I Repeat: Grease 2 Is Not Without Merit

While waiting for the effects of my Advil PM to kick in on my red-eye flight back to New York last night, I watched Grease 2 without knitting or doing anything else. I haven't seen it since I was a kid and enjoyed the movie as an old lady. Here are some points I think you should consider:

• Grease 2 is actually directed by a woman. How many of those can you name? Patricia Birch has also directed some of Cyndi Lauper's videos.
• Song: "Let's Do It For Our Country," during which Louis DiMucci tries to score with Sharon Cooper in a nuclear fallout shelter. Something I recommend.
• Weirdly working class, sort of ethnic names: Stephanie Zinone, Paulette & Delores Repchuck, Johnny Nogerelli, Louis DiMucci, Goose McKenzi, Davey Jaworski...
• Johnny Nogerelli, leader of the T-Birds, swallows his cigarette rather than get caught smoking in school.
• Funny how no one seems to notice that there is one English Foreign Exchange Student and one Mysterious Cool Rider with an English accent.
• Cool teenagery moments: Stephanie Zinone bubble gum chewing, Michael Carrington slamming locker doors in frustration, goody-goody twins, Stephanie thinking "incestuous" is a big word, Sharon admits to wearing her mother's underwear. 
• Song: "Prowling," which describes how the T-Birds pick up women at the grocery store.
• If you wear the Pink Lady jacket, you have to date a T-Bird, but what if you don't like the T-Birds and what if there aren't enough to go around?
• When Stephanie thinks that her cool rider has died, she sings a song during which she talks to him in biker heaven. This song wins the talent show.
• Michael Carrington defeats a rival biker gang by leading them to jump over the pool of enchantment at his high school luau--a jump only he can make.
• Song: "Cool Rider," during which I wonder, are high school students old enough to drive motorcycles?
• Michael Carrington pays for his motorcycle by doing the T-Birds' homework.
• Johnny Nogerelli, AKA Adrian Zmed, was also on T.J. Hooker and was part of a Brooklyn gang as Socks Palermo on the 1979 show, Flatbush.