Staying Alive Reviews
AJ V
Super Reviewer
February 15, 2013
I got bored with this movie so fast, it's not even funny. No one cares about what Tony's boring life is like after all the interesting stuff already happened.
Anthony L
Super Reviewer
September 28, 2009
I actually liked this sequel. Seems like I?m the only one though! I had no idea Sylvester Stallone directed it though. I suppose it's quite similar to Rocky in many ways!
Cassandra M
Super Reviewer
January 4, 2008
This sequel however was unwatchable. Quite frankly, there was no reason to ever make this movie. Tony Manero's life in the first one was not that interesting. What made the movie "cool" was it capitalized on the disco craze and had up and comer Vinnie Barbarino (ok John Travlota) as the lead. The success of the movie was more about the timing than anything else.
So now its six years later and we have Tony Manero back on the big screen, dancing yet again. Problem is, dancing is no longer as cool as it was in the 70s. John Travolta is beginning a decade long downswing of his career, and quite frankly, nobody cares about the character Tony Manero. Nobody left the original Saturday Night Fever saying, "I wonder what happens to Tony Manero". Nobody cared, it was simply a movie about the music and dancing with a marginal plot squeezed in.
The plot of Staying Alive is utterly ridiculous: Dance instructor trying to become a "dance pro", while managing dual love interests. All this culminates in a Broadway show that is unwatchable.
It was simply a bad movie in the early 80s. Today, its almost comical to watch.
I'll give Travlota credit though, many actors would have been exiled after such a catastrophe...he fought his way back to stardom. I have to believe when this comes on cable, he has the ability to laugh at himself.
I usually expect sequels to pale in comparison to the original. I have lowered expectations when watching such movies. For instance, one of my favorite movies of the 80s was Karate Kid. The Karate Kid part II, while not nearly as good, was a worthy sequel. Same thing with Rambo, First Blood Part 1 and II, Godfather part 1 and 2, etc...
This sequel however was unwatchable. Quite frankly, there was no reason to ever make this movie. Tony Manero's life in the first one was not that interesting. What made the movie "cool" was it capitalized on the disco craze and had up and comer Vinnie Barbarino (ok John Travlota) as the lead. The success of the movie was more about the timing than anything else.
So now its six years later and we have Tony Manero back on the big screen, dancing yet again. Problem is, dancing is no longer as cool as it was in the 70s. John Travolta is beginning a decade long downswing of his career, and quite frankly, nobody cares about the character Tony Manero. Nobody left the original Saturday Night Fever saying, "I wonder what happens to Tony Manero". Nobody cared, it was simply a movie about the music and dancing with a marginal plot squeezed in.
The plot of Staying Alive is utterly ridiculous: Dance instructor trying to become a "dance pro", while managing dual love interests. All this culminates in a Broadway show that is unwatchable.
It was simply a bad movie in the early 80s. Today, its almost comical to watch.
I'll give Travlota credit though, many actors would have been exiled after such a catastrophe...he fought his way back to stardom. I have to believe when this comes on cable, he has the ability to laugh at himself.
Lafe F
Super Reviewer
August 3, 2007
From the gritty electricity of "Saturday Night Fever" to sweaty Broadway dancing? It just doesn't carry over very well as a sequel. It felt a bit gay. I liked some of the music in it.
Cinema-Maniac
Super Reviewer
September 4, 2012
Staying Alive takes place five years after Saturday Night Fever and follows Tony Monero as he attempts to make it big on Broadway. Usually the opening credits won't give you any indication of the movie quality, except this was one of those rare cases where it did. In the first four mintues we see dancing in a very bland manner with music that has little to no style setting the very low bar for the rest of movie. Now what completely caught me by suprise was that Sylvester Stallone was one of the writers, then it said he was one of the producers, and finally it ended it's opening credits with "Directed by Sylvester Stallone". Of course this make sense because you when think about people dancing in leotard you think of Slyvester Stallone who's well know for his dancing flick such as..... Shall We Dance Rambo and Rocky Dirty Dancing. This is the just begining of many reasons why this sequel completely fails in bringing anything new to the legacy of it predecessor.
