Let me preface this post by saying this...
I am a huge fan of Grease 2, this is going to be quite a biased post as I fucking love Grease 2. My point for this post is to praise and shit on the movie. I am not a fan of the original film, I don't hate it or dislike, I just much prefer the sequel.
Grease 2 is a bad movie but, like most films that gain a cult following, we need to watch Grease 2 with a more open mind and really evaluate the film on its pros and cons. It has a lot going for it and it has a lot going against it. This is merely a chance for me to talk about a movie musical that has been a constant in my life since I first saw it at a very young age on a CIC VHS tape back in either the late 80s or very very early 90s. I love it but at the same time, I completely understand why some people have a dislike for it. So this is going to be broken up into sections. This post is somewhat a review but not in the classic sense of what a review should be.
SECTION 1: DIRECTION & CINEMATOGRAPHY
To be perfectly honest, I think, and again, this is just a personal observation/opinion, I think Grease 2 is one of the best photographed and directed musicals of the 1980s. Now before people start saying shit about how there aren't that many 80s musicals, this is true, there aren't that many, there's a few, FAME being probably the most famous 80s musical. There's also Xanadu and The Apple, both from 1980, Labyrinth (1986) and Little Shop Of Horrors (1986), but while both of these latter films are exceptional films, they both have an odd, almost washed out, grimy look to them, Grease 2 is bright and colourful, the L.A of Grease 2 looks amazing, the the colours of the costumes pop on screen, especially in the incredible opening number "Back To School" and the "Rock-A-Hula Luau" number just before the closing song. While she might not be the best filmmaker, Patricia Birch knows how to choreograph a thrilling dance sequence.
There are some issues, mostly with the continuity and some of the period detail. I can understand that while the film was made in the 1981 but set in 1961, the late 70s early 80s flavour would have crept in, it's inevitable in a film with a smaller budget of $13.8million dollars. However, Grease, made only 4 years prior had a budget of just $4mil and the period continuity in that films is on point. The best example of Grease 2 pissing it up the wall is Michelle Pfieffer's wardrobe. While the other pink ladies, Sharon, Paulette and Rhonda all have a definite 60s look, Pfieffer's Stephanie, looks like she came to set in her own clothes, Jump suits, bowling shirts and Leather jacket kind of throws you off. Almost everyone else has that 60s period look on lock, it's just Stephanie's wardrobe never actually seems to fit the rest of the film. There is one scene however, where Michael wardrobe doesn't fit the period and that's during his "Charade" Ballard, in a green Jumper and Jeans. Now I know I was born in 1983 and wasn't around during the 1960s so I shouldn't be having a rant about fashion styles of that period, but having seen a lot of late 50s and early 60s movies, I've never seen anyone wear the costumes that Steph and Michael wear. Look at Cliff Richard's cracking 1963 musical, Summer Holiday, there's nothing in that film that looks anywhere near the same as the costumes of Grease 2, infact I'd say Summer Holiday has a closer style to the first Grease. But then, Summer Holiday was made only 18 years after the end of WW2 and it's British so it's hard to compare them really.
SECTION 2: THE MUSIC
Holy mother of god the music in Grease 2 is incredible. Kicking the whole shebang off with a 7 minutes wonder in the form of Back To School, which introduces us to all the main characters like Stephanie, Johnny Nogarelli, Paulette, Shooter McGavin, Louis Dimucci, Rhonda, Sharon, Davey and some of the teachers, most of who like Coach Calhoun, Miss McGee and Blanche return from the first film along with some newer teachers, the "sexy" Miss Mason played by Connie Stevens and Mr. Stuart played by 50s and 60s B-movie actor Tab Hunter, who looking at his filmography on IMDB kind of reminds me of Tarantino's Rick Dalton character. Grease 2 is another instance where there's only about 5 years in age between students and teachers. Randomly making his return is Eddie Deezen as Eugene, now a disgraced celebrity and former voice actor of Mandark on Dexter's Lab. I swear he graduated with Danny and Sandy. Another one making her return to Rydell High is Frenchie, careful though, one blink and you'll miss her as Didi Conn was written out of the film mid production as they started filming Grease 2 with only half a script.
