Grease 2

[osprey_archer]

I very much wanted to like Grease 2, because it’s an unpopular movie and I very much wanted to write a dissent, but alas, it is in fact not very good. In theory, the story is an interesting reversal of the original Grease: clean-cut English newcomer Michael falls for bad girl Pink Lady Stephanie, and remakes himself into the “Cool Rider” of her dreams (and climactic solo number).

In practice, the movie never really gets off the ground. Whenever it seems to be gaining a little momentum, another musical number stops it dead. In the original Grease, the songs were well-integrated into the story: they advanced the plot, gave insight into the characters, and featured the main characters. In Grease 2, often the entire student body bursts into dance together, and our heroes get lost in the shuffle.

The movie has a few good points. Michelle Pfeiffer’s Stephanie Zinone, leader of the Pink Ladies, is a highlight, and the identity porn of the Cool Rider plotline is fun - although they could have gotten far more out of the concept than they did. But that’s really the problem with Grease 2 in a nutshell: the concepts are good, but the execution is lacking.

Comments

[asakiyume]

I'm sorry Grease 2 didn't live up to its own concepts--I like the idea of the guy being the straitlaced one and the woman being the adventurous one, even though (as we've talked about before) I'm not a big fan of one half of a romantic duo doing all the changing for the other.

[osprey_archer]

I think it worked for me better here than in Grease because 1) he's totally on board with the changing; Sandy does it as a sort of last ditch effort because nothing else is working out for her, whereas Michael Carrington is like YEAH I WANNA BE A MOTORCYCLE DUDE like instantly after he meets Stephanie; and 2) he doesn't have much personality to begin with so I didn't feel that he was changing so much as "discovering a personality for the first time."

I realize that second half definitely falls in the category of praising with faint damns. "This plotline was way less creepy than expected because the characterization was so weak!"

[staranise]

I'm exceptionally fortunate, I think. I discovered this movie when I was about 7 or 8 years old, and therefore learned to love it before I knew a damn thing about quality. ^_^

[osprey_archer]

Sometimes you just have to hit a thing at the right time in life. I've been thinking about this recently because i've been reading the most recent Tamora Pierce book, and I don't think her prose style has actually changed that much, but I find it much harder to get into now... unless I'm rereading one of the books I read when I was young, Protector of the Small or Wildmage or any of those. Then it's like time travel.