Stand up and fight for your very own 'Grease Sing-A-Long'

'Grease' on demand?"Grease Sing-A-Long" opens next Thursday exclusively at the River East 21 Theater in Chicago. But if Daily Herald readers go online and demand it, there could be a "Grease Sing-A-Long" right here in the suburbs.Contact the studio greasers at Grease GroupSales@Paramount.com, or call (877) 789-GREASE (that's 4732 in numerical code) for help in "greasing" your way to getting a theater to show the sing-a-long movie to friends and neighbors. Yes, it's the same John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John movie you love from 1978, with karaoke-like singalong features. Paramount has launched a mother-and-daughter campaign to get the word out.Need I remind you what that word is? (I didn't think so.)'Knight' and dazeI am baffled by the glowing reviews of "Knight and Day" from some of my brethren and sistren in the critical community. This romantic spy comedy has been so lazily constructed that it defies praise. 1. Tom Cruise's spy, Roy Miller, gets shot in the stomach early in the story. A few scenes later, he rises from the ocean in swimming trunks and guess what? No bandage. No wound. No scar. Nothing.2. Miller takes two or three bullets in the upper torso before falling off a building into water where, naturally, he's never found. Later, to explain how Roy survived being shot and almost drowned, Cameron Diaz's June says, "He can hold his breath for a really long time!" (No, Roy wasn't wearing a bulletproof vest. I saw the movie twice.)3. After June gets drenched by water sprinklers at Roy's parents' house, his mom tells her about a powder room where she can go to change back into her freshly dried clothes. Where did June take off her wet clothes in the first place? Wouldn't she already know where the powder room was?4. Roy spends most of "Knight and Day" killing zillions of FBI and CIA agents who mistakenly believe he's a rogue agent. When Viola Davis' FBI director realizes the truth, all is forgiven. How does that work?5. During a flight on a jet plane filled with assassins... Oh, never mind! Just keep repeating to yourself, "It's only a silly movie... it's only a silly movie."Reel Life review: 'Love Ranch'Oscar-winning Director Taylor Hackford's nose-diving AARP-oriented drama "Love Ranch" begins with a well-wrought performance by Helen Mirren and an enticing story about what it means to be a strong and self-sufficient senior citizen stuck in a young person's world without much time left to be on the planet.Then, like a majestic jetliner losing its engines one by one, "Love Ranch" rapidly descends and crashes into a twisted mess of soap operatic dopiness, excessive scenery chewing and a tagged-on post-script that feels as if the production ran out of money, so Mirren narrates the ending in lieu of her husband Hackford actually directing the last few scenes.Mirren plays Grace, the aptly named madam at a Nevada whorehouse called the Love Ranch. (The story is modeled after real Mustang Ranch owners Joe and Sally Conforte.)Although Grace actually runs the business, she's married to an egomaniacal, unfaithful thug named Charlie who thinks he does.As Charlie, Joe Pesci first attempts a strange western accent, then falls back into his familiar "Goodfellas" new-joy-z patois, laced with the phoniest forced laugh ever emitted from an actor not trying to be funny.While Grace handles the Ranch girls (among them the disappointingly adequate Gina Gershon and Taryn Manning), Charlie dives into boxing by managing up-and-coming Argentine prizefighter Armando Bruza (Sergio Peris-Mencheta). Charlie doesn't know Grace has cancer and only a few months to live, which creates a sympathetic environment for her to take up Bruza's offer of a love affair.Mirren is the treat in "Love Ranch," mainly because hers is the only full-realized character in this world of cookie cutter types. Hackford makes his wife look good, but mounts ill-conceived boxing sequences and a rushed ending that seems like a narrative cop-out.As for Pesci, he should never be allowed to laugh on screen again - unless he's the villain in a "Goodfellas" parody."Love Ranch" is now playing at the Century Centre in Chicago and the Renaissance Place in Highland Park. Not rated, for adult audiences. #9733;#189;Reel Life review: 'Coco Chanel Igor Stravinsky'Watching two self-absorbed characters slowly engage in an adulterous affair that destroys a family isn't exactly material for an enthralling domestic drama.Add to that Jan Kounen's energy-zapped direction and "Coco Chanel Igor Stravinsky" becomes a studied, passionless opus where arresting sets and eye-popping fashions become far more interesting than the inert title characters."Coco" starts in 1913, then whisks us into the 1920s when the world-famous designer (real-life Chanel model Anna Mouglalis) offers to share her country estate with the financially struggling Russian composer ("Casino Royale" star Mads Mikkelsen) and his growing family.Stravinsky's devoted, but chronically ill wife (Elena Morozova) sees the affair coming down the pike, and sacrifices herself for her family as long as she can.Meanwhile, Anne Fontaine's 2009 "Coco Before Chanel" starring the feisty Audrey Tautou, is dramatic dynamite compared to Kounen's take on the influential Chanel. "Coco Chanel Igor Stravinsky" opens today at the Century Centre in Chicago and the Renaissance Place in Highland Park. It expands to the Evanston CineArts 6 on July 9. Rated R for nudity and sexual situations. 115 minutes. #9733;#9733;