{"id":10561,"date":"2025-01-14T16:58:23","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T21:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=10561"},"modified":"2025-01-14T16:58:23","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T21:58:23","slug":"staying-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/01\/14\/staying-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Staying Alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Staying<\/strong> Alive<\/strong> (1983)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Drama-Musical\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some language, suggestive content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sylvester Stallone\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Sylvester Stallone and Norman Wexler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Frank Stallone and The Bee Gees\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Nick McLean\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 15, 1983 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Travolta, Cynthia Rhodes, Finola Hughes, Steve Inwood, Julie Bovasso, Charles Ward, Norma Donaldson, Jesse Doran, Joyce Hyser, Frank Stallone, Kurtwood Smith.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $65M (US)\/$127M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *<\/p>\n

\u00a0More like Barely Alive. This sweaty, sanitized sequel to Saturday Night Fever is little more than a collection of music videos strung together by the barest of plots. It completely lacks the grit and realism that defined the hit 1977 film about a teenager living in Brooklyn. It replaces them with a lot of flash and dazzle that amounts to nothing. This apparently didn\u2019t matter to audiences who made a $65M hit out of this dumb, clich\u00e9-ridden musical drama about making it as a dancer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0John Travolta reprises his role as Tony Manero, now a Manhattanite working his butt off as a dance instructor and waiter at a club while looking for his first big break in show business. He\u2019s a changed young man since his days as king of the discotheque in Bay Ridge. He no longer drinks, smokes or swears; a decision I suspect motivated more by the studio\u2019s desire for a PG rating than his personal well-being.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The only thing that hasn\u2019t changed is how Tony treats women. He has a nice girlfriend Jackie (Rhodes, Flashdance), a fellow dancer and rock singer, who truly loves him in spite of his dismissive attitude towards her. He becomes smitten by Laura (Hughes, General Hospital), the lead dancer in a show that has Jackie in the chorus. She\u2019s British, gorgeous, icy and way out of Tony\u2019s league. That doesn\u2019t stop him from pursuing her. Much to his shock, it\u2019s she who seduces him, coldly telling him, \u201cEverybody uses everybody\u201d after a one-night stand. Tony continues to chase Laura, leaving Jackie hurt and justifiably angry.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The actual \u201cplot\u201d of Staying<\/strong> Alive<\/strong> is Tony\u2019s desire to be a star on Broadway. He finally gets his shot when he\u2019s cast as one of the dancers in a show called Satan\u2019s Alley that also features Laura in the lead. Not coincidentally, Jackie is in the show too. Tony decides to take a shot at replacing the male lead who just isn\u2019t cutting it. When the temperamental director (Inwood, Fame) gives him the part, Laura is less than pleased.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The finale, of course, is opening night. It has to be seen to be believed and even then, you still might not. The director describes Satan\u2019s Alley as \u201ca man\u2019s descent into hell\u201d. He isn\u2019t kidding. It\u2019s positively ludicrous. It more closely resembles a Las Vegas stage show than a Broadway play. It\u2019s filled with fire, ice, smoke, flashing lights, laser beams and scantily clad dancers. It ends with Tony doing an improvised solo that doesn\u2019t look half as good as his big solo moment in Saturday Night Fever (\u201cYou Should Be Dancing\u201d). Naturally, the audience loves it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Sylvester Stallone (Rocky II, III & IV), Staying<\/strong> Alive<\/strong> is a slickly presented but empty vehicle that doesn\u2019t even come close to recapturing the greatness of the original. SNF gave you a real sense of place and person. Tony Manero was a young Italian-American from the working-class neighborhood of Bay Ridge. We get to see him interact with his typical Italian family and hang out with his immature friends. We get a feel for the neighborhood, the people who inhabit it and their attitudes. More importantly, we understand how it shaped Tony as an individual. We get none of that in Staying<\/strong> Alive<\/strong>. Well, almost none. There is the scene where he returns to his childhood home and apologizes to his mother (Bovasso) for his behavior when he lived there. BTW, what happened to the rest of his family? I\u2019m guessing that his father died since his mother attends his debut show alone.