Smokey and the Bandit II
by Hal Needham
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Actor: Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, Sally FieldDirector: Hal Needham
Brand: MCA
Writer: Hal Needham
Producer: Hank Moonjean
Producer: Michael A. Cherubino
Writer: Brock Yates
Writer: Jerry Belson
Writer: Michael Kane
Writer: Robert L. Levy
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-06-03
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of Smokey and the Bandit II
DVD Review: Ego Catches the Bandit
Summary: 3 Stars
Burt Reynolds always got along well with his stunt teams. Their fearless attitude and hard partying lifestyle (always after hours, NEVER during a shoot!) appealed to the inner nature of a box office superstar who found himself so trapped by his own fame that he couldn't enjoy the fruits of his success in the way he wanted to. He gave stunt buddy Hal Needham a directing stint for the first Bandit film and even made Hooper as an homage to a lifestyle Reynolds' celebrity status kept just out of reach.
We all know the story. Lightning struck and S&TB became an unexpected runaway smash. A sequel was inevitable. So what what wrong and what went right? Part of the problem was Reynolds' own ego. A funny thing happens to some people when they achieve massive success. They begin to believe their own press releases and think that people love THEM and not the things they've produced. It also happened to Stephen King who spent years writing terrible books. He came to believe that his name on the cover would be enough to move copies and he needn't worry about the quality on the pages inside. As his sales began to slide he created an alter ego (Richard Bachman) and re-taught himself the craft that got him stardom in the first place. The best example of this in Burt Reynolds' career comes in the middle of S&TBII when his character meets a man that doesn't buy into the whole "Bandit myth." Grabbing the man by the scruff of his shirt, Reynolds turns to Sally Field and says, "Who the heck does he think he IS?" Her reply, "I think you need to ask yourself that," sums up the entire problem with the film.
In the first Bandit movie, Needham quickly gave up on getting the beloved Jackie Gleason to stick to scripted dialogue. Given the chance to perform "blue" adult humor after years of being trapped by the constraints of televisions censorship limitations, Gleason went wild. He chewed the scenery, made up his own lines, and basically carried the humor of the entire film on his back. The crowds came for the hot car chases but they came back for repeated viewings to enjoy a comic master at the very top of his game. Needham wisely sets Gleason free in the second film and once again Gleason displays the reason why his career spanned so many decades. He is, was, and always shall be, one of the absolute masters at his craft.
Unfortunately, Reynolds, Reed, and Deluise spend a lot of time ad-libbing themselves and only Dom Deluise really has the comic chops to make it work. Reynolds shows no nuance whatsoever comedically and spends the bulk of the film mugging it up in the mistaken belief that his looks and the popularity of the character he is playing will automatically make him charming and funny. No such luck.
I caught Jerry Reed live some years back. He was reduced to playing at a high school gymnasium in a rural North Carolina town. He spent more time name-dropping and talking about his "star status" than singing and by the midpoint of the show, half of the crowd had already headed for the exits. Unlike Mr. King, Jerry never learned his lesson.
The end result is a movie that has twice the mugging and ham acting as the first with roughly half of the car chases and very little of the charm. At a time when people had come to realize that alcoholism destroys the lives of entire families, Reynolds portrays it as a good-natured and funny thing that can be cured with some situps and a few days on the wagon. Simply put, Reynolds had lost touch with the things that made him a star in the first place and the result was a film that might have worked ten years earlier, but was sadly out of place in 1980.
The film is still worth the ride for several reasons, not the least of which is the chance to watch Jackie Gleason unchained and running wild for the pure joy of it. Also, the crew discovered an abandoned roller coaster that was slated for demolition and Needham and Reynolds were able to convince the owner to allow them to destroy the ancient ride on camera. It makes for one of the most amusing and memorable moments of the film trilogy. Dom Deluise, given little to work with but a massive living and breathing prop, has some moments of true brilliance, not the least of which is his lament that he can't properly examine the elephant in the film without a set of OB-GYN stirrups.
S&TBII almost works despite the mailed-in performances of Reynolds and Reed. Although it really isn't up to the energy of the original on any levels, it was still fun to revisit the characters and there are worse ways to kill an evening than popping the movie into the DVD player and kicking back for a laugh or two. It's worth a rental and even worth purchasing if you can find it in the bargain bin for five bucks or so as I did. My wife and I bought it with the idea of having friends over for a "Bandit Double Feature" and the laughs and nostalgia the two films provided reminded us that movies don't have to be pretentious and full of social messages. Sometimes they're just made for the fun of it and are there just to be enjoyed.
I won't even comment on the third film. I paid for a ticket to see it in theaters when it was released so the studio has already gotten more money out of me than that film ever deserved. But the second film of the series still has enough juice (barely) to be worth viewing - especially as a companion piece to the original.
Description of Smokey and the Bandit II
Smokey (Burt Reynolds), Jackie Gleason (Bandit), Jerry Reed, Dom Deluise and Sally Field have a roaring good time in this farce. Lots of fun!Bestsellers in DVD
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