In Stallone defense he did refrain from originally having an angry John Travolta mowing down dancers with a machine-gun Rambo style, though that would have been allot better than how Staying Alive unlimately turned out. Stayling Alive simply has none of the charm nor the fun of Saturday Night Fever. So how do you update the image Toney Manero who last time we saw him was smoking, drinking, and cursing all the time accompanied by a harsh and gritty plot? Simple, you take away all of the characteristics that caused him life issues and replace the gritty story with filler, I mean bland romance. The movie plot consists of a series of filler for 80s pops used to artically create it mood and dancing sequences proving the writers weak point are dialouge sequences. Which is why you'll get montages devolping characters instead of coherent dialouge making every scene feels unfinished creating a disjointed feel that prevents the viewer from becoming fully immersed in the narrative.
The lack of chimstry between actors doesn't help either unless you're going for no drama, lack of effort, and aimlessly going from scenes to scenes which they do perfectly. Aisde from Travolta every single one of the actors lack passion and a comminment to put the slightest emotion in their expressions. Not everything here is completely trash, there are some good lines but nothing good enough to make sitting through this worth it. The only thing maringally worthwhile is the music which does all the work to tell the story, but even that's not enough to even bother looking for the sequel and listening to "Staying Alive" by The Bee Gees is provided me more entertainment than the movie ever did. Once I saw the ending credit rolls and I saw from what I like assume Travolta character walking back in time to Saturday Night Fever, I knew deep down the movie wasted my time and will no doubt be a quick forgettable affair.
Staying Alive is a inessentail, completely pointless followup that we could have done without. It offers nothing new to the exsisting material and takes away everything that made it predecessor worth watching. Someone should have pulled the plug and prevented this sequel from Staying Alive.
How do you follow up a movie like Saturday Night Fever which captured the spirit of an era so perfectly? I don't know and niether did the people who made Staying Alive.
Staying Alive takes place five years after Saturday Night Fever and follows Tony Monero as he attempts to make it big on Broadway. Usually the opening credits won't give you any indication of the movie quality, except this was one of those rare cases where it did. In the first four mintues we see dancing in a very bland manner with music that has little to no style setting the very low bar for the rest of movie. Now what completely caught me by suprise was that Sylvester Stallone was one of the writers, then it said he was one of the producers, and finally it ended it's opening credits with "Directed by Sylvester Stallone". Of course this make sense because you when think about people dancing in leotard you think of Slyvester Stallone who's well know for his dancing flick such as..... Shall We Dance Rambo and Rocky Dirty Dancing. This is the just begining of many reasons why this sequel completely fails in bringing anything new to the legacy of it predecessor.
In Stallone defense he did refrain from originally having an angry John Travolta mowing down dancers with a machine-gun Rambo style, though that would have been allot better than how Staying Alive unlimately turned out. Stayling Alive simply has none of the charm nor the fun of Saturday Night Fever. So how do you update the image Toney Manero who last time we saw him was smoking, drinking, and cursing all the time accompanied by a harsh and gritty plot? Simple, you take away all of the characteristics that caused him life issues and replace the gritty story with filler, I mean bland romance. The movie plot consists of a series of filler for 80s pops used to artically create it mood and dancing sequences proving the writers weak point are dialouge sequences. Which is why you'll get montages devolping characters instead of coherent dialouge making every scene feels unfinished creating a disjointed feel that prevents the viewer from becoming fully immersed in the narrative.
The lack of chimstry between actors doesn't help either unless you're going for no drama, lack of effort, and aimlessly going from scenes to scenes which they do perfectly. Aisde from Travolta every single one of the actors lack passion and a comminment to put the slightest emotion in their expressions. Not everything here is completely trash, there are some good lines but nothing good enough to make sitting through this worth it. The only thing maringally worthwhile is the music which does all the work to tell the story, but even that's not enough to even bother looking for the sequel and listening to "Staying Alive" by The Bee Gees is provided me more entertainment than the movie ever did. Once I saw the ending credit rolls and I saw from what I like assume Travolta character walking back in time to Saturday Night Fever, I knew deep down the movie wasted my time and will no doubt be a quick forgettable affair.
