Eddie And The Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
The legend. The music. The man.
In the sixties, Eddie and the cruisers was the hottest band around. But the tragic death of its lead singer broke the band up. Only Eddie is not dead. He works as a carpenter in Montreal. His love of music forces him to create a new band which will have to struggle with its anonymity.
| Michael Paré | Eddie Wilson/Joe West |
| Marina Orsini | Diane Armani |
| Bernie Coulson | Rick Diesel |
| Matthew Laurance | Sal Amato |
| Michael Rhoades | Dave Pagent |
| Anthony Sherwood | Hilton Overstreet |
| Mark Holmes | Quinn Quinley |
| David Matheson | Stewart Fairbanks |
| Paul Markle | Charlie 'Sexy' Tanzie |
| Kate Lynch | Lyndsay |
| Harvey Atkin | Lew Eison |
| Vlasta Vrana | Frank |
| Larry King | TV Talk Show Host |
| Bo Diddley | Legendary Guitarist |
| Martha Quinn | Music Video Hostess |
| Jean-Claude Lord |
5.10 out of 10 (745 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Can you say "dated piece of crap"?
posted on 26 Apr 2009Oh man! Why Lord why? Couldn't the actors scrape enough money to prevent the producers from releasing this. I mean, if they could have raised a couple hundred dollars they could have bought the rights and burned it. Let's face it, a couple hundred dollars is more than they made releasing this thing. The plot? Eddie is back with a moustache that makes Oscar Wilde look straight. He has a lame assortment of guys in his band that play Springsteen-like songs without the musicianship, lyrics, and hooks. There are....you know what...just avoid it, it really sucked. On the other hand, if you want a laugh..come to think of it...it is too boring too have any camp value.
Excellent sequel
posted on 16 Sep 2008I thoroughly enjoyed "Eddie and the Cruisers" but was surprised to learn that there was a sequel made. I first saw "Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives" when it was shown on TV a few years ago. At that time, I tried to buy a copy but was unsuccessful. Later, I finally located and purchased a VHS copy through 'imdb.com.'This movie held me spellbound right up to the end. I particularly enjoy movies that have a good, tender story-line and a happy ending and this movie did not disappoint me. The soundtrack was great.
Awesome!
posted on 12 Jul 2008Having recently aquired a copy and getting to see it again, my original opinion still stands...Eddie and the Cruisers 2 is a great sequel! It has drama, a little mystery, alot of great music and wonderful acting from Michael Pare! He does a great job lip singing to John Cafferty. If you didn't read the credits you would actually think Michael Pare was singing! The only thing I didn't like about this movie was in a flashback, it showed Eddie talking to Sal instead of Frankie. But it was still a great movie. I loved the way Joe/Eddie wrestled with his emotions in choosing what to do about his music and life. Very moving! So, if you want to see a relaxing, feel-good movie, this is the one to watch. Even better if you can watch both the original and Eddie Lives in the same weekend!
Okay sequel
posted on 24 Jun 2008I saw this movie ages ago and would love to see it again after seeing the first one again on VH1. I remember it being an 'okay' sequel to the first one. The majority of the plotlines and acting was decent, it was a touching story, and it was just so great to see what happened to Eddie and everyone after the other movie ended in limbo. But the love interest storyline for Eddie was terrible. It was corny, poorly scripted, and the writing and dialogue was so bad that it was unintentionally funny. It was totally unneccessary and inconsequential to the rest of the movie. Some of the dialogue in the other plotlines was hokey at times as well. I give this film 6/10.
Solid sequel to a great movie
posted on 28 Feb 2008I liked the way the timeline continued in the movie. If you haven't seen Eddie II, you must! The only thing missing was Tom Berenger. Michael Pare' is a great actor and should get more accolades. I don't want to give too much away about this movie, so just go see it!
Great Rock and Roll Movie:
posted on 22 Feb 2008This is a great Rock and Roll movie.I think it is actually better then the first movie,which was basically told the story of the Cruisers through Tom Berenger who was a member of the cruisers and in the first movie Eddie Wilson (Michael Pare) is hardly in it,this Movie is all Micheal Pare.the concert footage is awesome and the soundtrack is awesome as well I play it in my car.The music is better then the first film the songs rock more and are better written.I wish they would have done a third film after this one where it has Eddie after they find out he is alive they do the third film where it goes around and they try to reunite the cruisers. but it was seven years between the first film and this sequel.which was too long of a wait.But if you want to watch a a great music film with great songs and great performances even though they play basically the same song a couple times and parts of others it's a great film that is entertaining and fun.I recommend it and if you've seen the first one you have to see this one and you might agree it is better.
