After re-watching the first Grease a few months ago I wanted to see Grease 2 for a while now. Last night I put it on after finding it available to rent on my mother’s cable box. I thought it would faintly mimic the first, giving us a bland re-telling, yet keeping the spirit of the musical alive, enough to entertain the seven year old in us. This… is not a movie for seven year olds.
The sex jokes are constant, and hilarious, I might add. The film pokes fun at itself in so many ways, from the T-Birds seeming far less “cool” (despite the notion of Needing To Be Cool as part of both their aesthetic and their high-school narrative) than they do like bird-brained jokesters where the joke might regularly be them. The sexism is both present and pointing at itself, laughing at the silliness of its inclusion in the first place.
Furthermore, the story is not just one of a summer romance lost to hierarchy and cliques, but a young man’s crush that drives him to challenge the hierarchy (T-Birds/Pink Ladies) and believe in his own capabilities enough that he’s willing to try his damndest to impress Stephanie, his love interest and apathetic leader of the Pink Ladies. This part of the story is far more interesting to watch, partly because his dedication is completely silly, and yet ridiculously romantic, despite that. The songs are sweet and catchy. The ensemble of background characters, though they seem to get less screen-time than the cast in the original Grease, all have a more endearing, dorky quality in Grease 2 than they do in the first film. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Rating: 4/5
