Yes, boys and girls, it's time to go back to school with the lovely Pink Ladies and the lovable T-Birds from Rydell High. I've never seen this movie in a theatre (it came out in 1982, I was three), and have always wanted to. The Alamo made that dream come true. If you've never been to an Alamo Drafthouse, I highly recommend that you take a trip to one as soon as humanly possible. There are three in Virginia - Winchester, Ashburn, and the newest location, Woodbridge, so there are plenty of options for you to explore. Alamo is an independent movie theatre chain from Austin, TX. I appreciate many things about the Alamo experience: it's a full service theatre, so servers bring food and drinks to your seat, you can drink beer while watching movies, and their popcorn is amazing.
Even better, is that the Alamo has special events. Events range from special showings of current movies, like that time I went to a ladies only screening of Wonder Woman, to anniversary screenings of movies to sing-alongs and quote-alongs. They even have afternoon tea with themed movies. My mom had a blast at our first tea with a screening of Marie Antoinette. Alamo has this great series called "Champagne Cinema" and Grease 2 was the featured movie on Labor Day. Finally, someone understands the value of this movie as the back to school gem that it is. Did I mention the props and themed drinks? We got a pink bandana, candy cigarettes, a handy guide to using our props, and drank a "Cool Rider."
(Yes, we all waved our flags during "Do It For Our Country." If nothing else, we are patriots.)
I love Grease 2. We can argue all day about Grease 2's superiority to its more famous movie sibling, Grease, but I will always win because Grease 2 is better. It just is. The music is better. The choreography is better. The dream sequence is amazing. I'm not claiming Grease 2 is a feminist movie, but it's not as horrifyingly misogynistic as Grease. The women of Grease 2 are way more interesting than any of the original Pink Ladies and they don't take the T-Birds nonsense. And Rex freaking Manning is in this movie.
And did I mention there are motorcycles? In this installment, the T-Birds have become a motorcycle gang. This is funny for two reasons:
- There are only four of them. I feel like a gang requires more than four people.
- I'm currently watching Sons of Anarchy on Netflix. This will be very important as I watch Grease 2 at the Alamo.
I watched the entire first season of SOA in a day and half, so I had approximately 13 hours of motorcycle club drama swirling around in my head as I sat in the theatre to watch Grease 2. A lot happens in season one, including a stalker, club rivalries, the appearance of a horrible ATF agent, a hit gone horribly wrong, and Katey Sagal (she's awesome). I even took an online quiz to determine who my SOA husband would be (I'll let you guess). I'm also planning on starting the FX spinoff show Mayans MC this weekend; it premiered this week and I've been told by my SOA-watching friends that I can watch Mayans even though I've only just started the other show. Thank goodness.
So back to Grease 2. I haven't closely watched this movie in years. It's been on one of the movie channels recently, so I've caught bits and pieces, but like every movie I've seen a hundred times, it's usually just on as background noise. Being surrounded by other people who could quote and sing along with the movie made me feel like I'd found my people, my own gang, although I'll never see most of these people ever again. I always feel on the edges of fandoms, but with this little movie I feel right in center with all the other people singing their hearts out to "Cool Rider."
Since I was watching the movie closely, I have five lingering questions about Grease 2. This is a musical so reality stepped out the door the second the entire student body did a choreographed entrance to the first day of school. Still, I wonder about things. It's how my brain works and I can't help but have these five questions:
- Why are there only four T-Birds? I get it, we can't have a cast of thousands and we needed an uneven number of guys and girls for the whole love triangle thing, but isn't it better for a gang to have more members? The bowling alley sequence proves this point; the T-Birds would have been pulverized if the Mystery Rider (psst...it's Michael) hadn't shown up.
- Where did Michael learn all those jumps? He gets his bike about a month to two into the school year and is somehow an ace rider by spring? This seems completely unrealistic especially given the jumping part. Where was he practicing? How did he never look banged up, given that he probably would have had a few spills as he was learning to ride a motorcycle?
- Where does the rival gang go to school? Every single member of the Cycle Lords (yep, that's their name) looks to be about 30 years old, but we're supposed to believe that they are the rival gang of the T-Birds, who sort of look like older high school students. Did they go to whatever school the band is shouting about during practice? Are they really adults who can't shake their gang ways, but aren't ready for the big time so they just have a weird rivalry with a high school gang? Balmudo, the leader of the Cycle Lords, was in the first movie too (he brought Cha-Cha to the dance), but again, he looked like he was in his 30s, with three kids at home, and a pack a day smoking habit. This does not compute.
- Who owns the Pink Lady car? At various points in the movie, a different Pink Lady is driving the car. Do they share it? Does it rotate between the members? Is the car passed down from Pink Lady group to Pink Lady group at graduation? Does Dolores inherit the car at the end of this movie? Did they pay dues and that's how they paid for the car? Do the T-Birds have a role in this since Pink Ladies are tied to being T-Bird chicks. How does this work?
- How is it that the adults' reaction to the motorcycle gang showdown at the luau is to say "Michael?!" in the same breathy, surprised way Stephanie does rather than calling the cops? Eve Arden as Miss McGee is about as no nonsense as you can get in a principal in a musical (she had to put up with John Travolta in the first movie; she deserves a medal), so I can't imagine her first reaction is to be all jazzed up about the school nerd being a badass motorcycle guy. Yes, she has a place in her heart for the T-Birds, but come on! Someone has to be the adult in the room.
I could see Bobby, with his propensity for Elvis impersonations, stepping into the Johnny role because he has the star power to do it. I'm torn as to who would be his back up singers, but I think it would be Opie, Juice, and Chibs. They seem like they would take a musical number in stride, have some laughs, maybe do it for charity as Gemma is always trying to keep the club involved in community activities. Maybe Jax could sing Michael's ballad "Charades." It could work, given Jax's knowledge of what really happened to Donna and his disillusionment with the club. If someone who has the talent wants to create a SOA/Grease 2 mashup for me, I will be most pleased.
Until then, I'll keep watching SOA and envisioning musical numbers and trying to figure out if the T-Birds or the Cycle Lords would have been a good chapter addition for SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original, for those of you who have never watched the show).
Or maybe I'll just head back to the Alamo. There's a screening of Carrie coming up soon or maybe I'll go see Clueless, so I can quote my way to 1990s glory.
Coming soon: I watch all three versions of A Star is Born to prepare for the new version starring Lady Gaga, I'll unveil two major embroidery projects, and I get crafty at a baseball game.
SOA picture
Back to School
T-Birds
Prowling
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