We follow up Back to school with Score Tonight, a rip roaring party anthem about bowling or getting some nookie. Either way its a stonker of a tune and again it's choreographed spectacularly. To be perfectly honest, every single song is a stand out on this soundtrack with maybe Charades being the only song that doesn't really work. Who's That Guy gives us a Broadway style number, Do It For Our Country is a two hander between Dimucci and Sharon about banging each other in a fallout shelter, Reproduction is about, you guessed it, fucking. Cool Rider is the biggest hit of the film, showing Pfieffer's pipes off and absolutely nailing the feel the movie is going for and has this late 60s Suzie Quatro tone to it. Turn Back The Hands Of Time is the cheesy song of the film, kind of this movie's Beauty School drop out. There are few other such as Prowlin', Girl For All Seasons and Rock-A-Hula Luau but the afore mentioned songs are the main ones, the big numbers if you will. The film ends on the wonderful We'll Be Together, all the pink ladies and T-birds are together, Michael gets the girl and the iconic T-bird jacket and everyone's a happy bunny....
The songs were written by and arranged by Louis St. Louis who cut his teeth on the original Grease.
SECTION 3: IT'S CLEARLY MICHAEL FOR FUCKS SAKE
Yup, It clearly Michael, yet nobody seems to realise, he even told Demucci he was going to buy a motorcycle. Surely one of either the pink Ladies or T-Birds would have looked at the "cool Rider" and gone "hey, you're Michael", but no, not a single fucking person realises its him. It's left up to Blanche at the end, where Michael removes his goggles, yep his entire disguise at the end is a pair of goggles, its' Blanche who reveals "It's Michael" to the shock of everyone. ITS FUCKING MICHAEL!!!
I suppose Michael has the same luck as Clark kent when it comes to disguises. Did nobody think it was odd that Michael was nowhere to be seen whenever the cool rider showed up? wasn't he supposed to play piano for the twin cheerleaders, who I always thought were Asian, turns out I was wrong and are in fact the sisters of Peggy Bundy.
Another issue I had is that Michael has only been riding a motorcycle for like 3 weeks yet he can jump a police car with no ramp, survive a deadly cliff jump and then clear a fucking pool, I mean C'mon, the dude is 1960s Dominic Toretto by the end of the film. To be honest, Maxwell Caulfield is the biggest problem with the film, his performance as Michael is unsympathetic, he's winey, wooden and kinda creepy. At least he leaned into the creepy side intentionally as the iconic Rex Manning in Empire Records but here it's a bit eww. Another problem is his voice, he can't really sing, it's grating at pretty much every point in which he needs to bleet out a song.
SECTION 4: WHY GREASE 2 SLAPS BUT ALSO SHITS THE BED
Like i said in my inaugural paragraph. I fucking love Grease 2, its possibly my favourite musical followed by Singing In The Rain and Dirty Dancing (yeah its not a traditional musical but it does have the best soundtrack ever put together) but it does have some serious problems. Caulfield is miscast, Frenchy's disappearing act, the period continuity and it's massively unbelievable, however, the film looks amazing, has great performances by everyone except Caulfield and the songs slap like a mother fucker. Its funny, its light and its short. Travolta and Olivia Newton-John (R.I.P) had amazing chemistry as Danny and Sandy but there is almost zero chemistry between Pfieffer and Caulfield who, from what I read, didn't get on during the filming which clearly translated to screen, in fact, Stef has more chemistry film Johnny. I love Grease 2, its good, it bad and its everything I would want in a Grease sequel.
Grease 2 is one those so bad its good type of movies that people love to shit on, and while it does have some serious flaws its still and always will be 115 minutes of pure escapist fun, 80s nostalgia and Michelle Pfeiffer doing a shakey hand dance. Love it or loath it, there's no denying Grease 2 slaps...
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