"Grease 2"

So many people love this film. Why? After the original, this had a new cast. How did this thing stand a chance with the public? People even know the songs. Is it overly camp and that's why it caught on?

• [quote]Is it overly camp and that's why it caught on? This place hits a new low every day.

• Who the hell knows the songs from "Grease 2"?

• The love for the film grew after endless repeats on cable TV in the early years of HBO and Showtime. Of course, the true fans saw it in the theater and owned the original vinyl soundtrack.

  Like%20me%21

• Now there is a movie that never needed to happen.

• It didn't work. I don't remember it. Oh wait, that guy who was married to the older actress. I wonder if he had to do Alan Carr to get that part.

• Many gays aged 40 and under, R2.

• "Cool Rider"

• I was obsessed with "Reproduction" when the movie came out. Even as a young gay guy I knew my heart belonged to camp!

• What r3 said. I saw it hundreds of times on cable in 1983/84, bought the (vinyl) soundtrack twice (I wore out the first one). Then I grew up and when it was finally released on DVD in the early 2000s, I bought it and was...disappointed. Conversely, that was the same period the similarly musical/campy "The Pirate Movie" became a cable favorite and it holds up marvelously.

• The scene with Pfeiffer in the diner with Caulfield is pretty good-every time I watch I think "That girl really did have somerhing." And I don't mean Caulfield.

• This was all I needed. Was lucky enough years later to see him full frontal in a small Off Broadway theatre.

  http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/grease-2/images/15812504/title/michael-photo

• [quote]So many people love this film Really? I thought lots of people hated it, and said it paled next to the original film. Newbie DL legend Christopher McDonald looks great in his tight jeans in it, I must admit (as does the scorchingly hot Adrian Zmed and, of course, Mr. Caulfield).

• r3 nailed it...it bombed at the time but became popular on TV for teens. Even Michelle Pfeiffer seems to discuss it with fondness nowadays (it used to be her Flying Nun equivalent)

• Where does the pollen go?

  John%20Travolta

• R11, are you referring to Salonika at the Public Theater? His naked body was a pleasure to behold. Jessica Tandy was also on stage and nobody paid attention to a word she said. He's been married to British actress Juliet Mills for many years, she played a big part in his career and was referred to as General Mills.

• [quote]she played a big part in his career too bad his career only lasted a few years.

• I saw it in the theater and hated it. At 14, was one of the first movies I saw just for a guy I thought was hot, Maxwell Caulfield of course. Bad musical doesn't automatically = campy, and that goes for the atrocious Pirate Movie too.

• I've tried to get into the swing of it, but have been unable to sit through the whole thing. It is incredibly inept. I find the parts I've seen difficult to believe.

• It paid for the new seat covers...

  Lorna%2C%20sitting%20in%20my%20breakfast%20nook

• Fun and silly as a kid but hard to watch as an adult. I remember nearly every one of those damn songs though. We were all so HBO obsessed back then when cable first went wide.

• I'll argue that the opening song "Back To School Again" is actually a damn good production number. It kind of gives you hope the movie might actually be good, though it doesn't take long to see otherwise. But the awful, cheesy songs and terrible singing are what makes the movie a so-bad-it's-good trash classic.

• Didn't they sing a song about their love of milk? I just remembered Can't Stop The Music also had a milk song. Am I confusing the two, or did both of those movies have a stupid milk song? Another dumb Grease 2 song I remember celebrating bowling.

• [quote]I find the parts I've seen difficult to believe. I don't see how you can't find a bunch of thirty years olds, portraying high school students, who break out into song and dance every ten minutes believable. It's practically a documentary!

• Matthew Caulfield in leather did it for me.

• Exhibit 'A'

  http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_h17zOaRHPAY/TUnOtazUYRI/AAAAAAAAABA/au-nnK7t4Vo/s1600/MC2.jpg

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• "Can't Stop the Music" is actually more fun. Another Alan Carr film "Where the Boy Are 1984" - I wonder if that's any fun?

• As a high school closet case I totally hate Can't Stop the Music and Pirates. Loved Grease 2 but mostly to laugh about how bad it was. Looking at it now, it was no worse than Grease.

• Tab Hunter was fucking sexy in it.

  Daddy%20chaser

• Matthew Caulfield and Michelle Pfeiffer were wa hotter than closet cases Revolta and Newton-Lez

• The bowling sequence is horrifically bad- especially everybody's spinning heads and the girl doing the bad shadowdance. "GREASE" isn't a great movie by any means-I'd love to see a faithful adapatation of the original raunchy musical (before it got more and more toned down with each revival) - but this movie is a mess. Poor Eve Arden.

