After Grease became a massive smash in 1978, did a sequel become inevitable? One would assume so, but given that the original wrapped up the characters’ stories with a fairly neat little bow, it seemed difficult to develop a logical story for Danny, Sandy and company.

By 1982, Paramount found an answer: move on without most of the original cast! Thus Grease 2 took us back to Rydell High for more musical adventures.

Set in 1961, Stephanie Zinone (Michelle Pfeiffer) leads a girl gang called the Pink Ladies, and she dates her counterpart Johnny Nogarelli (Adrian Zmed), the head member of the boy gang the T-Birds.

However, they split up, and a new romantic interest appears on Stephanie’s horizon when Michael Carrington (Maxwell Caulfield) – the straight-laced cousin of the original film’s good girl Sandy – enters the scene. Smitten with Stephanie, Michael needs to up his game and become the bad boy she desires.

Huh – that sounds kind of familiar, doesn’t it? Not unlike the plot to the 1978 movie but with gender reversal, doesn’t it?

Probably because that essentially becomes what we see with Grease 2. It brings a rehash of the prior flick but with a nice boy and a tough girl rather than an innocent girl and a rough boy.

Perhaps the redundant feel of this plot would bother less if Grease 2 did anything interesting with it. Alas, the film just seems like a wholly uninspired semi-remake.

“Plot” should appear in quotes since Grease 2 comes more with themes than actual story beats. Sure, we follow the Michael/Stephanie narrative, but those moments feel less important here than the Sandy/Danny tale in the prior movie.

Instead, Grease 2 burdens itself with a mix of other subplots that feel like padding. Granted, the original came with more than a few semi-unnecessary detours as well, but at least those felt more connected to the main Danny/Sandy thread.

Here we wind up with lots of scenes that seem tangential at best and irrelevant at worst. For instance, whereas the “big dance” in Grease mostly existed as an excuse for a long production number, it still advanced the Danny/Sandy relationship and added complications.

Grease 2 uses a talent show for similar purposes, but it comes across as largely irrelevant to any true narrative momentum. It also seems perplexing in terms of the characters, as it feels bizarre that the tough Pink Ladies would decide to put on a cutesy holiday-themed song and dance number.

Little about Grease 2 makes a lick of sense, what with thin characters as well as scenes that clearly exist for Big Production Numbers and nothing else. Why do the characters love to bowl? So we can get a bizarre “showstopper” set at an alley, of course!

Hoo boy does Grease 2 love its borderline insane musical sequences. We get cringy material like a smirking song in Science about the reproduction of flowers, and poor Pfeiffer looks ready to quit Hollywood when stuck with the embarrassing “Cool Rider” tune.

Whereas the original film came with a slew of memorable songs, the tracks in Grease 2 range from mediocre to yikes, with more on the latter side. Sometimes it feels like the composers set out to write the worst possible songs – and they succeeded.

Try as I might, I can’t find a single redeeming factor with Grease 2. An embarrassment for all involved, it presents a total catastrophe.

Grease 2 appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Expect an inconsistent presentation.

The biggest concern came from the use of noise reduction, as this impacted sharpness. Many shots – mainly interiors – came across as smoothed-out and lacked fine detail.

This led to shiny complexions and a generally unnatural feel. I’ve certainly seen worse uses of noise reduction, and daylight exteriors held up better, but the image’s grain loss damaged a lot of shots.

Outside of this erratic definition, the image worked pretty nicely, and no issues with jagged edges or moiré effects materialized. Print flaws became absent.

Grease 2 opted for a palette that leaned toward fairly natural tones. The Blu-ray represented the colors with appealing impact and vivacity.

Blacks came across as deep – if occasionally a little crushed - while shadows felt appropriate. Without the use of noise reduction, this would’ve been a strong image, but as it stood, I thought it fell into “C+” territory.

I felt more impressed by the pretty decent Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix of Grease 2. Though not memorable, the 5.1 track opened up moderately well.

Most of this came from music, which used the speakers to broaden in a satisfying manner. Some effects – like at the bowling alley or with vehicles – also moved around the spectrum in a gentle but moderately involving way.

Audio quality seemed fine for its vintage, with speech that came across as mostly natural and without edginess. Effects appeared a bit flat but they showed reasonable range and accuracy.

The movie’s score and songs fared best, as they showed appealing fidelity and oomph. This was a pretty pleasing mix for a movie from 1982.

How did the Blu-ray compare to the DVD version? The lossless audio showed a bit more range, though its era-related limitations meant it didn’t dazzle.

Even with the overuse of noise reduction, the Blu-ray became an obvious improvement over the DVD. It showed superior colors, sharpness and blacks while it lacked print flaws. Though the Blu-ray could use a new transfer, at least it topped the iffy DVD.

No extras appear here – not even a trailer. It does come in a steelbook package, though – yay?

Note that Grease 2 originally hit Blu-ray as part of a three-film “Grease Collection” in 2018. This disc simply reissues that platter, though it marks the movie’s first solo release on BD.

One of the most unnecessary sequels of all time, Grease 2 offers little more than a tedious, tacky remake of the original. Nothing here works, as not even a young Michelle Pfeiffer can save this stinker. The Blu-ray offers pretty good audio along with erratic visuals and no bonus materials. Even the most diehard Grease fans should avoid this stinker.

To rate this film, visit the DVD review of GREASE 2