A British student at a 1960s American high school must prove himself to the leader of a girls’ gang whose members can only date greasers.
The first time I saw “Grease 2” was in 1984 when I was 12 years old and living in Dublin, Ireland. My family was the first to own a VCR in our town. While I had grown up on the original movie and still love it to this day, the reason I rented “Grease 2” was not that I mainly wanted to see it but because I had talked an older friend into renting “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” for me and I heard it was pretty gruesome and scary, so I rented “Grease 2” as a backup. Just in case “Massacre” scared me to death, I figured “Grease 2” could at least lighten the mood afterward.
After watching “Massacre” and realizing it wasn’t as gruesome or frightening as I’d heard and that there was very little blood in it, contrary to public belief, I put “Grease 2” on anyway. While it didn’t personally live up to the original, it did manage to capture its ambiance and spirit. While the new characters possessed uniquely contrastive storylines and distinguishing characteristics, far removed from the original gang, it brought back many familiar faces from the first film as a way to remind us that while Travolta, Newton-John, and co. had graduated and moved on with their lives, there were still friends and confidantes at Rydell High, whether students or faculty, forging ahead with their own lives.
“Grease 2” takes place two years after the first film’s events. The T-Birds are led by Johnny Nogerelli (Adrian Zmed), followed by Goose (Christopher McDonald), Louis (Peter Frechette), and Davey (Leif Green), while the Pink Ladies are fronted by Stephanie Zinone (Michelle Pfeiffer), accompanied by Paulette (Lorna Luft), Sharon (Maureen Teefy), and Rhonda (Alison Price). After breaking up with Johnny over the summer, Stephanie wants to be her own person, accountable to nobody, but things quickly change when newcomer Michael Carrington (Maxwell Caulfield), an English exchange student who happens to be the cousin of Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John) from the first movie, arrives and quickly falls for her. When she stresses that as a Pink Lady, she can only date a T-Bird, he decides to transform his straight-laced, clean-cut image to that of a leather-clad biker, hoping she will fall for him.
“Grease 2” is the film that catapulted Michelle Pfeiffer’s career into the stratosphere, immediately leading to roles in “Scarface,” opposite Al Pacino, “Into the Night” with Jeff Goldblum, and “Ladyhawke” with Rutger Hauer and Matthew Broderick. Maxwell Caulfield, on the other hand, didn’t fare as well. While he made a successful career for himself in T.V. and movies, he never achieved the same level of success as his co-star, his most significant role being that of Miles Colby on T.V.’s “Dynasty” and its subsequent spinoff, “The Colbys.” Adrian Zmed, as the leader of the T-Birds, went on to star in the low-budget horror film “The Final Terror” and “Bachelor Party” with Tom Hanks, eventually starring alongside William Shatner in “T.J. Hooker” but much like Maxwell Caulfield, his career never soared the way Michelle Pfeiffer’s did.
The rest of the cast moved on to other projects, but Michelle Pfeiffer was the only actor from the film to successfully navigate the shark-infested waters of Hollywood to become an A-list and Oscar-nominated star. Whereas “Grease” was infused with a cast who could actually sing, most notably Olivia Newton-John, who at that time was a multiple Grammy award-winner, “Grease 2,” unfortunately, was burdened with an ensemble who, for the most part, couldn’t carry a tune, except for Adrian Zmed, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Lorna Luft, the daughter of Judy Garland. Some of the songs that were cringe-worthy back then, including “Reproduction,” “Charades,” “(Love Will) Turn Back the Hands of Time,” and the ultra-cringey “Do It for Our Country,” have not aged well and wouldn’t fly in today’s day and age.
The movie flopped upon its original theatrical release on Friday, June 11th, 1982, and the fact that it opened on the same day as “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” probably didn’t help. Over the years, Paramount Pictures stated that they reached out to John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John to reprise their roles as Danny and Sandy, respectively, but they declined, moving on to other projects instead. But like other 1980s-released films that didn’t fare well at the box office, movies like “Blade Runner,” “The Thing,” and “Flash Gordon,” to name but a few, “Grease 2,” over time, went on to become a cult classic, with many fans today preferring it over the 1978 original. One aspect fans liked was that Michelle Pfeiffer’s Stephanie Zinone was a strong, independent woman who didn’t need a man to complete her life. In contrast, Olivia Newton-John’s Sandy Olsson completely changed her personality and physical appearance to attract the opposite sex, Danny, in particular. In many ways, I would have to agree, but the original film still holds up much better than its 1982 successor, but that is just my personal opinion.
For the most part, “Grease 2” is full of catchy tunes and stereotypical high jinks, indicative of its era, and if you haven’t seen it or watched it in a long time, I would recommend a viewing; sometimes, older films have a way of catching you off-guard, and pleasantly surprising you when you least expect it. That’s what “Grease 2” did for me and makes me wish Paramount would produce a “Grease 3,” including as many faces from the first two films while telling its own story. In 2019, it was announced that a prequel to the original film, titled “Summer Lovin’,” with John August attached to write the screenplay, was in the works, but as of today, no further announcements have been made.
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