• Grease onstage is no great shakes either, toned down or not. It has even less of a plot.

• Yeah I hate Grease too, love "You're The One That I Want" though. Olivia transformed just like the character in the movie, from girl-next-door to sexy and sassy, kicking off her dance-diva phase.

• Grease 2 is the word have you heard also it's the word even moreso...

• It bombed BIG time when it was first released. No memorable songs and just rode in on the Grease gravy train. It was a punchline and I assumed it still was. I had no idea anyone watched it on cable in the 80's. Really? "Teens loved it?" Huh? It was a pale and stale carbon of the original Grease film and only slightly bolstered Pfeiffer's career and did ZERO for anyone else's. People sure have strange, watered down tastes. Grease is a classic Hollywood musical film which, although not as "raunchy' as the stage version, is still entertaining and has stood the test of time, being that is is a period film to begin with. It catapulted ONJ to movie stardom, however briefly, and cemented Travolta's megastar status, being released only a year after Saturday Night Fever. Grease 2 is a footnote in film history. Those who loved it are a strange sub sub subculture of people from some "I love really bad movies" planet. Kitsch value maybe and even then it is questionable.

• No one watched this in the 80s, at least not more than once. We get the weirdest trolls here anymore.

• [quote]No one watched this in the 80s, at least not more than once. Those of us who were kids and teenagers in the 80s totally did. Believe it or not.

  Winter

• [quote]Poor Eve Arden. Yeah poor Eve Arden. Three theatrical releases, biggest rented VHS tape of all time, huge DVD sales, constant cable rotation. New generations discover her even twenty years after her death.

• I meant for being roped into the sequel, R37.

• I'm another child of the 80's who watched Grease 2 and the Pirate Movie on HBO constantly. I would watch anything that had singing and dancing.

• R34 and R35, I'm going to guess you're both EXTREMELY old.

• I remember shoplifting a magazine for this picture...I wanted to be him so bad at the time

  http://farm1.staticflickr.com/167/386853873_e9b5ab5bc6_z.jpg%3Fzz%3D1

• People can talk shit about this movie all they want, but I love it. It would have been better with John T. and Livvy, but Michelle and that Max were pretty damn good. 1982 was a great year for movies: Grease 2, Annie, Best Little Whorehouse, Zapped, Victor/Victoria and especially The Pirate Movie. I love the soundtrack too.

• R42 1982 WAS a great year for movies, but I hate every one of those you listed. The great movies that year were Blade Runner, An Officer & a Gentleman, Star Trek II-The Wrath of Khan, The Road Warrior, 48 Hours, Poltergeist, Eating Raoul, Das Boot, Tootsie, Ghandi, The Thing, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Dark Crystal. Respectfully, Grease 2 was a steaming turd. The Pirate Movie was laughably bad. Annie was diarrhea, Best Little Whorehouse was tolerable only because of Dolly, I've never heard of Zapped, and Victor/Victoria was okay. That's my two cents, for what it's worth.

  Robert

• Zapped was the most laughable listed r43, a Scott Baio/Willie Aames vehicle! Both turned out to be crazed freepers too, unsurprisingly.

• Another child of the 80's here I watched Grease 2 and Zapped constantly...I learned all the songs presented in both movies and yes I owned the soundtrack for Grease 2...Good Times, indeed. PS: I had a big crush on the brunette in Zapped.

• R42 everyone of those movies sucked royal ass. ANNIE? Oh.My.God. Who are you, Anne Reinking? "We Got Annie! ROFLMAO. You can keep her. Anyone who learned ANY of the songs from Grease 2....well, you were the demographic those sad ass producers were looking for, I guess. I hope you all enjoyed it. All three of you. (I think these are troll posts, actually. There is no one who actually exists who thinks these were enjoyable movies.)

• R43? Come sit by me.

• Grease 2 was a terrible, terrible film. I refused to watch it. John refused, as well.

  Olivia

• R46 I beg to differ. Grease 2 is not high art, but it is a fun, enjoyable movie (if you leave your brain at the door, which I did). Just a guilty pleasure. By the way, I love Xanadu, too.

  Tod

• Actually Olivia, John probably watched it on video, wacking off to Maxwell.

