G is for Grease 2
This month I'm participating in the A to Z Challenge. My theme is the 80s. Today's letter is:
I wasn't old enough to be paying attention, but I can only imagine that when Grease 2 came out in 1982, there were high expectations for the film. It was, after all, the follow up to a film that is still the highest-grossing movie musical of all time.
Looking back, it seems that Grease 2 was probably a great idea when the powers-that-be were kicking story ideas around. Sandy's Australian preppy male cousin relocates to Rydell High and meets a beautiful "cool" girl named Stephanie. (I LOVED that she had my name when I was a kid!) Throw in some music and the same basic conflict that kept the couple apart in the first movie (genders reversed) and you have a hit, right?
Uh...not exactly.
The producers chose an attractive couple but it seemed nobody (and I do mean nobody) in this movie knew how to act. Maybe that was true of the first one, as well, but somehow it worked in Grease. It didn't quite work in Grease 2.
And the music...songs like Score Tonight and Reproduction were cheap imitations of the double entendres used in Greased Lightning and Look at Me I'm Sandra Dee. It was just bad, bad, bad.
And I loved it.
I'll tell you why. I was 13 or 14 years old when I saw it (on cable TV) and I thought Michelle Pfeiffer was beautiful. The songs were fun to sing along with...and I didn't really know what "bad acting" was. Or bad singing, apparently.
Fortunately for us, Michelle seemed to improve in her singing and has sung in other movies throughout her career. Most notably in The Fabulous Baker Boys.
Interesting factoid: Grease 2 almost destroyed Michelle Pfeiffer's career before it ever started. Brian DePalma and Al Pacino didn't want to let her audition for Scarface because she was best known for starring in Grease 2 at the time. Producer Martin Bregman insisted they give her a chance to try out and the role became her breakthrough.
Still...the movie has somehow become more enjoyable over time...in a campy sort of way. There's even a musical based on it:
Don't take my word for it, though. Check out the campiness for yourself. (Apparently a guy riding around the parking lot of a bowling alley on a motorcycle is a really big deal.)
I wasn't old enough to be paying attention, but I can only imagine that when Grease 2 came out in 1982, there were high expectations for the film. It was, after all, the follow up to a film that is still the highest-grossing movie musical of all time.
Looking back, it seems that Grease 2 was probably a great idea when the powers-that-be were kicking story ideas around. Sandy's Australian preppy male cousin relocates to Rydell High and meets a beautiful "cool" girl named Stephanie. (I LOVED that she had my name when I was a kid!) Throw in some music and the same basic conflict that kept the couple apart in the first movie (genders reversed) and you have a hit, right?
Uh...not exactly.
The producers chose an attractive couple but it seemed nobody (and I do mean nobody) in this movie knew how to act. Maybe that was true of the first one, as well, but somehow it worked in Grease. It didn't quite work in Grease 2.
And the music...songs like Score Tonight and Reproduction were cheap imitations of the double entendres used in Greased Lightning and Look at Me I'm Sandra Dee. It was just bad, bad, bad.
And I loved it.
I'll tell you why. I was 13 or 14 years old when I saw it (on cable TV) and I thought Michelle Pfeiffer was beautiful. The songs were fun to sing along with...and I didn't really know what "bad acting" was. Or bad singing, apparently.
Fortunately for us, Michelle seemed to improve in her singing and has sung in other movies throughout her career. Most notably in The Fabulous Baker Boys.
Interesting factoid: Grease 2 almost destroyed Michelle Pfeiffer's career before it ever started. Brian DePalma and Al Pacino didn't want to let her audition for Scarface because she was best known for starring in Grease 2 at the time. Producer Martin Bregman insisted they give her a chance to try out and the role became her breakthrough.
Still...the movie has somehow become more enjoyable over time...in a campy sort of way. There's even a musical based on it:
Don't take my word for it, though. Check out the campiness for yourself. (Apparently a guy riding around the parking lot of a bowling alley on a motorcycle is a really big deal.)
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