Eddie And The Cruisers/ Eddie And The Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! (Double Feature): Blu-Ray Review

Arriving on Blu-ray this week is the “Eddie And The Cruisers” and “Eddie And The Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!” double feature, courtesy of Shout! Factory. When “Eddie and the Cruisers” was first released in 1983, the film was a flop, but when it arrived on cable in the near future, it wound up finding a massive audience. I was part of that audience. In the 80’s I must have watched “Eddie and the Cruisers” countless times. When the sequel “Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives” arrived in theaters, I went and saw it opening weekend. By how quickly “Eddie Lives” came and went, I must have been the only one of the very few to go see it.

If you are not familiar with “Eddie and the Cruisers”, it centers on high school teacher and former Cruiser Frank Ridgeway (Tom Berenger). Frank reluctantly agrees to work with reporter Maggie Foley (Ellen Barkin) on the renewed interest in his former band’s music. They also try and discover who stole the tapes of an unreleased Eddie and the Cruisers album. It turns out that they are not the only people looking for those tapes. The film jumps back and forth between 1963 and 1983 and we see how Frank became part of the band and the events that lead up up to Eddie Wilson’s (Michael Paré) car diving off a New Jersey bridge.

In the sequel “Eddie Lives”, we learned that Eddie Wilson faked his own death and now is living in Canada as a construction worker named Joe. Eddie is going nuts with how popular his music is more than 20 years later. When young guitarist Rick Diesel (Bernie Coulson) is impressed by Eddie/Tom’s musical skills while in a bar, he asks him to join the band. Of course he turns the kid down, but soon after he takes the kid up on the offer.

“Eddie Lives” feels more like an afterthought than a complete film, however it still manages to entertain, mainly because it does feel like an extension of the first film. This is a bare-bones release with absolutely no bonus features, but if you are an “Eddie and the Cruisers” fan, this release might be worth picking up.

By: Marc Ferman

Order: Eddie and the Cruisers / Eddie And The Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! – Double Feature (Blu-Ray)