We check out Sylvester Stallone’s Staying Alive, a now obscure sequel to Saturday Night time Fever starring a jacked John Travolta.
Whereas Sylvester Stallone’s newest sequel Expend4bles could have been a letdown for the Italian Stallion, Awfully Good Films is placing on a scarf and spandex for John Travolta within the 1983 Stallone-directed sequel to 1977’s Saturday Night time Fever: Staying Alive!
After Stallone and Travolta each shot to stardom within the 70s with their respective Oscar-nominated roles of Philly boxer Rocky Balboa and Brooklyn dancer Tony Manero, the 2 determined to mix their underdog powers for a Saturday Night time Fever sequel the place Tony trades within the disco flooring for the Broadway stage, with Stallone rewriting and directing within the wake of Rocky III’s phenomenal success and offering a “sly” cameo as himself. And whereas the follow-up would find yourself as one of many yr’s largest moneymakers, audiences and critics deemed it to be a campy downgrade from the gritty predecessor, as Tony’s Broadway breakout is threatened by his twin love affair together with his new girlfriend Jackie and her British bitch of a co-star Laura whereas the three of them rehearse for the large present.
However although the Bee Gees are again to offer a number of new catchy tunes, a lot of the soundtrack is crammed with 80s synth cheese largely carried out by Sly’s musician brother/Norm MacDonald punchline Frank Stallone, with Stallone’s faux musical he wrote for the third act being essentially the most hilariously inept stage present to hit Broadway till SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK would come alongside. But even with out the downbeat 70s temper of Tony’s final journey, it’s an enchanting time capsule with some incredible dancing that stands as a monument to how large the egos of its director and star had been earlier than the darker days of Cease! Or My Mother Will Shoot and Battlefield Earth. Who knew that the person we’d later know because the “Tulsa King” secretly needed to be a Broadway queen all alongside?