• I'd have to have a lobotomy to enjoy Grease 2. I remember Xanadu was kinda nice to have on in the background with the volume down, for the production values. And the title track is a disco classic, Magic is also one of her best.

• [quote]I've never heard of Zapped The HELL you say!

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-lLsewsAuk

• Grease 2's songs pale in comparison to Grease's songs. "Back To School" and "Reproduction" are no "Grease is the Word" and "Summer Nights" (although I do thoroughly hate "You're the One That I Want").

• Michelle was pretty in it.

• This is funny. Back when I was in high school, the early '80s, my two ultra-straight older brothers LOVED Grease 2. We all saw it at the theater the week it opened. I am flamingly gay and I thought it was the worst movie I had ever seen up to that point. Halfway through, I went to the lobby to play Galaga.

  Brent

• [quote]Grease 2's songs pale in comparison to Grease's songs. Hang your head in shame! The first "Grease" had no single song that could ever compare to "Cool Rider"!

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• I do like "Girl for All Seasons," the pastiche of "calendar Girl," in Grease 2.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DUNz_hogQHp0

• [quote]I think these are troll posts, actually. There is no one who actually exists who thinks these were enjoyable movies. Why on earth can't some of you rotting eldergays get it? NOT EVERYONE SHARES YOUR EXACT TASTE.

• [quote]The first "Grease" had no single song that could ever compare to "Cool Rider"! Bull AND shit

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gqiyqu1GVE

  Exhibit A

• I somehow get the feeling that poor r59 is a wee bit irony-challenged.

• Not exactly, Alanis R60.

• R50 So did Travolta.

• I'll be yours in spring time when the flowers are in bloom...

• How can you all deny that this song was better than Hopelessly Devoted to You???

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DyPQQzJGKOvk

• Maxwell Caulfield was one of the most beautiful men ever. The movie fucking stinks though.

  http://i.ebayimg.com/t/MAXWELL-CAULFIELD-HUNKY-THE-COLBYS-1986-ABC-TV-PHOTO-/00/%24%28KGrHqV%2C%21hcE477U7MRoBOQK26t2IQ%7E%7E0_35.JPG

  Sarah%20Purcell

• I once read that Michelle, while doing a phone interview, hung up on an interviewer when said interviewer mentioned Grease 2.

• I think it's funny that those who are so defensive about their love of crappy movies think it must be "eldergays" who are calling them on their bad taste.

• It'd be so hot to watch Caufleild and Pfeiffer fuck back then.

• r66, I'm sure that's not true. I remember reading an interview with Michelle who explained that when her kids were little and they wanted to understand what mommy did for a living, she showed them "Grease 2" -- she laughingly explained that they weren't impressed. Despite what some here believe, r3 is correct. I suspect for those of us of a certain age, who were between 10 to 14 in 82-84, we saw "Grease 2" repeatedly on cable -- I used to look through the cable guide to know when it would be on next and would even get up in the middle of the night to watch it. There wasn't much of a life for a shy gay boy in a small town in Florida, so I took my thrills where I could find 'em.

• I did not even know there WAS a 'Grease 2'. I googled it, and lo and behold, there it was. Somehow I don't think I missed anything.

  Tyler

• Lorna was really a bad actress...but her few brief song solos were pretty good.

• I hated the original Grease, so I didn't even bother with the sequel. As a matter of fact, I had forgotten there was a sequel.

• I think it definitely lived on as a campy guilty pleasure for a lot of late 80s kids who saw it on television later on in the early 90s. I knew many a person growing up who would sing "cool rider" any time a ladder was nearby. Grease occasionally tries to take itself too seriously whereas Grease 2 is just an awful mess and is so fun because of it.

• It's funny. The 80s had the worst musicals ever made: Can't Stop The Music, Roadie, Xanadu, Zoot Suit, Pennies From Heaven, Best Little Whorehouse, Annie, Grease 2, Yentl,Rhinestone, etc. But I loved them all. I admit they were shit, but fun shit they were. You gotta admit.

  Frankie Lopez III

• [quote]I think it's funny that those who are so defensive about their love of crappy movies think it must be "eldergays" who are calling them on their bad taste. Oh honey, trolldar on this thread alone shows you are an eldergay. You are, hon, you are. No one here is defensive about it. No one is claiming it's some classic. Instead, people who grew up with it on cable have a certain affection for it, and today can appreciate it on those terms. And, of course, as camp. If anyone here is defensive, it's you, who has posted numerous times in your utter disbelief that anyone likes this film at all. An eldergay who doesn't get camp? An eldergay who doesn't get a little NOSTALGIA now and again? For real?

