Watched this on a big screen. Some observations:
* It's quite well directed. Pat Birch got nil credit for the film but the frame is always full of colour and movement and well spaced out. There's plenty of action and energy - aways something going on in the background, you get a real sense of time and place. It feels like a "real" high school (real for a musical), the friends feel like friends.
* This is an interesting comparison to the male gaze. Max Caulfield spends a lot of time gazing at Michelle Pfeiffer. Birch shoots him adoringly though. Female director of a male gaze. Pfeiffer is strong and dynamic and he adores her. Has this film been picked up by feminist analysis?
* Biggest, easily fixable weakness of the film - the cut the balls off Johnny, played by Adrian Zmed. He's weak, and a coward - running away from confrontation with Crater Face. Why do this? He's not threat to Caulfield or anyone really. In the original, Danny and Kinicke were actually tough - their offsiders weren't but they were. Zmed gives a good performance, can sing and dance, but his character is fatally weakened which weakens the drama.
* I used to think a flaw of the film was the fact Pfeiffer was never into Zmed but Zmed kept going on about her. It made no sense that Pfeiffer wouldn't be with Caulfield because of the Pink Lady/T Bird thing because Pfeiffer wan't into the T Birds in anyway shape or form. HOWEVER - on watching it again, it struck me that it's not so much the T Birds that stop her, it's the Pink Ladies. The film and actors do a really good job convincing us that Pfeiffer and the other girls are friends - they are always bantering and having fun. And the Pink Ladies say you can't leave the T Birds. I believe Pfeiffer wouldn't date Caulfield because of them, not because of the T Birds. I think if more had been made of that, the film would've made more sense.
* A bigger problem - Grease had some basis in reality. Yes it was a musical but the problems were all relatable - class differences, going to a dance, going to a drive in, the influence of the peer group, etc. Grease 2 has at its core an outlandish concept - someone pretends to be a bike rider to get a girl and becomes a super hero. Now this does work dramatically and has a satisfying pay off at the end but... it does mean the film is, at its core, inherently silly. I don't know how you'd fix it really - it's such a part of the film's charm - but it is worth mentioning.
* The actors who play the other T Birds and Pink Ladies are as good as any in the original. They have defined characters, and do an excellent job. Also some of the songs are first rate.
* Caulfield is better than I remember. He does good "gaze". But they really should've cast someone who can sing and/or dance. His big numbers, "Charade" and "Turn Back the Hands Of Time" both involve him being protected. Part of the film's appeal is him being isolated I guess but I wish they'd found some way to incorporate him into the action. Sandy was, in Grease - she was in the dance, and singing songs. For instance, could he have been involved in the "Score Tonight" number? Singing with the clean kids? Or could he sing "Reproduction"? Or be given his own number. He's not incorporated into film nearly enough.
* Despite the sexual content of many of the songs, to be at least the film doesn't feel to have a rape-y vibe because most of the characters are clearly played by Broadway dancers in their late twenties who have probably seen and done it all in bed anyway.
* I would say that Michael and Stephanie are a better couple than Danny and Sandy. Danny and Sandy could never get it together in the real world - we saw that. He was overly influenced by his friends, or tried to date rape her, or dumped her at a dance; she had to change to keep him, he wanted to change to keep her.Sure they had a good holiday together but that was holiday mirage - I think on a day to day level they're going to struggle. But Michael and Stephanie are shown (in one scene admittedly, at the diner) to get along as normal people - they make each other laugh, they like that each other is smart, they're both clearly destined for more than Rydell High.
* There's no central set piece like the school dance number in Grease. I think that was a mistake.
How would I have fixed Grease 2? Well, some of it is easy - strengthen Zmed's character, give the role of Michael to someone who could sing, make the choice for Stephanie more about the Pink Ladies. Have a big "school dance" style number. Do you adjust the bike stuff? You may as well commit - I can't think of a better take.
Anyway I do like the film.
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