Staying Alive

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.

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.

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.

Oh! So hokey! So bad! Tony Manero gets a job on the world's worst Broadway musical where two soap opera actresses catfight over his affections. Did I mention that all the music is by Frank Stallone? Of course this is because Sylvester Stallone directed, but Sly also keeps things in the family way by plopping Mama Jackie Stallone headbands on every friggin' chick in the film. The musical seems to involve a lot of dancers writhing about in "hell" (Drowning in dry ice, wearing Jackie headbands and listening to Frank, so there is at least a few scant shreds of reality fluttering here.), basting Tony in baby oil and tearing at his loincloth. This goes on non-stop for about the last 20 minutes, except for the moment when the director comes back waving his scarf at Tony and hollering "What is going on out there?" (Yeah, man, I was wondering too.) Still, if you're a fan of Travolta in his liberally greased and half-naked physical prime, you might derive a modicum of enjoyment from this. (I didn't. My mom did.) Great basket shot at the end, though.

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.