Worst of the Worst movie reviews - Staying Alive
Every week I’ll be watching the worst rated movies on Rotten Tomatoes so you don’t have to. I’ll be doing one every week until the final issue where I’ll review the worst movie ever made (according to a random article I found). What are my qualifications you ask? I took Introduction to Media Studies in my first year and got a B average, so I think I know what I’m talking about. I’m going to watch each of these movies and decide whether it is rightfully on the worst movies of all-time list, based on my expert opinion.
Worst of the Worst: Staying Alive (1983)
This week for Worst of the Worst we have yet another sequel, and weirdly another movie starring John Travolta. Staying Alive is the (not) critically acclaimed sequel of Saturday Night Fever. To put it into perspective, the first movie has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 82%. The sequel, like all movies I’ll be reviewing for this column, has a 0%. A fall from grace would be an understatement to describe this franchise, I think it would be more accurate to call it a plummet straight to hell. I’m beginning to think that John Travolta is the Chris Pratt of the 80s, getting chucked in a movie to make it popular and flog that dead horse for all it's worth.
Staying Alive is about as bad as it gets, I’m not a fan of musicals as a general rule. I find them a bit cringey (I’m looking at you, Cats). However, Saturday Night Fever was pretty good, with enough plot to justify the music and fun 80s outfits. Staying Alive, however, is just so bad that the musical element isn’t even the part that pissed me off the most. It is pretty hilarious and dated, so if you want a good laugh during a study break, please YouTube ‘Staying Alive Opening Scene’ it’s hilarious.
It has kind of a romcom feel to it, the plot is all very boy wants girl, girl says no, boy convinces girl. It’s predictable and definitely did not keep my attention. The songs are not nearly as iconic as you’d expect from a movie starring Danny Zuko himself, but there are a few bangers thrown in there.
The redeeming quality for this film is almost definitely the hair styles, they’re straight up delightful. You could probably see the exact outfits and hair from this movie, browsing Cuba Mall on a sunny Saturday. I know I’m not the target market for this film, because I was born nearly two decades after it came out, however I think if I watched it with my mum, she would feel very nostalgic. The legwarmers, the headbands and the smoking inside are probably quite nostalgic to our parents.
This movie definitely deserves to be on the Worst of the Worst, mostly because they insisted on making a sequel to a film that had already seen major success. You can’t make a good movie and then just make a sequel and assume it will do just as well, with the exception of Shrek.