Great Fun!
posted on 25 Sep 2007I hadn't seen this film since I had viewed it on video in 1990.When I saw a copy for $1 at Borders I had to buy it.Michael Pare as West/Wilson is just perfect and the John Cafferty/Beaver Brown Band deliver an even better soundtrack than the first film.Again, Cafferty's voice emanating from Pare's body is perfect.The ending is great, as is the supporting cast.I liked it better that the first one!
Rock And Roll IS Dead...
posted on 29 Mar 2007Potential Spoilers.Morose Eddie's back! - "in disguise" as morose Joe West, assembling another band of hokey bandguy stereotypes and thrilling us with another cache of songs which you might mistake for Macy's muzak reel, or Frank Stallone's songs in "Stayin' Alive".Telltale signs that this is an eighties movie: the keyboardist is a dork and has a DX-7; people clap in time with the music a lot; unnecessary levels of reverb on the lead vocal; Average White Boy drum fills; rock guys wear tourniquet jeans and studded belts; the band sounds exactly like Bruce Springsteen, except that they're MUCH more insipid, bland and boring.Michael Pare reprises his ineffectual role as Eddie Wilson, whose recorded works are enjoying a renaissance in the boring-music-buying community. How his music ever got commercially promulgated is a mystery in itself (which is never explained), and there is absolutely no marketing incentive to the plot fabrication of a major label offering a quarter-mil to anyone providing info on who the SESSION PLAYERS are on these alleged Eddie tapes. Suspension of disbelief is an understatement. To fully enjoy this movie, one requires a full frontal lobotomy, no exposure to the last fifty years of rock and roll and a golf club delivered at strategic intervals to the scrotum.A resurgence of media interest in the Eddie & The Cruisers entity would mean that everyone in the nation with a TV or radio would be exposed to Eddie Wilson - yet no one can recognize this mourning-faced Jersey dropout with the overdeveloped triceps - that is, not until he shaves his mustache off! Yes, that's right - Eddie graduated from the same School Of Disguise as Clark Kent: It wasn't just the fact that he was wearing a mustache - it was the WAY he was wearing it. And he also disguised his voice, from that of dopey Jersey dropout to that of dopey Jersey dropout. Pure Genius!So Eddie and his insipid guitarist start recruiting other musicians who couldn't care less about actually investigating this band that he is asking them to join. Apparently, the correct answer to: "What type of music do you play?" is, "The RIGHT type." One street-cred handshake later and these nonces are being told off in Eddie's basement for playing like wooftas.Now here is ample proof that the film-makers have NEVER seen a live band, NEVER been around musicians, NEVER been in charge of producing recorded music in their uneducated lives: If you make Eddie criticize the drummer for "racing", then by god! - make the drummer RACE - what kind of monkey director would insert a soundtrack as TIGHT as this and then have the lead character accuse the drummer of getting ahead of the band? Eddie is constantly accusing the band of things they haven't got the imagination, talent or acting chops not to do, such as, "Let's get back in the pocket!" - "in the pocket" being a musician's slang term that is inexplicable - either you viscerally apprehend what "being in the pocket" is - or you don't - and it's clear the film-makers DON'T, for this soundtrack sounded as tight as the proverbial nun's part-that-is-tight, meaning - it was ALREADY "in the pocket" before Eddie even accused them of not being there. Not that their "pocket" was all that groove-oriented - we're talking the Average White Boy's pocket, which is about as far away from a REAL musician's pocket as Jersey is from Tokyo. But Eddie ain't talking REAL Musician's pocket - we find he's only talking White Boy Pocket anyway, for when they eventually enter the arena, they're playing EXACTLY THE SAME as they did when he was befouling their names. And apparently, this is good enough to elicit smiles and bandguy camaraderie from Eddie.Ultimately, there was no need to make varying soundtrack mixes because this movie's demographic was, in fact, Average White Boys and their bangled dates with bouffed hair and furious-pink vinyl skirts with the over-sized belts that don't go through any loops.And how dare Eddie demean his bandmates so openly? How much is he paying them to shut up and eat his derision? The way the movie plays out, it's implied that these donks are doing it "for fun". Money is never ever mentioned. And Eddie/Joe is always shying away from any schemes which GuitaRetard keeps cooking up, to try to garner income - he even punches out The Record Label Guy at the end - he's pathologically afraid of success! A musician who keeps insisting that "the band isn't ready" is only trying to find excuses not to create forward momentum.I've actually done paid sessions with band leaders like Eddie, who turn down paying gigs, keep re-arranging songs, never record because they're never satisfied with the arrangements - and it's not because they're musical geniuses, it's because they're Sociopaths! They're paying you to be there to assuage their insecure egos - and that's Eddie all over.The film-makers never give us any indication of what makes Eddie good, for he's a mundane rhythm guitarist (although the saxophonist describes him like he was Mark Knopfler: "Nobody can disguise the way they play! I recognized your Playing, man!"); he's an average shouter/singer (doing great blowfish impressions when he should be lip-synching); his songs: Springsteen Lite with lyrics as enthralling as striping a master tape with time code; his personality: neurotic, misogynistic, narcissistic, self-delusional - tell me again why we should empathize with this nut? Even if you take away all the technical musical deficiencies, Eddie is still just a gym geek with no friends. Are the film-makers implying that that banal elevator muzak soundtrack is so good that people will go to these idiotic lengths to pander to this guy?Now where'd I put my furious-pink vinyl skirt?
