'Grease''s lightning strikes once again

Danny and Sandy make out on the hot sand, waves crashing in the background ... and we sigh with the envy of hopeless romantics.

PREVIEW
	Grease This Weekend at theaters Starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta

The infamous, rebellious Pink Ladies poke fun at their new friend, super-virgin Sandra Dee, and we smile, remembering the days of our sleepover parties.

Tight-shirted Travolta as Danny and fellow T-Birds serenade "Greased Lightning" ... and we can't help but sing along to the catchy tune. Perhaps we even know the hand motions as well.

Courtesy of Paramount After 20 years, John Travolta is still the one that Olivia Newton-John wants in the most successful movie musical ever, "Grease."

Rydell High. Boys whipping out their combs. Girls discussing the beauty of hickeys.

We've grown up on it. We remember it well.

Not so well that we'll miss the chance to see "Grease" on the big screen, though. This weekend, movie theaters around the nation welcome this much-loved classic back for its 20th anniversary.

Laden with cliques, too-close-together lockers, kooky principals, homeroom, hot lovin' and hippety-hopping singing and dancing, "Grease" glorifies the days of old. As the film has us know, the idealized '50s were oh-so-good ... and that must be why we go back again and again.

There's also the memorable songs, among them "Beauty School Dropout," "Sandra Dee," "We Go Together" and "Summer Lovin'." If we actually stopped to listen to the lyrics that are so embedded in our generation's memory, we may be surprised at what we find. The lyrics to "Greased Lightning" go something like this: "It's a dream - uh-uh - the chicks'll cream - uh-uh." Hip gyrations, of course, enhance this moment in the film.

And of course, we can't forget the ending of "Grease." Olivia Newton-John's Sandra Dee gets dressed to kill in spiked heels and tight, black spandex-like pants, as the latest, baddest Pink Lady. There's the car race, the school carnival, a lot of rama-lama-lama-kadingidee-dingy-dong-shoobop-shoowadadada-yippidey-boom-dee-boom action and, the best part of it all, a new-and-improved whipped Danny, who can now love the virginal high-school girl he's dissed all film long.

Never mind the mildly disturbing message that the film sends to its viewers: Change the way you look and act to snag the one that you want.

But somehow, John Travolta in tight-black gear, with his bulging muscles and glaring sex appeal, just looks too damn good for us to care.

03-27-98