Eddie And The Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!
Any fans of the original 1983 Eddie And The Cruisers knows that that film had a GREAT hook, exploited to its fullest: What if a legendary dead rock star had actually faked his demise and disappeared, and now possibly wanted to come back? For all its positives, the major flaw was the flashback scenes of the Eddie character himself, who came off as a whiny, self-centered prick who essentially screwed his bandmates over with his fake demise. Fortunately, this sequel from 1989 (which takes place within weeks of the original) offers the closure the loyal fans of the original deserved, not to mention give us more insight into Michael Pareâs Eddie as a human being and the reasoning for his seemingly selfish actions. The filmmakers would have done better to have brought back more of the original cast to further that closure, but at least Matthew Laurence as original bass player Sal DâAmato comes back to represent the old crew. Eddie (now calling himself Joe West) works as a union construction worker in Montreal, but when the Cruisers revival mania (started in the first film) begins catching on in his adopted country, he starts to realize that thereâs no way to escape his past, and begins to rebuild his musical career, first by mentoring a punk kid on how to play guitar, then putting together a new band (complete with androgynous keyboard player) to start performing a few gigs in the local area, all the while keeping his true identity a secret. He also hooks up with a beautiful artist and struggles with the eventuality that soon everyone will know who he really is. As said, where the first film portrayed Eddie from the (mostly negative) points of view of the original band members, this time it IS Eddieâs show, and Pare does fine work at portraying his characterâs inner turmoil, eventually confessing to his girlfriend and then having his sax player reveal that he knew it was him all along. While it doesnât redeem Eddie 100% in the viewerâs eyes, at least we finally get his side of the story, and the scene where he seeks out Sal and has an emotional reunion with him is probably the highlight acting-wise of both films. Itâs ironic that for all the scenes of Eddie trying to get his ânew bandâ into playing shape, we NEVER learn what the actual NAME of the new band is, plus the screenplay pulls a cheap stunt towards the end of Eddie very nearly once again taking his proverbial ball and going home, so to speak. That being said, the Eddie sound (once again provided by John Cafferty And The Beaver Brown Band) is pretty good, along with the songs, even if they donât have the impact of On The Dark Side, and ultimately the resolution is satisfying enough to finally allow the whole story to come full circle. Overall, highly recommended for ALL fans of the original film, and not a bad little rock n roll story in its own rightâŚ
8/10