Reliving the past w/ Eddie & the Cruisers
posted on 17 Dec 2006Wow, what can I say. This movie brings back so many memories for me, having been "raised" at the Jersey shore during the summer months when I was 2 yrs. old, all the way through my teen years. Being a musician, I can appreciate where "Eddie" wanted to go with his life and with his music. When the Beach Boys came out, they had that California sound. Eddie's music was so much more. The music and lyrics were thought provoking, fun, and at times emotional with everything coming from the heart. I was 16 yrs. old when I first stepped into Tony Marts in Somers Pt, N.J. which was right before you went over the ninth st. bridge into Ocean City. The club was fantastic and the movie portrayed to a tee what it was like to be young, innocent and yet vulnerable to a world that was changing too fast for us all back in the 60's. For me, even though it's just a movie, it's what really took place down the shore, and for that, thank you for the memories & for taking me back to atime I never want to forget . If anyone is familiar w/ Tony Marts and spent time in Somers Pt. back in '69, please contact me. Thanks, Dwight
Beyond Terrible...
posted on 29 Nov 2006The first one is a cult classic. Which i never see on TV for some reason. This one is probably the worse sequel i have ever watched. They even changed some scenes from the original, like the one on the beach where Eddie is talking to wordman, and in the original it was Tom Berenger, in this one it was Sal. I painfully had to watch this entire movie just to see where it went. Well it went right off the Driscoll bridge is where it went. They should of just left the original alone. Plus how could you do a sequel without Wordman and Joann. If your a fan on the first one and you are kicking around in your head to rent this one, do yourself a favor and find something else. Leave Eddie to your imagination.
Watching the filth of failure: Must scrub it off... Ughh... Must wash... Get clean...
posted on 02 Nov 2006This movie should be required watching for anyone in the motion picture business on how NOT to make a sequel. The first movie was fine... decent acting, a lot of popular names, a suspenseful script, and good music. The second one ruined it all. I can't even stand to watch the first one anymore; the mystery is spoiled. The sequel's script could have been written by a fifteen-year-old. The romantic interest is cheap filler. The acting was just painful to watch. The cinematography was laughable. I was embarrassed for the blues legends who had cameos. I wonder if the sequel was written by someone who never even saw the original??
Does no justice to the original
posted on 11 Jul 2006This film was the result of nearly six years of politicking after the release of the original Eddie and the Cruisers. A follow-up had been promised, but several cast principals and others weren't interested in filming a sequel. As a result, the character of Frank Ridgeway, played by Tom Berenger, was written out of the second script so completely that even the flashback scenes showing significant portions of the first film showed not Frank, but Sal Amato (Matthew Laurance), whose character was quite different from Frank's; in fact, he was generally so jealous of Frank's recently-acquired songwriting partnership with his old friend, Eddie, that he would have preferred Frank had never come along. For fans of the original film, seeing him in Frank's role as well as his own was simply not believable.
