoe had to walk slightly stooped because uh john shervult so that way john shirvold could appear taller wow it's a little petty sure why not That's just what ridiculous. It's so funny to me that that happened. This is something about... No, just what I read just to the height thing. This is so funny.

Starting point is 00:27:26 Most of the extras won a nationwide contest to be in the movie. Oh, cool. Henry Winkler was originally considered for Danny Zuko. I can see that because he's the Fons. I know. It's such typecasting, though. True. The cast chewed about 100,000 pieces of bubble gum during the shoot,

Starting point is 00:27:44 up to 5,000 pieces a day. That's a lot of damn. gum uh yeah wow okay there's like a billion facts about this i'm sure at least one gree super fan owns a piece of gum from that set yeah i would love that gum frames it because it's a wall the blonde pineapple line was improvised that i did really stand out to i've never heard that anyway yeah um i don't know i give the movie like a 6.5 edited 6.5, 7

Starting point is 00:28:18 I guess by being nice 7 I'll meet you there I'll meet you to Yeah Let me show to 7 why not Slightly let down Just because of all the hype I thought I'd love it

Starting point is 00:28:27 Yeah I'm whelmed I'm just whelmed Not underwhelmed Not overwhelmed Just overwhelmed It was a very stimulating movie While being in it

Starting point is 00:28:36 But like Coming out of the theater If this was made today And I saw this in theaters I'm like oh That was a movie yeah but a lot but plenty to appreciate it a lot of impressive stuff regardless um yeah all right guys well is greece one of your favorite musicals leave your thoughts down below as a nostalgia

Starting point is 00:28:56 driven film for you what do you love about it um i'm always up for a conversation so please if there's stuff that we said that you're like to hell with you guys instead of taking that avenue why don't you just explain to us your perspective on it And perhaps that might open our eyes up. Tina, Tony, talk to us. Come on. All right, ladies and gents. We'll talk with you soon.

Starting point is 00:29:19 Thank you very much. Lauren Cardinal. Lauren. Hey, Lauren. Hey, Lauren. Hey, Lauren. Hey. Sandy.

Starting point is 00:29:32 Ah, everyone. Lauren. Lauren, if there was, if there was someone who I would love to, steal a musical number from oh it would be you poaching that number because I feel like Lauren would probably come up with a really great musical number

Starting point is 00:29:51 set in the 50s Lauren of course of course music man yeah you can feel it just look at their profile with their shades in their hat in their car yeah screams wicked vibes screams yeah they're part of that force gladi

Starting point is 00:30:07 screams I have a good tenor so yeah yeah Yeah, but I would totally, look, I need to explain where I'm coming from here, Lauren, and so John, what happened in Greece. Okay. Was the song about the car that John Travolta sings when they're working in the mechanic shop? I was supposed to go to his best friend in the movie. Oh, really? But then John Travolta insisted he did this one?

Starting point is 00:30:30 Did he really? Yeah. So that's what the joke is about. I am stealing from Lauren like the great untouchable John Trevold. John Travolte, the wickedly talented. The wickedly talented Scientologist, John Travolveld. And Lauren is not a Scientologist. So it's not okay to steal from him.

Starting point is 00:30:50 That's true. Okay. You can steal from any Scientologist. You really can't. They're already stealing from themselves, and they're being stolen from. So you might as well steal from them. But I'm not here to touch any buttons. I'm just here to say, Lauren is an all right individual.

Starting point is 00:31:05 Sure. And we can vouch for that. It deserves a good Christmas. You know what you're going to get for Christmas? you're gonna get you're gonna get you're gonna get a car from John oh yes you can have my car please how many miles are on it a hot like 150,000 I think that's a real number is it it's close Jesus I mean I've had this car for a little while now you can have a car with a hundred fifty thousand miles on it let's get it job man I lost the

Starting point is 00:31:39 narrative here. If you don't want to pledge next month, he can steal my car. I totally get it. Just like John Travolta stole the musical number. Just ask us for a cameo. Just get a cameo and we'll figure it out. Yeah, yeah. Give you special friends and family rate.

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The Reel Rejects - GREASE (1978) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!

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