Truly Dreadful Film

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

A Montreal construction worker joins a band and turns out to be a long-lost rock star from 1960s New Jersey - none other than Eddie Wilson (Michael Pare), who mysteriously disappeared after a road accident.This film picks up where the first left off, almost immediately, though we get very few of the same actors. The most important (Michael Pare) is here, and hides himself very effectively under that mustache. Seriously, that is all it takes to completely hide Wilson's identity and make him a Canadian in the 1980s.Apparently some folks at the time gave this a "worst film" nomination (though not the folks at the Razzies). That is just blasphemy. In some ways, this is just as good as the first film and really reinvents the character of Eddie Wilson for a new generation. He blends in seamlessly with a group of musicians who might rather be playing Mozart or Iron Maiden.Unfortunately, like the first film, we get a bare boned edition on the Shout Factory blu-ray. No Michael Pare commentary, or anything else to speak of. Fans of the cult classic will be happy to get the film on BD (presumably with improved picture and sound), but will not find much else to feed their hunger.

Eddie strove for something real, something meaningful. How many people like that do you meet in your daily life? I meet zero. What a shame.Maybe he was self-absorbed at times to the detriment of his friendships. There is no excuse for that, but I do believe that he cared about others.Michael Pare put so much feeling into his role as Eddie, in both the original and this sequel. He is not even a particularly well known actor, yet he put more feeling into this role than most popular actors put into their famous roles.Popularity does not necessarily signify quality.The makers of this film should have explained what the hell Eddie has been doing for the past 20-25 years. Why did it take him so long to get back into music? Why is he living in a modest apartment, with no woman or kids, or anything after this many years? They could have at least given it a backhanded treatment, so that we would know the basics.Nevertheless, nice job otherwise. Sweet, understated love affair. Conflict, resolution, emotion, and great music. John Cafferty is Eddie. Eddie lives!

You can't possibly have made a worse sequel than this. It relates nothing to the original except for Michael Pare being in it. They totally wrote off Frank, Joann, Kenny, heck even Doc. Like this was going to work without all them in there. Plus the music which was great in the original soundtrack is at best average here. You want a good sequel to the first cruisers soundtrack, get John Cafferty's Tough all over album. Now thats really good. For the people who like this lousy movie, you obviously never saw the original. Which is by far superior in every way to this garbage. This is movie is a total disappointment. But when you get none of the original cast, writers or director, this is what you get. Eddie doesn't live in this bomb. He really drives his car into the drink.

The "Eddie and the Cruisers" story had such potential for a great sequel; I always felt that the end of the original movie had more questions unanswered than the beginning. That's why I was so interested in seeing a sequel. Unfortunately, the sequel very much disappoints, not because it is such a bad movie but because it is not nearly as good as it could have been.I don't fault the actors so much as I do the writer(s) in particular and the director. The movie is full of every record/music industry cliché one can think of. The actors are given dialog and made to look like a point in time. Yes, it was made in the glitter 80s, but one of the strengths of the "Eddie" story to me at least was the timelessness of the man and his music, and while the music itself in the film upholds that, all the people making the music are made to look like an 80s glam band.Except for Eddie himself. I've always like Michael Pare, especially in the original Eddie and in Streets of Fire. These roles were perfect for his looks and his on screen personality. In this sequel, he maintains the continuity with the original character. It's just too bad that he wasn't given a more subtle and fuller script to show how twenty years changes a man whose life had gotten to the point that he felt the need to disappear and start over.