Staying Alive is a inessentail, completely pointless followup that we could have done without. It offers nothing new to the exsisting material and takes away everything that made it predecessor worth watching. Someone should have pulled the plug and prevented this sequel from Staying Alive.
moviefan1725
Super Reviewer
July 20, 2011
The filmmakers here must have never seen the original. Everything that made Fever what is was is gone here. Sure John Travolta returns, but he's bears no resemblence to the Tony Manero of the previous film. Not in attitude, and certainly not physically. One a pencil thin, polyester wearing street punk, he's been tranformed into ripped abs, loincloth wearing Tarzan who leaps around the stage in hopes of becoming a Broadway dancer.
Should the blame be placed on writer/director Sylvester Stallone? That's right...Stallone. No. In fact, the blame should be placed on Travolta. As history tells it, after seeing Rocky III, Travolta demanded the studio pursue Sly to helm the sequel to what was then, his biggest box office hit. Without Travolta, there would be no sequel. The studio agreed, made Stallone the offer...and there you are.
Staying Alive is typical of the 80's sequel. All style, no substance. The "story" exists only to string together several flashy, fog filled dance sequence pieced together with 80's power rock music, to create not scenes, but videos that ran endlessly on MTV. I've never seen a Broadway show, but if this is what is typical of them, I'll stick to movies.
Yet for all that, it's strangely watchable. It's like a car crash that you simply can't turn away from. Travolta tries. He flashes his million dollar smile and once in a while shows a brief flash of the things that made him a star with Fever. The two leading ladies are also fine in their limited, and stereotypical roles. Cynthia Rhodes is the long suffering girlfriend with a heart of gold, and Finola Hughes is that star dancer with a heart of ice. A love triangle ensues, but do you need a slide rule to figure out how it's going to end?
Stallone does direct with energy. As co-writer, he must've known how weak the script was, and never lets the audience go too long without another high powered dance number. It may be weak, but it's never boring.
The other thing that most seperates this from the original is the music. The soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever is one of the biggest selling albums of all time. Producing four number one hits, and going platinum 15 times over, it was as much a phenomenon as the movie, and made The Bee Gees the biggest band in the world. This movie has songs by....Frank Stallone. Oh sure the The Bee Gees throw one or two new songs in there, but this soundtrack is all about nepetism, and the slightly more clearly talking Stallone brother gets his 15 minutes.
Is it the worst sequel ever made? Despite what many critics think, no it isn't. However this is the last movie in the world for anyone who ranks Saturday Night Fever as one of their favorite movies. For everyone else, it's a harmless way to kill 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon if there's nothing else on tv but golf. Hey...that's what I did.
Saturday Night Fever is more of a time capsule than a movie. The characters don't so much tell a story as they simply exist in it. It so perfectly captured late 1970's America, that it had once been the 12th highest grossing movie of all time.
The filmmakers here must have never seen the original. Everything that made Fever what is was is gone here. Sure John Travolta returns, but he's bears no resemblence to the Tony Manero of the previous film. Not in attitude, and certainly not physically. One a pencil thin, polyester wearing street punk, he's been tranformed into ripped abs, loincloth wearing Tarzan who leaps around the stage in hopes of becoming a Broadway dancer.
Should the blame be placed on writer/director Sylvester Stallone? That's right...Stallone. No. In fact, the blame should be placed on Travolta. As history tells it, after seeing Rocky III, Travolta demanded the studio pursue Sly to helm the sequel to what was then, his biggest box office hit. Without Travolta, there would be no sequel. The studio agreed, made Stallone the offer...and there you are.
Staying Alive is typical of the 80's sequel. All style, no substance. The "story" exists only to string together several flashy, fog filled dance sequence pieced together with 80's power rock music, to create not scenes, but videos that ran endlessly on MTV. I've never seen a Broadway show, but if this is what is typical of them, I'll stick to movies.
Yet for all that, it's strangely watchable. It's like a car crash that you simply can't turn away from. Travolta tries. He flashes his million dollar smile and once in a while shows a brief flash of the things that made him a star with Fever. The two leading ladies are also fine in their limited, and stereotypical roles. Cynthia Rhodes is the long suffering girlfriend with a heart of gold, and Finola Hughes is that star dancer with a heart of ice. A love triangle ensues, but do you need a slide rule to figure out how it's going to end?
Stallone does direct with energy. As co-writer, he must've known how weak the script was, and never lets the audience go too long without another high powered dance number. It may be weak, but it's never boring.
