the audience applauded

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Set in 1961 Grease 2 picks up four years after where the first movie left off . it sees newcomer Michael Carrington, just recently arrived at Rydell as an exchange student from England falling for the beautiful Stephanie Zinone. However she show's no interest in him romantically as being the leader of the Pink Ladies, rules dictate that she and her friends can only date gang members of the T-Birds. Undeterred Michael formulates a plan to win her affections much to the ire of T-Bird leader Johnny Nogrelli.Given the the phenomenal commercial success and it's cult status it would have seemed inevitable that a sequel would be on the cards. Allan Carr, who was co-producer had made a deal with Paramount Pictures to be paid $5 million to produce a sequel within three years of it's predecessors theatrical release, and he delivered on that promise. Bringing in professional dance choreographer Patricia Birch, who had worked on the original's choreography to direct, she undoubtedly had a lot to live up to given it's reputation. An almost entirely new team of actors were cast, and the overall result although not completely utterly awful, still to this day leaves something to be desired.To it's credit the majority of the songs are of a catchy and dare I go so far as say being memorable with some energetic, well choreographed dance routines. It's certainly not boring and you get the distinct feeling that there is at least some attempt to do right by the fans by doing justice to what came before. However, the major flaw is with it's uneven script which relies a bit too much on toilet humour, some of which at the time wouldn't have been enough to justify it's PG certificate. That said there are some genuinely funny and inspired moments where I found myself laughing a bit more than I should have been. There are attempts as well to be larger than life, too larger than life in fact as are most of it's characters. The only members of the cast who seem at all restrained are it's two leads although Maxwell Caulfield with his smoldering goods looks which would no doubt have sent female cinema goers pulses racing is a poor substitute for John Travolta. He just lacks Travolta's charisma, and there's definitely something lacking in terms of chemistry between he and co-star Michelle Pfieffer, who incidentally comes off significantly better. Actually her's is one of the best performances of the movie with her portrayal of the gutsy Stephanie. Her high octane performance of the super fueled Cool Rider puts the Power in Girl Power long before the term had been invented, and you can see the early signs that she had what it took to be a star. Besides the lack of spark between them the plot involving Michael adopting a mysterious, masked biker alter ego in an attempt to woo the girl that he adores undermines the validity of any feelings that Stephanie has for him. Her "love" for him comes across as mere infatuation which is purely superficial. This is the girl who after all sang that she wants a Cool Rider with a motorcycle, "No ordinary boy is gonna do. I want a rider that's cool". It doesn't make her look good and she comes off as a immature young woman with a shallow schoolgirl crush. The flipping of the each side of the high school cliques that two lead protagonists come from, an obvious attempt to put a new spin on what made the first movie successful does little to alter the fact that this is still a retread over the same story, with an unconvincing main plot development thrown in. The overall quality of the acting from the new kids is decidedly patchy, with Adrian Zmed amusingly cocky without becoming overly obnoxious. Any reservations about them there may be, he manages to be likeable although indications may point to the contrary early on. Lorna Luft as the blonde bimbo Paulette pouts and overdoes the breathy voice in an attempt to channel Marilyn Monroe, but it merely grates although she does come in to her own more in later scene when she dials it down. And while it is great to see the returning cast members make an appearance, with the glorious Eve Arden reprising her role as school principal, Miss McGee, it's pretty unforgivable to see Didi Conn as frenchy largely wasted with little screen time she is given and with a contrived explanation as to her presence. In the end Grease 2 is something of an admirable failure which misses more than it hits but when it does hit it does with considerable impact. The kitch cheesiness of it however has meant that it has gained something of a minor cult status, perhaps by those who find it so bad to be good (although it's not even bad enough by my personal estimations to gain such dubious an honour) or those with lower expectations than others. It has made it's mark and whether you choose to embrace it or not, if you go for the former then I suppose it doesn't matter why it is if you can find something to enjoy.

Okay, so was the original Grease the greatest movie of all time? Of course not. But at least it was fun, had catchy songs, and a good cast.Grease 2 has none of the above. The problems with this movie, as well as why it bombed so badly are as follows, in my opinion.1. This movie had no star power. the original "Grease" had John Travolta, who had just come off doing "Saturday Night Fever" and had been on "Welcome Back Kotter." It also had Olivia Newton-John, at the time one of the biggest recording artists in the world. Jeff Conaway was on "Taxi" and had been on Broadway. Stockard Channing was also known for film and TV. Who did "Grease 2" have? Maxwell Caufield, who was unknown, and Michelle Pfeiffer, also unknown at the time.2. The story line and characters. The "Grease" sequel had a bad girl and good boy meeting and going against the high school social hierarchy, opposite of the first film. That would have been fine, if both of the characters had been willing to change for each other, as Danny and Sandy both were. But they weren't, and none of this movie made much sense. Why did they start prepping for an end of the year talent show on the first day of school? On top of a poor story line, not one of the characters were even likable. If you have unknown actors in a film, you need a story line, or something, to attract them.3.The songs. The original "Grease" film had songs that are still played on the radio today. This film has classics (haha) like "Reproduction" and "Cool Rider." Yeah, I never hear those songs on the radio these days.4. The direction. They hired a former choreographer to direct this film instead of someone with actual experience directing a film.There are some movies that are so good they're bad. "Grease 2" is not one of those films. It's just plain bad.

Frenchie is back and so are some of the adults, but the magic is gone in the most unnecessary of movie sequels. It reverses the good girl loves bad boy story but left out smart humor, decent plot moving songs and most of all, chemistry between its two leads. Michelle Pfeiffer went onto much better things, but it started off disastrously here, with Maxwell Caulfield dull, dull, dull as the cousin of the unseen Sandy who is taken in by high school returnee Didi Conn. Adrian Zmed and Lorna Luft are among the other teens, looking closer to that age but lacking in decent material.So it's up to Eve Arden, Dody Goodman and Sid Caesar as the faculty and staff, joined by a campy Connie Stevens who looks like she came back in time from a future production of "Hairspray" and laughably Tab Hunter as her love interest.A great opening number ("Back to School") sets the tone for what never comes. Each musical number seems like it could be removed and make no impact, with the luau number at the end just wretched. This is part of a double DVD set of the original which I would recommend avoiding just in case this one ends up playing instead of this fiasco.

Following in the footsteps of the box office success that was 'Grease', this less ostentatious sequel was almost destined to open to negative reviews. Some of the criticisms are admittedly on the mark. In particular, Didi Conn reprising her role as a post-graduation Frenchy never quite works; the attempt to link to the first 'Grease' film by making the male protagonist Sandy's cousin is also forced. 'Grease 2' is, however, a better film than one might expect from its reputation, and its reversal of the original movie's formula makes for a more engaging story. Whereas the first film was about an out-of-place teenage girl giving in to peer pressure and conforming to impress a guy, here it is the guy who has to conform to impress the girl. In both films, the message offered (conformity is good) is hard to swallow, however, as the transformation this time is more gradual (not all of a sudden at the end), it is easier to get under the skin of the protagonist here and feel for his mixed emotions. A refined Maxwell Caulfield also makes for a more appealing lead actor than John Travolta, who acted pretty smug throughout the whole of the first film, and while Michelle Pfeiffer is no better than Olivia Newton-John, she is certainly no worse on the acting front; singing is another matter. That said, the film has some pretty decent songs, even if they are nowhere near as iconic as the original's tunes; "Turn Back the Hands of Time" is a particularly beautiful tune. The film is surprisingly funny too with the school's kooky administration team given twice as much screen time here.