Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! (1989)

Dreadfully Boring

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

A Montreal construction worker joins a band and turns out to be a long-lost rock star from 1960s New Jersey - none other than Eddie Wilson (Michael Pare), who mysteriously disappeared after a road accident.This film picks up where the first left off, almost immediately, though we get very few of the same actors. The most important (Michael Pare) is here, and hides himself very effectively under that mustache. Seriously, that is all it takes to completely hide Wilson's identity and make him a Canadian in the 1980s.Apparently some folks at the time gave this a "worst film" nomination (though not the folks at the Razzies). That is just blasphemy. In some ways, this is just as good as the first film and really reinvents the character of Eddie Wilson for a new generation. He blends in seamlessly with a group of musicians who might rather be playing Mozart or Iron Maiden.Unfortunately, like the first film, we get a bare boned edition on the Shout Factory blu-ray. No Michael Pare commentary, or anything else to speak of. Fans of the cult classic will be happy to get the film on BD (presumably with improved picture and sound), but will not find much else to feed their hunger.

Eddie and the Cruisers 2 Eddie Lives was a pleasant surprise. To me the film was about love. Eddie loves music but was hurt he became scared so that one night in 1963 Eddie's car blew a tire and went over a guardrail and Eddie escaped he saw this as his chance to escape to get out of a life that had spun out of control. He split and just left everyone and everything behind and in the process hurt a lot of people. But Eddie also created a legend. Now Eddie and the Cruisers are enjoying a revival and Eddie is tortured he's living as a construction worker named Joe West and when he sees a band with the same drive he once had struggling he steps in to help and in the process creates a whole new band.He begins to create music again and this time is the added fear that he'll be found out. The movie is good from start to finish and the soundtrack is superb. This one got a bad reception when it should never have and is good enough to stand beside that first movie. This movie is pure entertainment dynamite from start to finish.

An example of how not to do a sequel man.Its obvious that this script was thrown together at the last minute man. The dialogue is laughable man, and the direction is as well man.The original had some depth to it and a dark, mysterious aura. The sequel, not so much.The storyline is ridiculous. It takes place right where the first one left off. Eddie (or Joe if you will), who resides in Canada, still has his musical passion but is afraid of revealing himself as the true Eddie Wilson. To make matters worse, the last album he recorded has been released 20 years after he 'died', and Eddie Wilson is once again a hot topic in the music world. Eddie ends up in a bar one night and runs into some musicians, a sax player who reminds him of Wendell from the first movie, and a young (and highly annoying) guitarist. Eddie compliments the sax player and criticizes the guitarist and thus begins the makings of a new band. For some reason the next half hour of the movie is basically the young guitarist stalking and harassing Eddie about becoming a better musician. It's laughable how the kid always knows where Eddie is. He somehow knows he is a construction worker and at what site he is working. He knows he is at an art show with the boring love interest. He knows Eddie is at a roller skating rink, and so on. The scripted dialogue between the two goes something like this, "Hey man, leave me alone." "Come on man, I wanna learn." They eventually put a band together, but Eddie never believes they are ready to perform. "Come on man, we want to play." "No! We aren't ready man." After another half hour of bickering, the sax player (a Billy Dee Williams clone by the way) finally reveals he knows who Eddie is. This of course brings the band closer and Eddie caves in about performing.After all the build up of the great Eddie Wilson throughout the film, the big reveal at the end is less than climactic. The only hold over character from the first movie is Sal. I guess all the others knew better. There is a secondary story about a 'mystery' tape with Eddie performing on it, but surprisingly, it isn't needed.The music is okay. It does take up half of the movie (it helps alleviate the pain of the dialogue man) and I really liked the song played during the opening credits.Stick with the original, unless you really need a sip of nostalgia.

The music in EATC II is great, but the continuity between the two movies leave much to be desired. The second movie leaves out the vital Frank Ridgeway character entirely without so much as mentioning him - a case of revisionist history. In the second movie,in a flashback, Eddie utters the words "Words and music..." and it is Sal to whom he is speaking. But in the original movie, he was saying those words to Frank "Word Man" Ridgeway (played by Tom Barringer). Eddie's girlfriend Joanne Carlino is likewise left out. The flashback scene with Bo Diddly seems as if it could have been an outtake of the first movie (comments, anyone?). In summary, II is worth watching (and hearing) for its great, great music, but as a movie, it does serious violence to the marvelous first movie.