Eddie Lives!!
posted on 18 May 2006Eddie and The Cruiers came out in 1983, and seemed to be pretty successful. six years later, came the sequel, and from what the ratings on IMDb tell me that it was not that great. Personally, I find it to be better than the first, well, actually, I shouldn't say that, cause both the films are different. The original film was more based on a story telling on what happened before Eddie Wilson had supposedly died. Eddie And The Cruisers 2: Eddie Lives is more about an emotional version of Eddie living as a secret to the world for the past twenty years. Eddie or I should say Joe West witnesses all the publicity of the original Eddie and The Cruisers and feels emotional over everything. "Its the point, nobody's forgotten, I've seen on every damn, damn radio/television. Its making me crazy, they let me better dead than alive." Joe West said.As he lives his life a secret, he jams with a few people and one guy in particular, Hilton Overstreet, who hears him play and realizes its Eddie Wilson. Now, as the film goes on he starts to grow into being himself, known as Eddie Wilson and chooses to reveal himself to the world.I personally found this one more emotional than the first, because it shows Eddie Wilson's life as a secret and as he starts to come out of his shell, he becomes stronger. There was a scene in the movie where he decides to unshroud himself and reveals himself to Sal. So many gave this movie not too good of a mark, probably because to them the first was better, but I give this a GREAT mark, even though I cant compare them personally.
I loved it!!!
posted on 04 Nov 2005What a fun movie to watch in these times when everything else is total chaos. My husband and I watched both of them in two weeks after the person who recommended mailed me #2. My other brother sent me the sound track for both of these movies! I have played it every day sense then. I would love Eddie and the Cruisers 3. It so reminds us of the innocent times when we went to hear bands whose music we could sing to. When dancing at a local hangout, and the bands where you cheered on to be successful. That actually played the music versus having the sounds made by machines! This is one set of movies I will watch again and again. I don't care whose music it sounded like, it reminds us all of more fun times. I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!1
An OK movie, but the soundtrack is what makes it worth watching.
posted on 30 Aug 2005I first watched this movie on cable in the early 1990's. I was watering a neighbors indoor plants while she was on vacation. I walked into her living room, turned on the TV and started watering the plants. While I was going from plant to plant, I heard the sound of a voice and saxophone that just floored me, and drew me back into the living room.The movie/story is OK. It's kind of fun to watch, but has a lot to be desired. The characters are not very well rounded and the story is not very well written. Michael Pare is great in this.But what makes this movie is the music. The music is compelling and very well done. Garden Of Eden, alone, is fantastic.I'm hoping that by the time I get back to the NE, John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band will still be playing venues, and that I will finally get to see them.
Eddie and the Cruisers II, Eddie Lives
posted on 11 Apr 2005I've seen both "EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS" and "EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS II, EDDIE LIVES" and I rather enjoyed them both. They weren't like ordinary movies that have a beginning, a middle and an end. It was like just being there. You enjoy the characters and the music, at least I did. I think that when an actor takes a role its because he's not expecting the role to help him with his career, but that he can help the role and Michael Pare did exactly that. The moment I can I will be purchasing the movies because they give me an escape of my everyday life. When I watch a movie I don't want to think about what is the character going to do now, or will he get the girl. I just want to watch a movie and not think about the climax of the movie. These movies do just that, I can have a glass of wine or a can of Pepsi and just relax and enjoy.
Eddie and the cruisers 2
posted on 15 Nov 2004I actually loved the movie I thought that it gave a little more insight as to what really happened to him from the nd of the first movie when every one had thought he was dead. I mean come on if know one could tell that it was him at the end of the movie walking away from the front of a TV store after watching the news about his on accident they weren't paying attention to well. The first movie I though was done very well and I loved that one too but at some parts the movie did get very confusing though. How ever I thought that both movies were excellent heck the first one I liked so much that I had to go and try and find a tape or cd of the music that was played in the movie. My all time favorite song that was sung in the first movie and on the tape is with out a doubt the called On The Dark Side. Every time I listen to that song it reminded me of the movie and had me wondering as to whether or not if they were going to be coming out with a follow up movie. It's funny though I never heard anything about a sequel to the movie I only found out about it believe it or not just today when I saw it for the first time this afternoon on Jan. 31, 2006 my jaw hit the floor and my eyes bugged out and I was like no way I didn't know the made a second movie. Now that I've seen this movie it has me thinking and wondering if they have any music from this movie in the record stores because I liked a lot of the songs that they played in this second movie as well and wanna get the tape or cd too. Eddie and the cruisers rock #1 in my book.
Loved it from start to finish - great music!
posted on 02 May 2009Saw the 2 movies again on TV recently (saw them first about 10 years ago) and loved them just as much as the first time around, probably more. "Eddie Lives" is my favorite though - it has great music from start to finish, John Cafferty's voice is marvellous and he has come up with some truly good songs, songs that sound as good today as ten years ago when I bought the soundtrack. The movie has a touching story line and a hunk of a lead in Michael Pare. The final 'huge crowd' scenes are amazing - you wonder how they managed to get the crowd go "Eddie, Eddie!!" Have now bought the movie on DVD and watch it whenever I need a'feel good' movie.