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The original SNF wasn\u2019t just one of the biggest hit movies of 1977; it\u2019s one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time. The two-record set sold over 40 million copies. It stayed on the Billboard charts for 120 weeks, 24 of them at the top. It made big stars of The Bee Gees who performed a total of seven songs. Several tracks- \u201cStayin\u2019 Alive\u201d, \u201cHow Deep Is Your Love\u201d, \u201cNight Fever\u201d and \u201cIf I Can\u2019t Have You\u201d- became number one hits. Others like \u201cDisco Inferno\u201d, \u201cBoogie Shoes\u201d and \u201cMore Than a Woman\u201d got heavy airplay. The soundtrack, which includes five new songs by The Bee Gees, produced only one hit, \u201cFar from Over\u201d by Frank Stallone (Sly\u2019s baby brother). It\u2019s a good song. It\u2019s the only one that\u2019s memorable. The rest are completely forgettable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The only decent performance in Staying<\/strong> Alive<\/strong> comes from Rhodes as Tony\u2019s patient, faithful girlfriend. She stands by her man until she can stand no more. The scene where she breaks up with him is both heartbreaking and satisfying. That she didn\u2019t dump his dumb ass sooner is a testament to the goodness of her heart. Rhodes is an appealing actress and one hell of a great dancer. She gets off the movie\u2019s best line when she replies to Tony\u2019s comment about the way Laura talks with this retort: \u201cAn accent doesn\u2019t make someone intelligent, Tony. If it did, you\u2019d be Einstein.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Hughes, on the other hand, is thoroughly irritating as the queen bitch diva who\u2019s really no better than Tony with how she uses people. She definitely looks the part, but her acting leaves a lot to be desired. She\u2019s never convincing at any point. You can see she\u2019s not putting forth much in the way of effort. It certainly doesn\u2019t help that her character lacks depth. We know nothing about Laura other than she\u2019s rich and manipulative.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Travolta\u2019s career hadn\u2019t fully recovered from the failure of Moment by Moment by the time he made Staying<\/strong> Alive<\/strong>. He didn\u2019t have the same level as box office clout as he once did. He was obviously hoping for a big comeback when he signed on for this lackluster sequel. He tries, but there\u2019s not much he can do with what little the screenplay gives him to work with. His character no longer feels authentic. He\u2019s not all that interesting anymore. Tony is no longer a character; he\u2019s a walking, talking clich\u00e9. So is everybody around him. His whole life is a clich\u00e9. So are the lives of everyone around him. His character arc with the predictable transformation is totally predictable and formulaic.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Paramount\u2019s decision to release a PG version of the R-rated Saturday Night Fever was a brilliant marketing strategy. It enabled Travolta\u2019s underage fans to finally see him strut his stuff in that polyester white suit (which makes a cameo appearance in Staying<\/strong> Alive<\/strong>). That\u2019s the version I first saw. I liked it then, but I was 11. Once I finally saw the uncut version, I never wanted to set eyes on the PG one again. Not wanting to lose the valuable under-17 demographic, the studio insisted on a PG for Staying<\/strong> Alive<\/strong>. Okay, the kiddies can get in, great. The problem is the absence of realism. It feels more like a fairy tale than a continuation of SNF. It was the wrong way to go, creatively speaking.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The only time Staying<\/strong> Alive<\/strong> truly comes to life is in the final scene when Tony struts down Broadway while \u201cStayin\u2019 Alive\u201d plays on the soundtrack. In it, he has the same swagger and confidence as he did at the beginning of the first movie. It\u2019s the only time I felt the sequel\u2019s connection to the original. It doesn\u2019t make up for the lameness of the rest of the movie, but it\u2019s something.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s no two ways about it, Staying<\/strong> Alive<\/strong> is a bad movie. It would be a bad movie even if it wasn\u2019t a sequel to one of the most iconic films of the 70s. However, it\u2019s one of those bad movie that\u2019s fun to watch and snicker at. It\u2019s so wrong-headed and dumb, you have to laugh, especially when it gets to Satan\u2019s Alley. OMG! It\u2019s right up there with Springtime for Hitler from The Producers. I\u2019ll say this for Staying<\/strong> Alive<\/strong>, it\u2019s more watchable than a lot of today\u2019s movies, good or bad. Maybe there is some life in this DOA dud after all.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Staying Alive (1983)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Drama-Musical\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some language, suggestive content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sylvester Stallone\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Sylvester Stallone and Norman Wexler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Frank Stallone and The Bee Gees\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Nick McLean\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 15, 1983 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Travolta, Cynthia Rhodes, Finola Hughes, Steve Inwood, Julie Bovasso, Charles Ward, Norma Donaldson, Jesse Doran, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guilty-pleasures","category-musical"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Staying-Alive-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10561"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10725,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10561\/revisions\/10725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}