Reasons to See Grease

Yeah, I know. It's obvious that I liked Grease but I didn't say a whole lot about the movie itself.

What did I like about it?

1. Olivia Newton-John's clean-scrubbed presence. Pobre Olivia never was much of an actress but this is very easily one of her best roles -- perhaps because it plays to her strength as a singer.

2. Stockard Channing's Rizzo. Yes, the critics always liked Rizzo a tad too much... So much that my middle brother used to complain about it. But her tart performance is a great counterpart to Ms. Newton-John's sugary persona.

3. The nostalgia angle. Yes, a lot of the jokes were aging quite badly even in 1978, but I still found it quite fun to see golden oldies like Eve Arden and Sid Caesar hanging in there. If only they had been given more to do.

4. John Travolta. This is very easily one of his better movies even though it's not exactly Oscar material.