Grease is still the word!

The Music and Feeling go on Forever

Given the runaway success of Grease, which became the biggest-grossing movie musical of all time, it was all but inevitable that there would be a sequel, and four years later this follow-up brought a new group of kids back to Rydell High. It's 1961, and Stephanie Zinone (Michelle Pfeiffer) is the tough leader of the Pink Ladies, while Michael Carrington (Maxwell Caulfield) is a clean-cut British exchange student. Michael likes Stephanie, but the Pink Ladies' by-laws prevent her from dating guys who aren't members of the T-Birds, their affiliated male gang. However, when a Zorro-like masked avenger on a motorcycle rescues Stephanie from a gang of ill-mannered toughs, she's eager to get to know the hero with the cool wheels. Any guesses as to who he might be? Eve Arden, Sid Caesar, and Dody Goodman return from the first film as members of the Rydell High faculty, while actual '50s teen icons Tab Hunter and Connie Stevens are on board as new members of the staff; Didi Conn as Frenchy is the only one of the students to appear in both movies. Patricia Birch, who served as choreographer on Grease, made her debut as a director on Grease 2; while she's remained active as a choreographer, she hasn't directed again since.

The sequel took in just over $15 million.[12] Barry Diller of Paramount said that the film "on no level is as good as the first. The quality isn't there."[13] Jim Jacobs described it as "awful... the pits."[14]
As of 2013, it has a rating of 22% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 18 critics' reviews.[15] Janet Maslin for The New York Times condemned the film as "dizzy and slight, with an even more negligible plot than its predecessor had. This time the story can't even masquerade as an excuse for stringing the songs together. Songs? What songs? The numbers in Grease 2 are so hopelessly insubstantial that the cast is forced to burst into melody about pastimes like bowling."[16] Variety, on the other hand, commended the staging of the musical numbers, writing that Patricia Birch has come up with some unusual settings (a bowling alley, a bomb shelter) for some of the scenes, and employs some sharp montage to give most of the songs and dances a fair amount of punch."[17]
Michelle Pfeiffer received positive notice for her first major role. The New York Times review cited her performance as the "one improvement" on the original film: "Miss Pfeiffer is as gorgeous as any cover girl, and she has a sullen quality that's more fitting to a Grease character than Miss Newton-John's sunniness was."[16] Variety wrote that she was "all anyone could ask for in the looks department, and she fills Olivia Newton-John's shoes and tight pants very well."[17] She was nominated for a 1983 Young Artist Award in the category of Best Young Motion Picture Actress. The movie was nominated for a Stinkers Bad Movie Awards for Worst Picture.

Grease 2 was intended to be the second film (and first sequel) in a proposed Grease franchise of four films and a television series (The third and fourth films were to take place in the sixties and during the counterculture era.), however, the projects were scrapped due to the underwhelming box office performance of Grease 2.[6] The sequel's working title, Son of Grease, was changed to the more straightforward current title by producers, much to the annoyance of leading man Maxwell Caulfield, who unsuccessfully tried to have it reinstated.[6]
At one stage Paramount tried to get Jeff Conaway and Stockard Channing from the first film to do a cameo but this did not eventuate.[7] Timothy Hutton was announced as male star[8] but Maxwell Caulfield was signed after impressing producers on Broadway in Entertaining Mister Sloane. Lorna Luft was the last star cast.[9]
The part played by Connie Stevens was originally meant for Annette Funicello but she was unable to appear in it due to a scheduling clash as she was filming an advertisement for peanut butter that week.[10]
Filming took place entirely on location in Norwalk California,[11] working to a 58-day shooting schedule.[6] According to director Patricia Birch, the script was still incomplete when filming commenced.[6] Sequences that were filmed but cut during post-production include scenes in which Frenchy helps Michael become a motorcycle rider, and a sequence at the end of the film showing Michael and Stephanie flying off into the sky on a motorcycle.[6]
In the film, after Stephanie wins the contest, it goes on to show the stakeout in the final scene. Originally, there were a few minutes dedicated to a scene in which Michael (believed to be dead in his alter ego, by Stephanie) comes out on stage as Stephanie is exiting the stage, unbeknownst to her that he is the cool rider and he is alive. He attempts to ask her what's wrong and she storms past him and runs off crying, then it cuts to the stakeout. There was a scene in the film within the "Who's that Guy?" number in which Goose (Christopher McDonald) accidentally smashes Rhonda's (Alison Price) nose at the Bowl-A-Rama door. None of these scenes have been shown since the film's release.

Release Date: June 11, 1982

Distrib: Paramount


Boxoffice: $15,171,476 2013: $42,108,600