OK I said I would never review a film that falls outside the categories of Horror, Sci-fi, action and Crime, but I'm going to break my own rules and show this film some love, a film that is hated by most and loved by only a small few. It's a sequel to a much loved film, a film that starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, and it was a musical. That's right folks im talking about GREASE, the much loved musical classic from 1978 that was spawned from a very popular stage show. So what happens in 1982? Grease 2 arrives....and do the critics like it? Fuck no, they hated it. Roger Ebert's scathing review from 1982 even stated that, and I quote, 'Grease 2 just recycles the original with out the stars, without the freshness and without the Grease', but you know what, fuck you Ebert, although I admire you, this is far more than just a rehash.
Lets kick it off with a plot outline. It's 1961 and a new term begins at Rydell High as Miss McGee and Blanch raise the flag to welcome back the students. In a brilliantly choreographed 5 minutes opening number we're introduced to not only the school but the T-Birds and The Pink Ladies. They consist of Nogarelli, Goose, Dimucci and Jaworski, Stephanie, Paulette, Rhonda and Sharon collectively. We are then introduced to Michael Carrington, the cousin of Sandy from the first grease, he's met by returning character, Frenchy who is to be his guide while he stays at Rydell. Stephanie catches Michael's eye and he falls madly in love with her, but she only wants one thing, A cool rider, plus the Pink ladies have a code, they only date the T-Birds and Michael aint a T-Bird. So Michael hatches a genius plan that turns him from a straight A student into a fucking motorbike stuntman in what seems like only a few days. He's a lone rider, his eyes covered by goggles and it's this cool rider persona that manages to make Stephanie fall for him. Now here's the but, Nogarelli aint happy, he was going with Stephanie and she dumped his ass over the summer, he's pissed and he want's Michael dead (sort of, I think). Michael is chased by the T-Birds on the night of the school talent contest and is forced to jump off what seems like a cliff (no fucking way would he survive it) which leaves Stephanie devastated. Then at the senior Luau (?) the party is interrupted by the T-Birds rivals, the Scorpions/Cycle Lors only for Michael who miraculously survives his death plunge to arrive and jump over a pool for him to finally reveal his true identity to Stephanie and the school, making the world a safer place....
that is pretty much the plot of Grease 2, this time the roles are reversed, Michael is the out of place character who reinvents himself as opposed to Sandy's reinvention into a, and lets face it, a whore. But look at the film from a different perspective, the perspective of a film fan who isn't entirely sold on the idea of the first, sure it had some great songs and some great dance numbers, but for me that's all, I just can't gel with the film, but for some reason Grease 2 hits a button, could it be the relationship between Stephanie and Michael, The absolutely fucking awesome 'proto punk' soundtrack (mainly Cool Rider) or the fact that even though the film is set in 1961 there’s this obvious 80s tinge to the show, I mean, you look at Stephanie, she's not supposed to look like this in '61, hell she looked more 60s in Scarface, It's like the costume designers looked at Joan Jett or Suzy Quatro and went, fuck it, lets just dress her up like them, no one's gonna notice. Well they did and it's probably one of the reasons the film flopped. But then the film is still massively flawed, You have the character of Frenchy, she's supposed to be the main link between the first film and this film but half way through she disappears and she's not heard from again for the rest of the film, this was due to the film not having a finished script when shooting started and when the script was re-written she was written out, which explains why one minute she's there and the next, 'poof' she's gone, you also have the problems with the teachers, They seem to be too easy on the kids, like they're on the same level and this is evident in an exchange between Nogarelli and Miss Mason within the first 5 minutes. Surely teacher from 1961 would be more hardcore, but then this is a musical.
