Staying Alive

The original writer of Saturday Night Fever Norman Wexler gets a co-writer credit for the sequel.

Staying Alive was directed and co-written by Sylvester Stallone. The story owes a debt to A Chorus Line. Some of the clunky dialogue and scenes are likely to be the fault of Stallone.

However Stallone also got John Travolta into shape. Here he looks like a dancer with rippling muscles.

The story has moved on six years. Tony Manero is trying to hit it big as a bit part player in Broadway. He gets a long list of rejections and struggles on with the support of his girlfriend.

An abrasive relationship with the star of a new Broadway show, Laura (Finola Hughes) has not gone unnoticed by its director. Tony might have a girlfriend but he hits on Laura if it might help his career.

Travolta presents an older Tony Manero but he is still immature, shallow and self centred. Manero has a rawness and streetwise that attracts the attention of the director of the new Broadway show.

The film is let down by a thin uninvolving plot and too many songs that just does not fit in with the film. Whereas those Bee Gees songs became classics in Saturday Night Fever, they just are forgettable here. I thought Vince DiCola's composition blended better.

The real low point was the opening night of the campy Broadway show 'Satan's Alley' that Manero gets a starring role opposite with Laura. Conceptually is should had been reworked, maybe something more disco themed.

Travolta understands Manero but the film felt too different from Saturday Night Fever. Staying Alive did well at the box office when it was released but it was critically lambasted. It was a big task for it to even equal the original's success which had entered public consciousness in a big way. Looking at the movie again it does fit in well with the MTV aesthetics of the 1980s but it lacks the grittiness.

I would give Staying Alive 1 star for actual goodness, and 10 stars for being in that rare category of movie that is so awful it's great. I will say that John Travolta is good dancer and his character is actually rather well portrayed here. But the film itself: ZOMG. The dance sequences are cheesy as hell. I have almost hurt myself from laughing so hard. It's like everyone in the movie lives in a world where cruise ship shows are considered the apex of entertainment. The script is a knock off of a knock off of a knock off of 42nd Street, with obvious rip-offs of All That Jazz. The choreographer character is straight out of the book of Hollywood clichés. The love triangle is as flimsy and transparent as used Saran wrap. The songs are all ridiculously over-earnest, especially the echo-laden 'Dance Close to the Fire' sequence. But I gotta say: watching this is pure joy. Pure 'oh my god I can't believe I'm watching this' guilty pleasure joy.

Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in order, I come to Saturday Night Fever.

Plot In A Paragraph: In this sequel to Saturday Night Fever, former disco king Tony Manero (John Travolta) has left Brooklyn and lives in Manhattan. He stays in a cheap hotel and works as a dance instructor by day and as a waiter at a dance club on a night, trying to succeed as a professional dancer on Broadway. The breakaway from his Brooklyn life, family and friends seems to have matured Tony and refined his personality, represented by his diminished accent and his avoidance of alcohol and swear words. However, certain things have not changed, as with his most recent girlfriend, who's a dancer and also the singer of a band. He feels free to pursue other women, but gets very jealous if someone looks at her too long.

Stallone has Travolta looking the heat he ever looked, the movie movies at a good pace and is entertaining enough, while not getting close to the first movie. Despite a critical mauling, this was one of the 1983 top ten most successful films at the box-office.

To date this is the only movie Sly has directed, that he didn't star in. Which I think is a shame, as he is a talented director.

I don't understand why critics always scorn this film. OK, it doesn't have the magic of its predecessor "Saturday Night Fever", but it works as an "80's point of view" of the original film. The thing is that you should watch this film as a single one, not a 'sequel'. It has nothing to do with "Saturday Night Fever" but the main character Tony Manero (once again played by John Travolta) and his mother (Julie Bovasso) in a brief appearance. Fast forward from 1977 to 1983. Now Tony wants to be a Broadway star and keeps his struggle for a more mature purpose, as he himself is more mature. Manero's "moody girl" here is Laura (Finola Hughes, not so convincing), who also looks down on him. The funniest thing about "Staying Alive" is that it is directed by Sylvester Stallone! (No one remembers...) The soundtrack is one of my favorite, although it didn't received the deserved attention at the time of its release, nor did the movie itself. (I think people were afraid of another 'Bee Gees fever'). After this film, Travolta's career fell out of the spotlight only to be retaken in late 80's with "Look Who's Talking". Summarizing, in my opinion it is a very good movie, but don't expect this to be another "Saturday Night Fever".

Cynthia Rhodes again! The continum from Dirty Dancing, Staying Alive & Flashdance! How is this sexy beautiful dancer always the forlorn gal!?