Even though one movie is clearly better than the other, it's great to have them together on the same disc.įor more information on this title, please visit the Shout! Factory website.Įddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives - 1/2 out of fourīuy a copy of my book, "Straight-Up Blatant: Musings From The Aisle Seat," on sale now at ! Paperback and Kindle editions also available at Amazon.While earnest enough, Eddie and the Cruisers is dated in every possible way. Eddie and the Cruisers has the theatrical trailer as a bonus feature, while Eddie Lives! has a trailer and several vintage interviews with record company people. It's no wonder the film was a colossal flop.īoth movies look as good on Blu-ray as possible, given their low budgets. Pare is okay as Eddie, but he's surrounded by actors who aren't especially well-cast. For starters, we're asked to believe that this guy, whose songs were a throwback to the 1950s, is a big deal in the late '80s, a time when Guns N Roses were the top rock act of the day. He starts up a new band that begins to get attention, but his hard-driving ways threaten to derail all comeback plans.Įddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! again features some decent tunes, but the story is heavy-handed and unconvincing. When a record company releases his long-lost album to great acclaim, he finds that it's difficult to resist the pull of the spotlight one more time. Pare returns as Eddie, who is, in fact, alive and living in Canada under an assumed name. The problem is that the mystery is gone in the follow-up. Eddie Lives! had a dismal gross of $536,508, and it was pulled from theaters after only a week. Apparently, the Scotti Brothers – famous record company execs at the time – thought there was still some life left in the premise.
Why does the Ellen Barkin character recede into the background, though?Įddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! - In August of 1989, a sequel was released. This isn't a brilliant film by any stretch of the imagination, although it does have a way of sucking you in with its take on rock-and-roll immortality. The Is he or isn't he alive? plot offers some fun, and of course the music is great. While it's sometimes melodramatic, with a few stiff performances, Eddie and the Cruisers really understands the mythic pull of rock stars, especially those who die too young. Her questions cause him to flash back to memories of playing in the band and dealing with Eddie's mercurial nature.Įddie is something of an enigma in his own movie, but that's kind of the point. She sets out to find answers, starting with Eddie's keyboard player/lyricist, played by Tom Berenger. Ellen Barkin plays a reporter who thinks he might have faked his own death. Both pictures are on a new double feature Blu-ray from Shout! Factory.Įddie and the Cruisers - The original, directed by Martin Davidson, concerns a beloved rocker named Eddie Wilson (Michael Pare) who drove his car off a bridge at the height of his fame.
Five years later, Eddie and the Cruisers spawned a too-late sequel, subtitled Eddie Lives!. The movie's theme, “On the Dark Side,” remains one of those tunes that pretty much everyone knows. The soundtrack of songs performed by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band suddenly started selling, too. This was one of the earliest cases of a film getting a second life through non-theatrical outlets. Not until a year later, when the film hit VHS and began popping up on cable, did it achieve popularity.
In fact, it was a massive flop, having earned a little under $5 million total when it was released in 1983. Looking back, most people remember it as being a hit. Eddie and the Cruisers is a fascinating case study of cinema in the 1980s.