The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, August 27, 1980, Page Page 15B, Image 39
I By David Baker
Him Critic
Before I get very deeply
into this very negative
review, I think I should
mention that the original
C I I * I r-? lit in
iorriUKK^ unu iriK UUIIUU is
one of my all-time favorite
films. Inspired
moviemaking it wasn't, but
Burt Reynolds' charm, Sally
Field's smile and Jackie
Gleason's razor-sharp way
with a line made the story of
I two truckers and their 28hour,
18-wheel attempt to
pick up a truckload of Coors
beer in Texarkana and bring
!| it back to Atlanta without
H being caught into one of the
most delightful junk-food
H movies of the past decade.
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A cw IVUUW U, UUl
Smokey received a welldeserved
Academy Award
nomination for Best Editing
in 1978, and its quarter-of-abillion
dollar boxoffice gross
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millions of people consider it
to be the best car chase
picture ever made.
So what went wrong with
Smokey and the Bandit II?
Darn near everything, that's
pppM
Mike Henry and J
what. The leading players
(Reynolds, Field, Gleason,
Jerry Reed. Mike Henrv.
I Paul Williams and Pat
McCormick) and the
director (Hal Needham) are
all back - at least physically
-- but the off-the-wall goodnaturedness
displayed by
them in the original has been
replaced by a sumgness that
is at all times off-putting.
This time around, the
ICoors in the truck has beer
replaced by a pregnant
elephant and it's the job of
Bandit (Reynolds) and
Snowman (Reed) to get her
j
Sally Field wi
kpu's(
? mm ^
from Miami to Dallas in time
for Big Enos (McCormick)
and Little Enos Burdette
(Williams) to present her to
the governor of Texas as a
GOP Convention present.
The fast fame Bandit
gained bv making the
previous run, however, has
made him a self-centered
alcoholic who is incapable of
driving a car across the
street, much less 2,000 miles.
In hopes of bringing Bandit
back to his old hard-driving
self, Snowman enlists the aid
of Bandit's long-lost love,
Frog (Field).
It doesn't matter to Frog
it a n . 11
mai snowman s can comes
as she is waltzing down the
aisle to marry pinheaded
Junior Justice (Henry)
again, so she's soon stealing
Junior's car to make the trip
to Miami, with Sheriff
Justice (Gleason) hot on her
tail. That Frog and Justice
make the two-day trip in the
time it takes Bandit to grab a
quick shower is only the first
example of the don't-worry.
because-r.o-one-will-notice
attitude that permeates the
piciure.
ackie G/eason as bumbling
Other examples includ<
the following: Little Eno
pays Bandit $200,000 ii
advance, but Frog must sel
i Junior's car in order to mak<
the down-payment on a ne\
Trans Am because Bandi
has no money; Dom DeLuis
(who plays the elephant'
t gynecologist) is allowed t
speak in an Italian accent s
thick that he sounds like h
i has a mouthful of mozarella
i Bandit, Snowman and Fro
get to Mississippi fror
Florida without ever passin
I through Alabama; and in th
car-crunching finale (whic
:|H|
? HI
th Burt Reynolds in 'Smokt
jquel c
looks like it was composed of
outtakes from the Blues
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Pontiacs inexplicably turn
into early model Plymouth
Furies and Dodge Monacos
seconds before they are
destroyed.
But all of these goofs
seems mild when compared
with the fact that there is
almost no chase footage in
the entire picture.
I'd estimate that 90 percent
of the first Smofeey took
place on the highway,
whereas Needham has seen
fit to situate 90 percent of the
sequel on me road.
We see Bandit, Snowman
and Frog stop to pick up the
doctor, stop to check on the
elephant, stop to hear Don
Williams perform in a
honky-tonk, stop to camp out
and stop to argue among
themselves, but we almost
never see them between
stops. It's inconceivable
that a director would set out
to make a car chase movie
without a car chase, but
that's exactly what
Needham has done with
Smokey II.
???&~vr';':-?y.' ... '
r officers on Bandit's trail.
e The movie seems to exist
s for the sole purpose of
n promoting a country music
11 soundtrack album. No
e matter what is happening
v (or not happening) onscreen,
t the audience is forced to
e endure an endless string of
s the most tuneless hillbilly
o ditties ever imagined, all of
o them with (inane) lyrics!
e The soundtrack of the
; original film featured a
g handful of pleasant songs by
n Jerry Reed, but the rest was
g simple background music,
e Here, each and every tune
h has words and that make
' * 4
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IS ?V:v::V: :V
||
H i
^ \ I ^
fy and the Bandit II'
i disaDDG
Ml Ml
The other technical aspects
of the film, I'm sorry to say,
are just as bad. Michael k
Butler's cinematography is Hfc
grainy and virtually every
interior and night shot is
poorly lighted. HHhl V
The costumes designed for
Field by Bob Mackie are
gorgeous, but we're never
told how an out-of-work
dancer could afford such
creations. It there was a
script used in Smokey II, I
couldn't find it. pa^Wfc^h:
Unexpectedly, the acting
in the picture is on par with
everything else. Reynolds
has never been so unlikeable |HHPp
in a film, and Field has %
never had so little to do. J"
Only Gleason and Henry
seem to be having any fun |||!|||HH||
with their roles and, con- | H
sequently, they're the only
ones who are able to f >
generate any laughs. B Sffr * ?
At 95 minutes, Smokey II ' ftNgP
is virtually the same length ?| - X'
as its predecessor (which
was 97 minutes long), but IXm' t
that's the only aspect of the Z. '<
original it comes close to
There are several words
that could be used to p .
describe a movie as bad as C ^ \
Smokey II, but I'm afraid
most are unprintable.
Suffice it to say that critic mt ^ <
John Simon's favorite ft ^ >
saying, "Downward, there is !
no limit," has been proved Burt Reyno
wrong. Charlotte.
if f t
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Ids gets picked up by his targe friend,
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