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.
Reviews
I usually don't like to watch sequels of classic movies, but this an exception. At first, I was a little uneasy about watching this movie, but my mind was quickly changed in the first 20 minutes of it. I was very impressed. The plot is very interesting and held my interest throughout, the characters are fun, goofy, though serious at times, and the music is killer! Songs like Garden of Eden, Some Like it Hot, and Just a Matter of Time remain in my head and apparently do not want out. What mostly scored with me was that they kept the original actors for Eddie/Joe and Sal. Normally they don't do that, but I was impressed they did. I recommend this movie 100%. You will not be disappointed.
It's a huge shame this movie didn't get more recognition than it did... and that people these days have never heard of Eddie and his cruisers. That would be my 23 year old roommate (as of 2010). To her, these older movies are like finding a diamond in a box of Cracker Jacks.We already knew from the first movie that Eddie lived (shown at the very end). Even though I knew that fact, I found a profound sense of closure from this movie. We now get to see Joe/Eddie wrestle with his obsession for perfection and his love for music... with the music winning this time.Joe plays both the teacher and the student as he comes to terms with his past. I truly enjoyed watching Hilton, the saxophonist, guide Joe along the correct path while Joe, in turn, shows Rick the nuances of good music and truly great music. I think my favorite part is when Joe approaches Sal, to ask for his forgiveness. Or maybe when Hilton realizes who Joe really is? If you didn't see the first movie, a lot of this wouldn't make sense... but, that's how sequels work... right?Both 'Eddie and the Cruisers I & II' are movies that I have watched many times in the past and will watch many more times in the future. The music is both inspiring and haunting, the story is classic self- realization and comeback. I have to admit, at the end of the movie, I found the crowd's acceptance of Joe admitting he was truly Eddie Wilson to be a bit unrealistic.
I am not a sequel watcher as a rule. There have been so few of them that haven't disappointed me. But here I am on a cold and rainy Monday night with not much else on, and having just re-enjoyed Eddie and the Cruisers a few weeks back, I finally took a stab at it. In the first twenty minutes I thought the script was weak and Michael Pare was overacting. But as the film moved on, the story deepened, giving the actors more to work with. I loved that the film was made in Canada with many new actors, maintaining the freshness and originality from the first film. And the music is fabulous. The extra bonus for this New Jersey transplanted Jersey Girl were more great Jersey Shore scenes. Some have said the music and maybe even the story are inspired by Springsteen, and that could be, but he didn't have a movie to wrap around him, and John Cafferty's music is soul-satisfying. Long live Eddie.
You can't possibly have made a worse sequel than this. It relates nothing to the original except for Michael Pare being in it. They totally wrote off Frank, Joann, Kenny, heck even Doc. Like this was going to work without all them in there. Plus the music which was great in the original soundtrack is at best average here. You want a good sequel to the first cruisers soundtrack, get John Cafferty's Tough all over album. Now thats really good. For the people who like this lousy movie, you obviously never saw the original. Which is by far superior in every way to this garbage. This is movie is a total disappointment. But when you get none of the original cast, writers or director, this is what you get. Eddie doesn't live in this bomb. He really drives his car into the drink.
