Blu-ray Review HTF Blu-ray Review: Grease Rockin' Rydell Edition (1 Viewer)

[MatthewA]

If I recall correctly, the remix also adds background singers on Hopelessly Devoted to You that were not there before.

 

[litemakr]

The start and end of that song is a little different too. Summer Nights has some annoying percussion turned up in the middle that isn't on any other version (maybe a temp rhythm track that was never supposed to be heard). The worst is You're the One That I Want which has several clunky music edits and the background vocals become way out of sync during the second verse. It sounds terrible. The foley during the dance contest is way too loud compared to the music. None of these things were in the original mix, which had a lot more musical punch. It felt solid, and the remix feels amatuerish and like it was a rough mix that was never finished.

I can't believe Paramount keeps using it after all of the complaints. It would not cost them anything to include the original mix and there is plenty of room on the BD.

 

[RobertSiegel]

I must post an addition to my post earlier (#20). I spent a few hours comparing 4 versions of Grease tonight. I compared the HDnet Movies showing, the DVD (Rockin special Edition), the original DVD release and the Blu-ray release. I have to say this:

HDnetMovies: Picture quality was very good but not anywhere near the Blu-ray quality, but the worst of the soundtracks. The echo on the voices during the singing of songs was horrible, almost like the singers were in a large empty hall. Whether this was what Paramount sent to HDnet or whether there was a broadcast problem with the soundtrack, I can't be sure.

Original DVD (2002 release): Probably the most accurate (audio) reproduction of the original showing of the film in theaters. The problem is that the audio transfers around the time the DVD was produced are not nearly as good and accurate as they are now.

DVD special edition/Blu-ray: Much less of an echo in the singing voices, but it's still there, thankfully toned down quite a bit compared to the HDnet Movies showing. This echo would not be present on the original music masters, so it was done for the video transfer. I don't know why they added an echo, it is distracting..they used to do this on soundtrack LP's of musicals when they created album masters (listen to the original Sound of Music soundtrack LP, dialogue singing echo is horrible).....The track, when "cranked" sounds very good, had my system rocking.....separation excellent and good bass and high end especially for a film of that era. But this is not the soundtrack that played in the original theatrical run which I remember well, and that should have been included here along with their new track. Still, the lossless audio makes a huge difference when comparing the Blu-ray with the DVD 2008 Dolby Digital edition and the HDnet showing.

As for picture quality, the Blu-ray is excellent, better than I expected. Much better than the HDnet showing in ass respects. Of course these are just my personal observations.

 

[Brian Borst]

If Paramount just added the original soundtrack (like every studio should do, even on foreign releases) this pretty much would've been the definitive version of Grease.

 

[litemakr]

All of those are still the remixed soundtrack. The original soundtrack has not been on any release since 1998 (when the remix was done for the re-release). The only way to hear the original soundtrack is on VHS or the orignal laserdisc release. I have a dvd copy that someone created with the DVD pic and the original soundtrack. Maybe that can be done with the blu ray.

 

[RobertSiegel]

Sad you would have to go to that point, the original soundtrack would be great in lossless..oh well, we got what we got now. I still have my laserdisc, I'll have to dig it out and check it out. Still, funny the soundtrack on HDnet is different from what is on the Blu-ray and the latest DVD edition. But it's the worst of them all.

 

[Tucker J]

That is correct.The track included on the pre 1998 vhs and laserdisc is the last time the original track was included which was mixed to perfection.

Ya know,Grease is one of my favorite movies but the only way i would consider buying the blu ray is if like Litemakr says,it could somehow be played with the original mix.I wish film makers would stop p*****g around with soundtracks.

I remember when me and a couple of mates had just been to see the re-release in 1998.God,what a disappointment we felt when we came out.A great soundtrack ruined with a careless,rushed and amateur remix.

 

[Dalby1]

Ok, I see this thread is half a year old, but I wanted to add a few things. As some have also mentioned, I thought the Blu-ray picture quality was outstanding. And like others, the audio was less than spectacular. I mean, what are they thinking, it's a musical for goodness sake. The sound is kind of important.

Also, came across this site. I don't know what they were thinking by blurring it. There are other Coke signs and logos (as well as Pepsi) throughout the diner, but they only chose to selectively blur. Too weird.

 

 

[David Rain]

I'm late to the party on this one but I've only recently gotten the Rockin' Rydell Blu-ray. I noticed a couple of years ago that a basic cable showing of Grease seemed a little - "off". I couldn't quite figure out what it was. The movie was edited for content of course but something else wasn't right. By the time it got to the dance contest scenes I had figured it out. They were using "alternate" versions of some of the scenes. The dialogue was the same but the line deliveries were clearly different. The most obvious example of this was Frenchy's reading of "with the worst reputation". In the original version she says it with a lot more of a harsh tone. Also, I think Rizzo's "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" might be a completely different version. It's bad enough about the audio changes but why would anyone be stupid enough to change the scenes in such an iconic film ? What's even more puzzling to me is that I have yet to see any reference to this in any article about the film's subsequent home video releases. Am I the only one whose noticed these changes ? I'm assuming this happened when the film was updated for it's anniversary re-release. But that still doesn't explain why it was done. Are we supposed to believe the the alternate takes of these scenes were in better shape than the original film ? I assume this also means we have to hold onto our original DVD's of the film in order to have a copy of the right version.