Too many fans seem to be blown away

Excellent but underrated film

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Definitely not awful, but I can see why its raved as being so. It's your typical superbly cheesy 80s flick that we've all seen and loved. Travolta portrays a young Rolling Stone reporter who's sent to LA to uncover a major drug case. He agrees to do so, but sees it as an opportunity to write another story on fitness clubs being like singles bars of the 80s. He tries to make both stories big successes while trying to woo a fitness instructor (Jamie Lee Curtis), who's had a bad experience with newspapers and reporters. Travolta, Curtis and the chicks rom Taxi and SNL are the only good actors in the whole thing, the rest sucks. Plus the script is bad and the exercise sequences are cheesy. It's so funny, ya gotta love it.

Really, "Perfect" is not the tactical warhead everyone seems to be implying. This is not on the same level as 80s catastrophes like "Megaforce", "Grease 2", "Howard the Duck", or (heaven help us) "Staying Alive". "Perfect" is nothing more than tragic misfire from extremely talented director James Bridges ("The Paper Chase", "Urban Cowboy") that makes the dire mistake of treating the aerobics, health club fad of the mid-80s as a serious cultural phenomenon (ugh).It also helped to derail John Travolta's career for the better part of a decade - sad, because all one has to do is take a look at his outstanding performances in "Blow Out" and "Urban Cowboy" and realize that his acting in "Perfect" was just fine (if a bit low key). It's a shame, he could have made a lot of great movies while he was stuck in dreck like "The Experts" and strange late 80s Altman theatre pieces like Pinter's "The Dumb Waiter" (with Tom Conti!).Travolta plays a Rolling Stone journalist hot on the trail of a big story about how health clubs are the new pick-up joints, replacing singles bars. He meets "The Pied Piper of aerobics teachers" Jamie Lee Curtis, a former Olymic swimmer who was once burned by a journalist over a piece about how she was having an affair with her coach. Of course, she and Travolta hook up and Travolta meets some other folks who frequent the gym, who are like supporting characters in a David Lynch movie (I'm unsure if the director intended to portray them as weird as they come off).Real-life Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner shows up to essentially play himself (not very well) and, in the film's most laughable detail, Travolta writes a version of his story portraying health clubs as Emersonian watering holes of the future (or something like that).It's all kind of bloated and weird, but really not that bad. Travolta's actually pretty good. Jamie Lee Curtis looks great but comes off as slightly grouchy, but she was probably directed that way.Don't miss Travolta's notorious pelvic thrust sequence (you can't miss it).

Many of the IMDb users considered this movie to be of no use spending time on - though i was thoroughly reluctant to watch it - i was glad i did - CAUSE I FOUND NOTHING WRONG WITH IT!! Well it was the 80's the time when compared to today, movies were not that great. Well with that in mind - i believe this movie is quite an accomplishment - i remember reading from one of the users of IMDb that this was a bomb, which almost ruined Travolta's career - but i really don't see why - well it is not brilliant - but it is FAR better than all the other razzie winning movies. Performances were not that great - Jamie Lee Curtis is very pretty - and as for John Travolta, he has a brush of Tony Maneiro and Danny Zuko in this character. Well though people may REALLY not want to watch it cause it has been considered as an underdog movie of the eightees era - those people can watch it just for the aerobic workouts - they really sizzle.

I too have seen this movie, many times. I agree it is not Travolta or Curtis' best work but it was not meant to be Academy Award caliber. It is what it is, a fluff movie that fit the time it was made. I was an aerobics instructor at the time and enjoyed the movie. It is still fun now to look back at the hair and clothes and hear the music. What generation can look back and not say to themselves "what was I thinking wearing that?!" Curtis has never looked better-well maybe in the movie with Arnold when she did her little dance and who does not mind looking at Travolta for 90 minutes or so?Travolta, for all intensive purposes, plays the same character in each movie so why are we ever surprised. Curtis was trying to shed her 'flat chested, school girl in jeopardy' image and did a good job of it.