Perfect

Adam Lawrence (John Travolta) is a relentless, cynical Rolling Stone reporter from New York. He is in Los Angeles to track down an elusive interview. He has a second idea to write about fitness clubs as the new singles bars. He tries to interview instructor Jessie Wilson (Jamie Lee Curtis) known as the "aerobics pied piper" at The Sport Connection. She refuses due to a previous reporter who wrote that she had an affair with her swim coach. He interviews customers like Sally (Marilu Henner) and Linda (Laraine Newman) who is described by another as "the most used piece of equipment in the gym". He is being pressured to testify about his other interview and hand over his notes. When Adam hands in a sincere story about health clubs, the editor rewrites it as a take down piece digging up the old story about Jessie.

This movie is hopelessly dated. It was probably dated and cheesy even at the time of its release. The aerobics scenes are too extended. They feel like cheesy music videos. I actually don't mind the story. Travolta and Curtis are fine actors. The movie is sincere in the writing. However, it can never truly escape the cheese factor.

Watching him and Jamie Lee Curtis "workout" was quite entertaining. Aerobics really was the soft core porn of the 80s and there's a lot of it in the movie. They even threw in a Chippendales performance for good measure. The film itself is alright, acting isn't bad and the storyline is ok but the ending is rather cliche and predictable. The soundtrack might be the best part. Fun to watch for nostalgia and the Carly Simon cameo but other than that I don't think there's a lot here really.

I first saw this movie some years ago on TV having missed it at the cinema, and found it very entertaining. The story and 'visuals', though not fantastic, was I think good enough to hold the shortest of attention spans. Mine included. The film is set in a health club in Los Angeles, with John Travolta starring as an ace investigative reporter for real-life mag Rolling Stone. It also features a brilliant funked-up disco soundtrack, featuring long forgotten artists like Jermaine Jackson, Jermaine Stewart, and Carol Lynn Towns, and follows Travolta's charchter as he writes a piece about the health club scene, and courts one of the fitness instructors there, played by Jaimie Lee Curtis. Unbeknownst to her, he's using her and some of her patrons, in order to write a sleazy story for his voracious boss played by the real Rolling Stone editor. It's not hard to guess what happens next, as Travolta and Curtis fall for each other, Curtis finds a copy of his article on his computer which causes conflict between them, and we get to see some fine acting from Jaimie Lee during those scenes. Travolta decides to kill the story, but his angered boss enlists the help of photographer played by Anne DeSalvo, in order to rewrite it without Travolta's knowledge.

But the best parts of the film, has to be scenes set during Curtis' classes (the visuals I mentioned earlier). Along with the pumping disco soundtrack, these scenes are excillerating to watch - and not just for the sexy hard bodies. When this film appeared again on TV recently, I just had to record it, and watch it all over again. Not because I'm perverted you understand, but because it's so...kitsch, and seems to be indicative of the silly hedonistic LA scene of the early 1980s. It has some truly funny moments also. Watch for the scene where Travolta searches for Jaimie Lee in a hotel holding a convention, which features Boy George look-alikes. It's hilarious!!

SPOILER: "The Hitcher" (young C. Thomas Howell) and "Risky Business" came out, Wes Craven was doing his "Nightmare on Elm Street" series...so what did we young people have for drama? This.

If you need a laugh now, you may want to tune in. While Jamie Lee Curtis tries to elevate this, it is simply not elevate-able.

Laraine Newman and Marilu Henner are gym groupies with no self-esteem, (Marilu gets the Chippendale man though, so it's all good). John Travolta as a semi-literate writer at "Rolling Stone". (We know he is good, because in the end he goes to jail for protecting a source). There are some scenes with Jann Wenner and Lauren Hutton, apparently the then in-crowd, at a party.

The really sad part about this is that there really were people like this; the gym was a sense of self-esteem;(along with anorexia). Aerobics class became the next singles hang-out as the song "Masquerade" blares out, while everyone obsesses over plastic surgery and the perfect body (The Laraine Newman character is particularly pathetic).

We see the superficiality. Has anything changed? Indeed, they could remake this with Jessica Simpson as the lead. Someone get on the phone to CAA!.

A legendary flop and a legendarily bad movie, this mess is part three in a career-killing trilogy of Travolta's that also includes "Staying Alive" and "Two of a Kind". It took him a long time to bounce back. It also stalled Curtis's career for a while until "A Fish Called Wanda" rescued her. The story, such as it is, concerns Travolta, a Rolling Stone magazine reporter, looking for a story angle within a huge gymnasium at the height of the aerobics and fitness craze. He's already working on another more important story, but wants this as a back-up in case an all-important interview falls through. He zeroes in on high-profile aerobics instructor Curtis who has a huge following (which often kisses her on the mouth following one of her workouts!) Unfortunately, she's had a major disaster with a reporter in the past and resists being interviewed for his story. In order for there to be a movie, he must wear her down and get her assistance even though there are 90 other instructors at this mega-gym. The film is very unfocused and disjointed throughout. It tries to be too many things: a reflection of investigative journalism, an ethics drama, an examination of self-esteem issues, a music video crash-course in Jazzercise and, most obviously, a jiggle movie with emphasis on lycra-clad spread legs and tight behinds. The script is so crass and stupid with ludicrous lines like, "You're a sphincter muscle..." (this one is repeated often!) and unnecessary subplots which lead nowhere. Travolta is awful. He speaks his lines with his mouth almost open, stares blankly with no skill at conveying what's on his mind and, in the films most celebratedly horrendous scene, gyrates his bulging crotch at the camera ad nauseam while sweat trickles down his pale, clammy face and body. Curtis looks very fresh and attractive most of the film (if a bit sexually ambiguous) eschewing the huge hair and heavy make-up of the times. Her character is a little too self-righteous, but her acting is better than anyone else around. Wenner, a non-actor, provides a jarring presence whenever he appears because he (along with several other "real" people cast in the film) hasn't got the polish to really sell his role even though it reflects his position in real life (as the founder of Rolling Stone!) Most of the other actors in the film either overact horrendously or flat-line. More importantly, the audience does not care about anyone in the film and so does not care when various events and revelations come about. There is some inherent camp value in revisiting the hilarious workout clothes of the 80's and in hearing the bouncy, tacky music of the era, but the movie is way too long for it's subject matter and the music montages wear out their welcome very quickly. And for all the sweating and gyration, there are no sex scenes in the film. Look out for pansexual Burt Reynolds look-alike (and alleged Travolta bed partner) Barresi in the cast as a gym rat eager to show off his body.