This morning on Digg, an interesting article hit the front page, a list titled “8 Timeless Classic Movies That Critics Are Afraid Of.” It’s a pretty good list, however there is a flaw in it. In fact, here it is:
Grease
Why We’re Afraid
Bring up Grease to a group of women, any age, and you will be greeted with the same response: “Awww, I love Grease.” This is fine. They get a kick out of summer lovin’ and watching pretty people dance around in a simpler time. But things take a dangerous turn when you admit to an ounce of dislike for this musical. They’ll pounce faster than greased lightning, ready to declare you a heartless, un-American fiend. You’d think you were the hardass judge from Footloose and had just banned dancing altogether. For the record — that’s a better musical.
Why We Should
The songs, although catchy, are grating. The acting is stiff and borders on self-parody. The comedy is immediately dated. And worst of all, the problem with making a movie that celebrates a simpler time is that simpler times are by their very nature boring. Aside from it being an entertaining enough movie, it’s just not the ultimate joyous musical that many feel it is. And no, I’m not saying that because I’m threatened by John Travolta’s scientologist henchmen.
The problem with that is, I’ve always been critical of the film, and I’ve always been extremely vocal about it, at one point going so far as to survey women about whether they like the movie or not. Not surprisingly, most of them said they love it – except for, oddly enough, women named Nicole for some reason.
I despise the movie. I’ve always said that it’s the second worst film ever made – the first being Grease 2. In all fairness to the John Travolta greaser pic, that statement is a little exxagerated. There are much worse films in existence than the two iterations of Grease. The fact remains that Grease is one of the most overrated films of all time, hands down. As the guys over at Flixter point out, the movie is just plain boring. On top of that, the music is irritating. I’d rather shoot myself in the head than hear a damn number from Grease again.
My ex wife loved the movie. She had a copy of it on VHS (and for those of you too young to remember, that’s what we used to watch movies on before DVDs came out) – I threatened to destroy it if it was ever viewed in my presense. She watched it one time while I was sick. I woke up and it was on. I didn’t destroy it – but I at least scared her (because she’s an idiot and thought that opening the little plastic door and exposing the film would automatically destroy the tape).
I applaud you for your list, Flixter. I just don’t think Grease belongs on it, as I’ve never been afraid to criticize it to anybody, thus proving that entry wrong.
Tags: Borders, Comedy, Dislike, Existence, Fairness, Fiend, Footloose, Grating, Grease 2, Greased Lightning, Greaser, Group Of Women, Henchmen, Iterations, John Travolta, Ounce, Scientologist, Self Parody, Simpler Time, Simpler Times