• I hate to break it to you, R32, but at no time was Olivia EVER considered a dance diva.

• Are they really making "Grease II"? I think Olivia and John T. are a little long in the tooth to be reprising their roles as Sandy and Danny. I love them both, but maybe they should go with younger actors. Maybe ONJ and JT could play the parents or grandparents.

• It was sad and pathetic when they mention the main character is "Sandy's cousin".

• [quote]I once read that Michelle, while doing a phone interview, hung up on an interviewer when said interviewer mentioned Grease 2. They played "Easy Rider" when she went on Jimmy Fallon's show last year to play beer pong. When she was cast in "Stardust," she said that the director was a big fan of hers, and said that he had a favorite film. She laughingly said, "Grease 2." He was silent. Then he said, "Yes." She's kept having that happen for the past couple of years. She talks about it. I guess she's had to embrace it now. When she was on "Inside The Actor's Studio," they surprised her with the woman that cast her in the film. She said that during "Grease 2" she lived off Coca-Cola (she said coke, but made it clear that she wasn't referring to the drug), cigarettes, and a bagel.

• R77, I hope you are joking.

• When Shelley won the Hasty Pudding Award, they made her sing "Cool Rider" for them. I was under 10 between 82-84 and I HAD to watch it every time it was on HBO. Loved that shit. Still do!

• I think people just rejected the film because John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John opted out of it. It wasn't all that bad.

• I say again: this was nowhere near a popular movie in the 80s. And yes--I was a teenager then, too. We did things like take the train into Manhattan during high school, not sit at home watching horseshit musical abortions on HBO. Losers.

• I don't think that anyone is saying that teenagers liked it back then, R83. I think what they mean is that little kids saw it on TV after it came out, and liked it because it was silly and there was singing and dancing. That's how I feel. And watching it now, it's easy to see that it's not a good movie, but for a lot of people there's a sense of warm nostalgia attached to it, and that's what makes it still enjoyable. Except for "Charades". That scene was always awful.

• For what it's worth, the arrangements on the soundtrack are better, in some cases, than those used in the film. "Girl For All Seasons" and "(Love Will) Turn Back The Hands Of Time" in particular.

• Yeah, R83, what is it you can't understand about what R84 (and PLENTY OF OTHERS HERE) said? [quote]We did things like take the train into Manhattan during high school How nice for you. Do you realize the U.S. is a pretty big place? Not everyone had access to a Manhattan-bound train?

• Here in London, Grease 2 was very anticipated... until we actually saw it. It was rubbish pure and simple.

• Maxwell Caulfield has the AIDS you know

• I can ignore most of these stupid, ill- informed comments and go along with the fact that when it comes to movies, everyone has( and is entitled to) different opinions......but...... I draw the line at people throwing around the Aids rumour. You have absolutely no proof of that. Pure nastiness. I have known Maxwell for over 20 years and am in a better position than most of you to deny this claim Lets go back to talking about the movie.

• [quote]I have known Maxwell for over 20 years Is he the sexual beast we all think he is?

• No, R90, he's been relatively faithful to General Mills and has been highly discreet when with male partners.

• Really? They do???

• With male partners, R91? So he IS bi???

  Inquiring Minds

• Is that online, R81? I'd give my left nut to see Shelley Winters doing "Cool Rider"!

  Miss Bette Davis Sings

• Well said, R89. I agree. Back to the movie. Forget being ugly about people.

• I was 12 or 13 that summer HBO started its Grease 2 marathon. It was on at least twice sometimes three times a day, remember these were the days when HBO had no original programming. I didn't sit and watch the whole movie each time, I flip the channels and if I saw 'Love Will Turn Back' or 'Girl for All Seasons' I would stop to watch for a bit. Michelle looked beautiful, but nothing about her was authentic to the period. And Lorna Luft was just laughably too old to play a high school girl. Was she one of Alan Carr's fag hags? He also cast her in Where The Boys Are '84, this time as a college girl (and again, laughably old)

• Thinking about it... it's sort of funny that a group of teens basically kill a guy (so they think) and they hurry up and leave the scene of the crime, leaving him for dead, so they're not late for a High School Talent show where the prize is 50 LPs.

• Lorna's heart-shaped ass in capri pants at the bowling alley!