The Sylvester Stallone movie Roger Ebert hated: “It has to be seen to be believed”
When you think of Sylvester Stallone, you think of a tough guy who isn’t afraid to fight, harnessing ripped muscles and a snarl. He rose to prominence as the star of Rocky, which he also wrote, before eventually directing several sequels to the popular boxing movie, becoming best known for playing the hard-working sportsman. He then wrote and starred in the Rambo series, embodying another aggressive and dedicated protagonist.
Yet, Stallone has also ventured into other genres, and in 1983, he directed a sequel to one of the 1970s’ most popular movies – Saturday Night Fever. Staying Alive, starring John Travolta as Tony Manero, hoped to cash in on the success that its predecessor received in bulk, but sadly, Stallone’s movie was critically derided.
Roger Ebert, the notoriously opinionated film critic, didn’t hold back when it came to reviewing the movie, awarding it just one out of four stars. That might sound harsh, but Ebert wasn’t the only person who absolutely detested the movie – it remains one of the most negatively reviewed films of the era, with hardly any critics finding at least something small to say about it that wasn’t wholly negative.
Starting off his review, Ebert wrote, “Staying Alive is a big disappointment. This sequel to the gutsy, electric Saturday Night Fever is a slick, commercial cinematic jukebox, a series of self-contained song-and-dance sequences that could be cut apart and played forever on MTV – which is probably what will happen. Like Flashdance, it isn’t really a movie at all, but an endless series of musical interludes between dramatic scenes that aren’t there. It’s not even as good as Flashdance, but it may appeal to the same audience; it’s a Walkman for the eyes.”
As you can tell from the introduction of his Staying Alive review, Ebert liked Saturday Night Fever, giving it a full four out of four star review. It was a tale of desperation to escape and make a better life for oneself, which Travolta portrayed effortlessly as he moved his hips and commanded the dancefloor – and the audience. With Staying Alive, Stallone turned an inspiring story into a cash grab.
Ebert called it “the first bad movie” that Stallone has made, adding, “He remembers all the moves from his Rocky plots, but he leaves out the heart – and, even worse, he leaves out the characters.”
He continued, “The characters are clichés, their lives are clichés and God knows their dialogue is clichés. The big musical climaxes are interrupted only long enough for people to shout prepackaged emotional countercharges at each other. There is little attempt to approximate human speech.”
Staying Alive was somehow a box-office hit, probably because people were intrigued to see what Tony was up to several years after the success of the first movie. It became the highest-grossing opening weekend for a musical movie in cinema history, but that still didn’t mean it was worth watching.
Ebert was incredibly disappointed. “What I really missed in Staying Alive was the sense of reality in Saturday Night Fever – the sense that Tony came from someplace and was somebody particular. There’s no old neighbourhood, no vulgar showdowns with his family (he apologises to his mother for his ‘attitude’!) and no Brooklyn eccentricity. Tony’s world has been cloned into a backstage musical. And not a good one.”