We do get some good performances from the cast though, Maxwell Caulfield is pretty good as Michael, although i've read somewhere he was supposed to be Australian due to him being Sandy's cousin but they clearly state that he is from England. But he's pretty good. Michelle Pfeiffer appears in her first lead role as Stephanie, the kind of outsider of the pink ladies, who doesn't conform to the Ladies style but is still a part of their world. She's more a tomboy, she works in a garage and loves motor cycles and for a first lead role she's actually pretty damn good, sure she'll never win an oscar for her performance but for her first major role, she's pretty much on the money. Then you have Adrian Zmed, who at the time of filming was 28 years old and it's pretty obvious as he looks way to old to be in high school, well to be honest all of the T-Birds apart from Leif Green's Davey, look way too old to be there. But Zmed, who I only knew from TJ Hooker and Bachelor Party, does his best John Travolta in the form of Johnny Nogarelli, the current leader of the T-Birds, he's more an idiot though than Travolta's Danny and he does good, he makes Nogarelli, at times tough but also naïve. Im not going to go through everyone in the film but i'll leave this part of the review with a final character, the character of Goose, played by Christopher McDonald, an actor who has appeared in everything from Star Trek, Stargate and even Flubber, but he'll be more recognizable to fans of Adam Sandler as he played Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore. Well that's the cast done, now onto the songs.....
The Soundtrack is fucking awesome, along with Rocky 4 and Streets of Fire, for me this is one of the best soundtracks of the 1980s, and although the film is set in 1961 it has this mixture of modern and classic music.
Back To School, the opening number of the film is a rousing, fun filled number explaining the woes of having to return to the day to day monotony of School and how the summer is completely over. And it's a great track.
Score Tonight is a song that is literally about bowling, and it's near 4 minutes in length, it could have other meanings, like Score Tonight could mean getting it on with some one, but I didn't write the score, to me it is just a song about Bowling.
The song Reproduction is supposed to show the teacher as he tries to teach this class of over 30's the ins and outs of sex, that's it.
Cool Rider, the best song of the film has this strange proto Punk feel to it, it's three chords, piano backing and the fact that it's a fast paced song, is actually really well written. This song comes at the perfect point of the film, it's where Michael Decides to get a bike, to become Stephanie's Cool Rider.
Who's That Guy, much like the opening number, does have relevance to the plot, it's the song they sing when Michael first appears as the lone rider, as he's fucking awesome on a motorbike (how?), it's relevance is to show that people have now seen him and that Stephanie has found her Cool Rider.
Do It For Our Country also has absolutely no relevance to the plot apart from giving the characters of Dimucci and Sharon something to do, the song is about having sex for their country. See absolutely nothing to do with the plot and it's also kind of creepy as the Dimucci character is pressuring Sharon into doing it (for our country).
Charade is sung by Michael after his meeting with Stephanie in the Diner, it's a pretty good song as it's all about how he wants to tell her that he is the Lone rider.
Another song that has diddly squat to do with the plot of the film is Prowlin', the song sung by the T-Birds for the talent show, absolutely pointless.
(Love Will )Turn Back The Hands Of Time is sung by Stephanie during the seasons song as she's gone into shock from Michael's death jump, this has something to do with the plot, because you see that Steph has actually fallen in love with someone and is about her wanting to turn back time to be with him. It's a pretty sappy song but it works within the context of film.
RockaHulaLuau (Summer is Coming) is the last but one song of the film, it's a happy kind of song and it's really only about the fact that it's been a year since Back To School and how they're all graduating. (it's actually been an entire school year in the film, even though it seems like a week).
Finally we have the We'll Be Together, a song about all of the characters and how they'll be togther for ever, then the film ends. Sweet really.
The film was directed by Choreographer, Patricia Birch and it's her one and only feature film, she does a great job though, it's very professionally shot, and she's captures the dance sequences perfectly, there are a few minor editing problems but nothing too serious. The cutting of Didi Con as Frenchy is a pretty WTF moment, but then you get past that quite fast as she kind of stuck out like a sore thumb.
But while the film is massively flawed, it does have a lovable charm to it. It's fun, it's an underrated musical gem from the early part of the best decade for films. And while I do point out it's high level of flaws, it's an exceptionally entertaining musical. So obviously most people have made up their minds about Grease 2, and while I do want to persuade people to give it another go, it's entirely your own choice, I love and I know others do and it's this little fan base that will keep it going.
Im not going to give it 5 stars mainly because it is flawed but I am going to give it 4 stars...
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