Grease 2
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| Grease 2 | |
|---|---|
 Grease 2 DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Patricia Birch |
| Produced by | Allan Carr |
| Written by | Ken Finkleman |
| Starring | Michelle Pfeiffer Maxwell Caulfield Adrian Zmed Lorna Luft Christopher McDonald Maureen Teefy |
| Music by | Louis St. Louis & others |
| Cinematography | Frank Stanley |
| Editing by | John F. Burnett |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | June 11, 1982 |
| Language | English |
| Budget | N/A |
| Preceded by | Grease |
| IMDb profile | |
Grease 2 was the 1982 sequel to 1978's smash hit movie Grease. The movie was strongly criticized by many as derivative of the original, and the film did poorly at the box office. In recent years, it has surfaced on cable TV channels such as VH1, which has shown it on their show Movies That Rock, and has attained a cult following.
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[edit] Plot summary
The movie starts in the fall of 1960 (two years after the original) with a new group of students who are members of both the T-Birds, headed by Johnny Nogerelli (Adrian Zmed), and the Pink Ladies, headed by Stephanie Zinone (Michelle Pfeiffer). He wants to keep dating her, though her feelings for him are no longer there. (Production note: Although the connection was never acknowledged in the movie, the character of Johnny was originally intended to be the cousin of John Travolta’s Danny. But with Michael Carrington being the cousin of Sandy from the first film, the writers thought there were too many similarities.)
Meanwhile, Michael (Maxwell Caulfield), an exchange student from England arrives. He is the cousin of Sandy Olsson, the character played by Olivia Newton-John in the first movie. Michael asks Stephanie out, but she does not feel like going out with grade-worried, good student Michael. Stephanie tells Michael she would like to date someone with a motorcycle, a "Cool Rider."
Michael starts doing the T-Birds' homework for money, so he can buy his own bike and impress Stephanie.
A fight ensues between the T-Birds and their rivals, the Cycle Lords (headed by Balmudo, who had played the leader of the Scorpions gang from the original movie), after a game of ten-pin bowling. As the T-Birds are being beaten, a mysterious biker emerges and beats the Cycle Lords, embarrassing them and conquering Stephanie along the way. Now Michael has a dilemma: either keep on going as the mysterious biker, or take the risk of telling Stephanie that he is the biker who has her so impressed and maybe lose her forever.
Johnny is jealous of Stephanie and the Mysterious Biker (Michael). He vows to retaliate against the biker, threatening to Stephanie that he will hurt him the next time he sees him.
At the June Moon Talent Contest (as summer graduation 1962 approaches), The T-Birds chase the mysterious biker into a construction site ("Dead Man's Curve"), from where he is forced to jump into the night. The T-Birds look around to try to find their victim. Everyone assumes he has died even though there is no real evidence to support the fact, and Stephanie is devastated. Later during the talent show, Stephanie "spaces out" (possibly due to grief) and ends up singing "(Love Will) Turn Back the Hands of Time" in the middle of the Calendar Girls' (Pink Ladies') performance. This appears to the audience to be a solo, but to Stephanie it is a duet with her recently lost love, the mysterious biker, who now seems to be in Biker Heaven.
Johnny and Stephanie are crowned king and queen of the talent show. At the Rockahula Luau the next day, however, the Cycle Lords reappear, threatening to destroy everything within sight. Out of nowhere, the mystery biker reappears, to Stephanie's relief and happiness. He finally reveals himself as Michael.
While Stephanie is shocked, she realizes at that moment that the man she had loved all along was Michael, so she goes over to him and expresses her love to him with a long, passionate kiss and soon begin to slow dance to "We'll Be Together". Johnny was shocked too. Admiring Michael for the way in which he had beaten their arch-rivals the Cycle Lords twice, he decides to make Michael a member of the T-Birds by handing him a T-Bird jacket. The film concludes with graduation of the class of 1961 as the students pose for the yearbook (similar to the first movie).
[edit] Criticism
Grease 2 was considered a flop to critics and audience members. It did not live up to the hype as the first film did. Along with criticism, most of the songs that were sung such as Score Tonight, Do It For Your Country and Reproduction did not connect with the storyline at all. The most significant milestone for which this movie would be remembered was that it was Michelle Pfeiffer's first major role. While the music was catchy, the songs did not reflect the times in which the movie was set as its predecessor did. Grease brought a wave of nostalgia for 50's music and featured some old standards sung by Sha-na-na. Grease 2 had no songs from the early 1960's, except perhaps for a strain of "Our Day Will Come" playing on a radio in the Bowlarama.
[edit] Cult Status
Grease 2 is still considered by a small following as better than the original. Many who like Grease 2 say this is because the lead cast of Maxwell Caulfield and Michelle Pfeiffer gave credible performances considering their young age and that it is more sentimental than Grease. There is also a nostalgia attached to the film. While many remain loyal to the original, it has attained cult status when seen as a supplement rather than a rival to it.
[edit] Trivia
- When Michael attempts to confess that he is the "Cool Rider" to Stephanie, he asks her "Ever read a Superman comic?". Some film critics[citation needed] state that with this quote he not only gives away his identity, but reveals that the film parallels the Superman mythos. Like in "Superman", the film tells the tale of an awkward, socially inept but good hearted guy (Michael) falling for a stubborn woman (Stephanie) who is nice to him, but does not give him a second thought. The guy then proceeds to sweep her off her feet in his more heroic, daring persona. Meanwhile, Stephanie, like Lois Lane, begins to fall for Michael himself, seeing him for the good natured and honest person that he is. Finally, when he reveals his true identity to her at the end, she reveals that she loved Michael, not his "Cool Rider" alter ego all along, paralleling Lois Lane falling in love with Clark Kent for who he is as a person, not his alter ego.
[edit] Songs
- Back to School Again - Cast (and The 4 Tops)
- Score Tonight - The T-Birds, Pink Ladies and Kids
- Do It For Our Country - Louis and Sharon
- Who's That Guy? - Stephanie, Michael, A Biker Gang, and Kids
- Brad - The Twins
- Cool Rider - Stephanie
- Reproduction - The Kids (and the Teacher)
- Charades - Michael
- Prowlin' - The T-Birds
- A Girl For All Seasons - The Pink Ladies
- (Love Will) Turn Back the Hands of Time - Stephanie (and Michael)
- Rock-a-Hula Luau (Summer Is Coming) - The Cast
- We'll Be Together - Stephanie, Michael, and The Cast