The other thing that most seperates this from the original is the music. The soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever is one of the biggest selling albums of all time. Producing four number one hits, and going platinum 15 times over, it was as much a phenomenon as the movie, and made The Bee Gees the biggest band in the world. This movie has songs by....Frank Stallone. Oh sure the The Bee Gees throw one or two new songs in there, but this soundtrack is all about nepetism, and the slightly more clearly talking Stallone brother gets his 15 minutes.
Is it the worst sequel ever made? Despite what many critics think, no it isn't. However this is the last movie in the world for anyone who ranks Saturday Night Fever as one of their favorite movies. For everyone else, it's a harmless way to kill 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon if there's nothing else on tv but golf. Hey...that's what I did.
Tecnoandre
Super Reviewer
July 3, 2011
Six years after the events of Saturday Night Fever, 25-year-old former disco king Anthony "Tony" Manero, has left Brooklyn and is now living in Manhattan, staying in a flophouse while he works as a dance instructor and as a waiter at a dance club, looking for his big break in the modern dance productions on Broadway.Well, i saw the first,and didn't like it.What expect about this?The same but with a little Stallone's touch of Rocky.A lot of sentimentalism, poor performances and totally meanigless sreenplay.
Lee K
Super Reviewer
July 20, 2008
Just re-watched this today on tln. A great sequel none the less that shows that travolta at that time really didnt need movies if he wanted a career in dance! The broadway show at the end was fantastic!
December 4, 2011
Just like my mom, I'm curious to why this great Travolta movie never made it to the box office. It's a wonderful and phonomenal movie about Tony Manero dancing on Broadway. It's awesome!
donnasbox
August 24, 2011
Also known as Saturday Night Fever Part 2, this film (surprisingly written and directed by Sylvester Stallone) continues the story of Tony as he pursues his dream of becoming a dancer on Broadway. I remember seeing this movie in the theater in 1983 at seven years old, and was completely in awe and inspired by the unique choreography, awesome music for the time (I grew up listening to the Bee Gees in a dance oriented household), and John Travolta's hot sweaty bod :) . Great classic 80's flick!
May 29, 2011
I loved Saturday Night Fever, I love Stallone, but sometimes, a Great movie should just be done at the end of it, period, no sequel. Sorry , but that is the case here, nice try though
April 27, 2009
Not bad. Didn't get the support it should have in its time, but comparisons to SNF are really unfair.
terryc1000
January 11, 2008
Sequel to Saturday Night Fever. This film takes Travolta to a new level. He's in the best condition of his career. Hot! Jaw dropping eye candy with mega talent on the Broadway stage. Oh, there is a love story too! Very entertaining.
moviegirl50
March 31, 2007
This sequel to John Travolta's 70's Disco hit, Saturday Night Fever, was directed by Sylvester Stallone and about 8 songs were written by his brother Frank who also performs some in the movie with Cynthia Rhodes--Great job! Her and Finola Hughes were awesome in their parts. Some very cheesy lines and bad acting at times, but John is cute and the music and dancing are fun! It's just one of those movies I can watch again and again and can't help but like it even in it's cheesiness. One of my favorite lines, Tony: "It was sweet, it was like syrup....I had a cavity just listenin' to it!" Ya gotta luv it! VHS.
TheFlamingW
May 7, 2007
Soundtrack - 9.5
Movie - In this case, the sequel IS better than the original (Saturday Night Fever); Better script & acting
Soundtrack - ALMOST as good as SNF!
Movie - 5.0
Soundtrack - 9.5
Movie - In this case, the sequel IS better than the original (Saturday Night Fever); Better script & acting
Soundtrack - ALMOST as good as SNF!
markisme007
July 1, 2007
but can't remember much of it at all.
Though,it was good.
Actually,I saw this one,when it cme out,
but can't remember much of it at all.
Though,it was good.
tatorc69
June 20, 2007
Ok, I know, it's not great, but, I though Finola Hughes and Cynthia Rhodes were very under-rated, and JT didn't do so bad, either. I can't help myself, I like this movie.
virgilmj77
May 11, 2007
Great movie you like to dance? This MO Fo can dance and give any girl the jitters all along her thighs.
