It's better if you imagine that it's Rex Manning day, and you have to watch his movie.

The Movie: Grease 2, directed by Patricia Birch
Recommendation: H
Reason: I'm not really sure, aside from possibly thinking I hadn't already seen it. Yes, that's right. I've sat through Grease 2 twice.

Hollywood wisdom states that sequels are rarely as good as the original. We don't need to retread that ground, except to say that Grease 2 is the best argument I've ever see for that rule. It does everything wrong that a sequel can do. Most of the original cast, aside from a few sad hangers-on, are gone. The story is exactly the same. Tenuous attempts to connect it to the original come off as stupid (why does Sandi, the AUSTRALIAN GIRL have a cousin from ENGLAND? Could it be that they want another character with an accent?). Multiple attempts were made to recreate scenes from the original movie, instead of setting the sequel apart in any way. Oh, and the director of the second movie is the choreographer from the first one.

Michelle Pfeiffer is unconvincing as the greaser-hanger-on Stephanie. Maxwell Caulfield is probably the best casting decision in the movie, and he still sucks. He's the only thing that makes the movie remotely okay (see the title for the reason, and if you still don't get it, watch Empire Records). The guys playing the T-Birds are...just unbelievable as straight guys. The cameos by characters from the original movie come off as desperate and pathetic-Frenchy and the leader of the Scorpions? Seriously?

I don't want to really get into the singing, the acting, the plot, the shooting, the editing...the only solid part of the movie was, you guessed it, the dancing! The dance sequences were well choreographed, sweeping and ultimately horribly shot and edited. Though they were well done, they were confusing and disruptive to the flow of the film. What a shock.

-160/365 down, 205/365 to go.