Staying Alive

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".

Watching "Staying Alive" will do that to you. A truly perplexing movie it raises all sorts of questions like "Why was this thing made?" and "Why would Travolta do this?" I guess those were pretty lean years for Barbarino, so we should cut him some slack. Now Sylvester Stallone, he should have known better.

"Staying Alive" is the sequel to the hit, and FAR superior movie, "Saturday Night Fever." This film is hardly a sequel people were crying out to see, and it doesn't surprise me in the least that it's a very obscure movie.

Travolta reprises his "Fever" role, as Tony Manero, the big-haired, tight-clothes, bad-accented dancer from Brooklyn. On his own and trying to make it as a dancer, he works his hardest to become a big star. Does he make it? Well you have to watch, and let me tell you it's a riveting ride.

Or not. "Alive" is a terribly funny movie, for all the wrong reasons. The play Tony ends up in is a particular highlight. Called "Satan's Alley," it's a man's descent into hell, full of laser lights, mist, and scantily clad women. This is the first Broadway movie I had heard of that was totally dancing, no singing, speaking, or character development. Kudos to the fact checker for the film, who had obviously seen a lot of Broadway shows. Even "Cats" was more coherent than that piece of crap.

But the real highlight is Travolta himself. As directed by Stallone, he bears more than a passing resemblance to Rambo in almost every scene of consequence. Every single time the guy dances in the movie one of two things happen. Either A) he gets really sweaty and greasy, or B) you get tons of shot of his disgusting package. Those dance pants are WAY too tight.

"Staying Alive" is a bizarre movie. You get the feeling Stallone and the rest of the crew thought they were making an incredible movie. It shows in every self-obsessed frame of this film; it takes itself way too seriously and ends up looking absolutely ridiculous. Recommended for fans of ridiculously poor movies.

Staying Alive (1983)

** (out of 4)

Sylvester Stallone co-wrote and directed this sequel to Saturday NIGHT FEVER, which picks up five years after that film has Tony Manero (John Travolta) trying to make it as a chorus dancer on Broadway. His old time girlfriend Jackie (Cynthia Rhodes) puts up with his trouble but rich girl and star Laura (Finola Hughes) just uses him as she wants and soon Tony's going to have to decide on his future in both dancing and female. STAYING ALIVE is clearly a very, very bad movie but I think it crosses a line that makes it so campy that you can't help but have some fun with it. I'm really not sure what Stallone was thinking with his screenplay but it seems like he wanted to add in touches of ROCKY making Tony an underdog and this here just never works for a number of reasons. For starters, Tony is a complete jerk and his character just doesn't have the same appeal as Rocky. Another problem here is that the dialogue is so incredibly bad that you can't help but laugh at it as well as the so-called character development that happens. Not for a single second can you believe anything that the Tony character is going thru and especially his "growing up" scenes towards the end. Not only that but the entire music here is just really, really bad and we get too many scenes where we hear complete music numbers that just make your ears numb. This is especially true during the scenes of the Laura character in a bar singing. More bad stuff comes from the final stage production, which is just poorly shot and the entire thing just comes across as pure camp. Even Travolta is just missing a certain energy that was so clear in the original but I think this too can be blamed on the screenplay but that rawness is just missing here. I thought both Hughes and Rhodes were good in their parts but, again, the screenplay does very little for them. Those expecting anything nearly as good as Saturday NIGHT FEVER are going to be in for a major disappointment but if you go into the film expecting unintentional laughs and camp then you should at least be somewhat entertained.

Not good, but not as bad as it is made out to be.

Plot is thin, but the behind-the-scenes look at a Broadway dance show is interesting. Far too much time is spent on the actual show though, making you think that the whole movie may as well have been one big recording of a dance show.

Music is kind of cheesy, specially the music in the Broadway production.

Acting is so-so. Cynthia Rhodes gives probably the only convincing performance. John Travolta is his usual one-dimensional self and Finola Hughes is irritating.

It's five years later and Tony Manero is still dreaming of becoming a professional dancer.He may get his big break on Broadway.He has something going on with two girls, his girlfriend Jackie and an English dancer called Laura.Staying Alive (1983) is a sequel to the disco movie classic Saturday Night Fever.It has a new director, a fellow called Sylvester Stallone.You can see him giving a cameo as Man on Street.John Travolta is just as good here as he was in the original.The girls, Cynthia Rhodes and Finola Hughes are both great.Julie Bovasso is also in this part playing Tony's mother.Steve Inwood plays the part of Jesse.Kurtwood Smith plays Choreographer.Sly's brother Frank Stallone plays Carl.Music by the Bee Gees can be heard also in this movie, as was in the first part.From the brothers Gibb we sadly lost Robin on May at 62.This sequel doesn't get too close to the original, but I don't find it a bad movie.It's still entertaining, it has some cool dance scenes.The movie looks very 80's, so if you're allergic to the 80's, you shouldn't probably watch this movie.