Eddie and the Cruisers
This review is a two-fer. Eddie and the Cruisers and Eddie and the Cruisers 2: Eddie Lives!
I haven't watched this movies since the second one came out in 1989, and the first one is a bit older than I remembered it being. I thought it had come out closer to the second, but 1983? Wow! And both movies hold up pretty well.
The first movie, I loved. It follows the rise of the band until the death of two of its members, with the body of the second, Eddie, never being found. It's a bit formulaic, but the formula works and the soundtrack is excellent, though it repeats snippets of its signature song a little more than necessary, I think. Also, seeing as the second movie is all about Eddie being alive - it's in the movie's titles - there's no spoiler when I say that the final shot of the movie is a very-obviously-Eddie watching a broadcast about his band from a sidewalk. I think they should have maybe left that more ambigous, and maybe hid Eddie in the gathered crowd a little better and had him better disguised. But that in no way detracts from the movie. I've just surprised it took so long to get the sequel since his fate was obvious.
I remember completely hating Eddie Lives! when I originally saw it, but it has grown on my quite a bit since 1989. It just seemed to be missing something compared to the first one, and I can't put my finger on it. It's good, and I enjoyed it, though. It follows Eddie in his new life, under an assumed name, getting sucked into music again and forming a new band, all while the studio is promoting the unreleased album, which were a major plot point of the first movie, alongside some mystery tapes which were also recovered. I just don't see the tapes having getting handed over to the same studio who shafted the band in the first movie after the events of the first movie. I think that may be part of what bothered me about the movie. The soundtrack is still good, though not quite as good as the first, and there is still a signature song that gets slightly overused.
Overall, I enjoyed both movies but the first far exceeded the sequel. I will probably add the first to the list of movies that I occassionally rewatch, but I don't think the second was quite good enough to make that cut.
Tags: movies, reviews, eddie-and-the-cruisers, eddie-lives
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