Grease 2 (1982)

Director:

Patricia Birch

Writer:

Ken Finkleman (writer)

Release Date:

11 June 1982 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

Grease is still the word!

Plot:

An English student at a 1960's American high school has to prove himself to the leader of a girls' gang whose members can only date greasers.

Plot Keywords:

School | Pink Ladies | Motorcycle | 1960s | High School

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Maxwell Caulfield	...	Michael Carrington
Michelle Pfeiffer	...	Stephanie Zinone
Lorna Luft	...	Paulette Rebchuck
Maureen Teefy	...	Sharon Cooper
Alison Price	...	Rhonda Ritter
Pamela Adlon	...	Dolores Rebchuck (as Pamela Segall)
Adrian Zmed	...	Johnny Nogerelli
Peter Frechette	...	Louis DiMucci
Christopher McDonald	...	Goose McKenzie
Leif Green	...	Davey Jaworski
Didi Conn	...	Frenchy
Eve Arden	...	Principal McGee
Sid Caesar	...	Coach Calhoun
Dody Goodman	...	Blanche Hodel
Tab Hunter	...	Mr. Stuart

Also Known As:

Son of Grease (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby (35 mm prints) | 70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)

Certification:

Iceland:L | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | Netherlands:MG6 | Peru:14 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:7 | UK:PG | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Cadillac Jack's Cafe - 9400 block San Fernando Road, Sun Valley, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Didi Conn explained in a 2003 interview why her character Frenchy disappeared about halfway into the movie. She said when they began filming, the script was not even finished yet, but the draft they were using still had her character in it. However, the script was rewritten once again during filming, and her character had been written out, and she was told halfway through filming that she was no longer needed. Then, during the editing process, the filmmakers ultimately decided to include her character Frenchy in the final cut, though they had limited footage. Didi described the filming process as "rushed, frantic, and unorganized".

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Michael is walking in the parking lot to the bowling alley, the modern day gas station is visible behind him. You can see the black curtain behind the cars that was supposed to shield the gas station.

Quotes:

Stephanie Zinone: You know all this deep junk and everything. You must think I am some kinda dummy, right?
Michael Carrington: Actually, I think you're kinda terrific.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "De wereld draait door: (#4.145)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

OUR DAY WILL COME

Good at the time, but didn't age so well...

Depending on when you saw this film relative to when you saw the original "Grease," your viewpoints probably differ as to the quality of this movie.

I saw both within a month of each other at age 13. I hated the original and loved this one.

As I've gotten older, I've come to recognize that the original is a better piece of work, overall. The music from the original is better when taken as a whole. The supporting cast of the original has better players. The storyline doesn't seem as convoluted at times.

But there's something about this movie that holds on to you. It appeals much more to the age group pictured in the movie (i.e., junior-high and high-schoolers). The song "Cool Rider" and the scenes that accompany it in the movie rival anything in the original.

The dialog is better in places and the interplay between the male and female leads are better, I believe, than in the original. The original movie's pairing of Travolta and Newton-John gave us a dimwit trying to woo a goodie-two-shoes girl whose performance was oftentimes wooden and uncomfortable. This one gives us Caulfield and Pfeiffer, and the interplay between an intelligent, wise-beyond-his-years male lead and the "wild child" female lead.

Adrian Zmed's supporting performance as Johnny still cracks me up and is one of the few performances from this movie that still entertain me as an adult.

That's because outside of the performances of accomplished character actors Christopher McDonald, Eve Arden and Dody Goodman, the rest of this cast is just plain bad. Some of it is bad acting, some of it is miscasting and a lot of it is bad writing.

What we're left with today, 20-something years later, is a movie that made a really good attempt to build on the original, but in the end, was the soufflé that fell. It's still better than most want to admit, but it could have stood a couple of rewrites and a little more attention to detail in the prospective cast interview room.