Very well executed

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Sequel to the inexplicably popular "Grease" !1978). It's 1961 and Maxwell Caulfield plays MIchael--an English student who comes to America to attend Rydell High. There he meets beautiful Stephanie (Michelle Pfeiffer before she hit it big) and falls in love. However she only dates bikers and he's not one.There's lots wrong with this movie. It's too long, all the high school kids look like 30, there's a few REALLY bad songs, the dialogue is terrible and most of the acting is horrid. On the other hand--most of the songs are great (LOVE the "Reproduction" number with Tab Hunter clearly enjoying himself), there are a few great huge production numbers with great dancing and singing and there's some good acting by Pfeiffer, Tab Hunter, Eve Arden (in her last film), Didi Conn and Lorna Luft. Also Caulfield is GORGEOUS and great to look at--even though he can't act. So it is bad but watchable.

The original Grease really is a classic, this is not. Here's my list of things that took the movie down some notches from the original:The unnecessary high levels of crudeness compared to the original, especially with that innaproprietly dirty song in the classroom "Reproduction". The original Grease may have dealt with a character who spent part of the movie thinking she may be pregnant and a car scene showing the implication of her having sex with her boyfriend and him suddenly exclaiming that his condom ripped. In Grease 2 though, we get a song where everyone is so happily and loudly singing such dirty lyrics which make up most of the song. There's also the suggestive songs "We're gonna score tonight" and "Let's do it for our country". Way more sexual implementations than the first film, and the Grease movies have supposed to have been semi family films with many fans of the first being youths.Next, the ham acting, like it seems like they're copying the first movie's attitudes and then exaggerating them in an overly goofy way. The way the T birds act in this film is a good example. Also, the way they treat new English student Michael, harrasing him even before finding out he fancies one of the T bird's crushes Stephanie (Michelle Phiefer). Then the overly stereo typical way the movie portrayed nerds. Just like in the "Revenge of the nerds" films, they make them talk in that shrill voice wearing those goofy glasses and pocket protectors. Hear the nerd's jokingly shrill voice near the beginning when asking Michael "how long have you been in America?", or where they trip him outside the bus during the opening number, or during "Reproduction" one nerdy guy says in a ridiculous sounding voice "ohh, I think I'm gonna throw up".The songs in this film break out without reason too much, where in the first film, there's a reason for each song. And there were more better songs in the first.Here are the few things in the movie I liked which kept me from giving the film a rating lower than 5:There were a few good songs. I kinda liked the girls with Stephanie singing "A girl for all seasons", a nice catchy tune, the T birds' song "Prowling", and the song "Who's that guy?" while Michael is kickin it up on the motorcycle. The rest of the songs were either sub par or inappropriate.Even though some reviewers don't agree, I kinda liked Phiefer as Stephanie. She was cute, and I always found Phiefer beautiful, even like 12 years later as teacher in "Dangerous minds". I know she had those clothes, those shades, and that bubble gum popping, but that was sorta early 1980s style. Michael was an alright character too, he played his role straight, and was only wanting people to like him. And he wanted to start riding motorcycles, nothing wrong with that.This movie had some good, and definitely had some bad.

The only aspects I liked in this film was "Cool Rider" by Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael's tact. Otherwise, Stephanie is obnoxious, the music has been watered down a bit with excessive innuendo for me, the T-Birds and Pink Ladies are less edgy than the originals in the Grease film, and this film makes me miss Stockard Channing's whimsical and cheeky expression, and I wonder why Stephanie was not fired from her job after seeing how tactless she was at dealing with the waitress that gave her food.

This musical follow-up to the smash hit GREASE is an example of how not to make a sequel. It seems like a slavish copy of the first film, complete with the falling in love romantic plotting at the heart of the storyline, the rival gangs, the high school mischief and the like. However, the iconic songs from the first film are gone, replaced by forgettable fluff pieces of music clearly written to recall former glory days. None of them has the same zing or vibrancy that made the ones in the first film such a hit.The acting just isn't of the same calibre either. As a British viewer, I found Maxwell Caulfield's performance wooden, and Michelle Pfeiffer's little better. In fact, Pfeiffer usually seems to disappoint, only seeming to snap out of average-ness on occasion, SCARFACE and STARDUST being two of the times she seems to be making an effort. While I appreciate the attention that has been made to period detail and enthusiasm, but GREASE 2 is a waste of everyone's time.