Movie · 1983 · Drama, Music, Romance · 1h 36m · PG · English
Curator score: 0.1/10 (19.1K ratings)
Tony Manero knows the old days are over. But nobody's gonna tell him he can't feel that good again.
Overview
It's five years later and Tony Manero's Saturday Night Fever is still burning. Now he's strutting toward his biggest challenger yet - making it as a dancer on the Broadway stage.
Ratings
Curator score: 0.1/10
IMDb: 4.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 3%
Metacritic: 24
TMDB: 5.8/10
Director
Sylvester Stallone
Production
Paramount Pictures, Robert Stigwood Organization, Cinema Group Ventures
Cast
John Travolta, Cynthia Rhodes, Finola Hughes, Steve Inwood, Julie Bovasso, Charles Ward, Steve Bickford, Patrick Brady, Norma Donaldson, Jesse Doran, Joyce Hyser, Deborah Jenssen, Robert Martini, Sarah M. Miles, Tony Munafo, Susan Olar, Cindy Perlman, Ross St. Phillip, Kurtwood Smith, Frank Stallone Jr.
Curator Review
Verdict
A notorious, overlong sequel that replaces the grit of the original with glossy Broadway melodrama, repetitive montages, and awkward character work. It has a few cult-movie pleasures for viewers who enjoy camp, excess, or accidental comedy, but as a drama it’s mostly flat and frustrating.
Best for
fans of infamous sequels and cult curiosities
viewers who enjoy campy 80s excess
people interested in dance movies as a time capsule
audiences curious about Sylvester Stallone’s strangest directing choices
Skip if
you want a sincere or emotionally grounded sequel
you dislike repetitive musical numbers and montage-heavy storytelling
you need strong dialogue or nuanced characters
you are looking for a polished dance film with real romantic chemistry
Overview
Staying Alive is one of those sequels that feels less like a continuation than a bizarre alternate-universe remix. It keeps Tony Manero’s swagger but drains away much of the raw social texture that made the original matter, replacing it with Broadway ambition, glossy production numbers, and a tone that often plays unintentionally funny. The result is a movie that is hard to admire on its own terms, even when it is impossible to ignore.
Worth noting
Travolta commits fully, and the choreography has moments of real spectacle, but the film’s emotional logic is thin. The romance is awkward, the dialogue is blunt to the point of absurdity, and the movie keeps returning to the same beats with very little escalation. It can be fascinating as a cultural artifact of early-80s masculinity, showbiz aspiration, and sequel opportunism, but that fascination is not the same thing as pleasure.
Bottom line
For viewers who like their bad movies flamboyant and sincere, there is enough here to provoke laughter, disbelief, and the occasional accidental hook. For everyone else, it is a long strut to nowhere.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Ralph (0.5★) · 398 likes
My long awaited viewing of the infamous sequel to “Saturday Night Fever”, starring Travolta, and it was hilariously awful. “Staying Alive” was released 6 years after the first film, with almost none of the original cast returning aside from Travolta and Julie Bovasso. This movie had awful dialogue, intercut with endless musical interludes. The dance choreography was laughable, the story is basic, with extremely cliche and flat characters and bad performances across the board.
The film’s directed by Sylvester Stallone. Interestingly… more
Patrick Willems (2★) · 274 likes
There are SO MANY Frank Stallone songs in this movie
Matt Singer (2.5★) · 232 likes
I decided to watch a horror movie for Halloween.
Ben Hibburd (4★) · 189 likes
I see that this film has been thoroughly ridiculed, and I must say that the half-star reviews are unfair. Film is all about perspective, and this film has been badly misunderstood. "Staying Alive," in my opinion, is only a couple of scenes short of being a psychological horror film. I'm not kidding. The long, emotionless stares that Travolta shoots throughout this film as he creepily badgers and pesters a dancer into a non-reciprocal relationship are a natural progression of his… more I see that this film has been thoroughly ridiculed, and I must say that the half-star reviews are unfair. Film is all about perspective, and this film has been badly misunderstood. "Staying Alive," in my opinion, is only a couple of scenes short of being a psychological horror film. I'm not kidding. The long, emotionless stares that Travolta shoots throughout this film as he creepily badgers and pesters a dancer into a non-reciprocal relationship are a natural progression of his… more
Justin LaLiberty (3.5★) · 123 likes
provides an answer to the age old question: what if Sylvester Stallone directed Showgirls?