Customer Reviews

Smokey and the Bandit II

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"Daddy, look at that big ugly alligator.", "That reminds me, I gotta call your moma tonight." THIS MOVIE IS FUNNY!!!
The first thing I noticed about SMOKEY and the BANDIT 2 was the quality of the digital transfer to DVD. It is done so well, I felt like I was watching a movie made a year ago(aside the old cars and clothes).
I'm 36 and this movie brought back tons of memories. "Son, why isn't your gun loaded?", "It's too heavy when I put bullets in it, Daddy." This movie is full of hilarious one liners. I found myself to be in a great mood after watching this movie. There's a semi-sentimental tone that is, at times alittle cheesy but still, touching and not too overboard.
Everyone is fantastic in this movie. Even the gas station attendant is brilliantly funny. I really can't think of one negative thing to say about SB2.
It's as good, if not better than, the first BANDIT. I give it 2 thumbs up and a MUST SEE for anyone who loves to laugh.

So this movie was different than the first Smokey and The Bandit. Was it really? If it's fast cars wanted, this has just the same as the first. If it's chase scene spectacular, this is just as much. If it's "bubble gum machines" getting wasted in a pile of heep by semis, this movie has just as much if not more so than the first as well. The same Burt Reynolds style, the same Jackie Gleason style, pretty much the same movie with a twist. Instead of hauling bootlegged beer, it's a pregnant elephant headed toward the Republican convention in Texas. Dom Deluise is hilarious in this second installment, making an added character for additional humor. Jerry Reed continues being the sensible one of the cast, always being the mediater in solving a problem as usual. If a person truly liked and is a real fan of Smokey and The Bandit original film, they would like this just the same. True, not the same as the first but equally as good even with the slight differences.

I keep wanting to see this movie on DVD. To be honest I think this one is the funniest of the three, maybe not the best overall but the funniest. The banter between the Sheriff and his son take this movie over the top. Now if this movie and Used Cars could just be put on DVD...

My "Smokey and the Bandit crazy" seven year old son loves this one even better than the first, I think its best asset is the song "Texas Bound and Flyin'", the truck race scene with that song is as good as it gets! I still love Smokey 1 best and so does our 1 year old daughter but this one is a must have!

This is a very good movie! Just as good as the prequal and just as good car chases. There is also a part when smokey gets his brothers to help and the bring other cops to help chase the bandit. Snowman comes with tons of other trucks and they and up having a car and truck mosh pit.

Although critics universally panned this sequel to Hal Needham's $250 million, 1977 megahit, Smokey 2 actually has a lot more depth than its prequel. This time, Needham keeps the action and car crashes to a minimum (settling for one lengthy demolition derby sequence near the end) and instead focuses on the interpersonal relationships between Bandit, Cledus, Frog, and Sheriff Justice. Needham also emphasizes screwball comedy (Dom DeLuise is hysterical playing a madcap Italian doctor/elephant veterinarian from Miami) and country music. (The film features brief cameos by country superstars Brenda Lee, Mel Tillis, Don Williams, and the Statler Brothers). The picture's major flaw: Needham doesn't carry any of the successful elements far enough. For example: the Statlers <who sing "You Are My Sunshine"> are limited to about five seconds onscreen, and Tillis (a terrific vocalist) doesn't even sing... he just stutters!! And in the film's funniest subplot, involving Buford T. Justice & his two brothers, Reggie & Gaylord (Gleason in a triple role!!!) the Sheriff's kinfolk appear and disappear without doing or saying much. (Talk about a lost opportunity!) Smokey II is a flawed gem from a director and screenwriters who obviously don't have enough confidence in their own instincts about what constitutes great entertainment. Definitely worth a look, though.

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.

Any fan expecting the same excitement from the first S&TB movie may be disappointed with this installment. Part II is a much slower paced movie without the 'outlaw bootlegger' twist. The estranged love-affair between Bo & Carrie drags the movie down to a crawl that not even the turbo-charged TA can help speed up.

As you may remember, the first movie left off with Bandit betting on a clam chowder run from Boston to Atlanta. They should have continued on with that premise.

The movie reeks of 'Cannonball Run' antics with Dom Deluse sidekicking for Reynolds through the second half the movie. The backwoods feel is gone this time, along with the cleaverness.

Absent from the DVD are extras like deleted scenes (there must be some out there, they found enough extra footage from the first S&TB for TBS to broadcast), which is one of the main reasons people buy/rent DVDs.

However, if you like Gleason in the first one, there's plenty more of 'Beautiful Buford' in part II...and even more in part III where he becomes the main player (not literally, but S&TB 3 was almost released as 'Smokey IS the bandit' with Gleason playing the bandit and Buford...but that's a whole other review.)

Smokey and the Bandit II? A rental, but don't expect this DVD at Blockbuster anytime soon...

The gang is back again for Smokey and the Bandit 2 as Carrie (Sally Field) leaves the bandit (Burt Reynolds) and marries Junior (Buford T's son) but she leaves Junior in order to get back with the bandit but the bandit is an down 'n' out alcoholic. Cledus (Jerry Reed) tells the bandit to straighten up and get in shape. Since I don't wanna give out too much information, I'll just let you see for yourself and one thing what I didn't like about this movie was that Burt Reynolds wasn't as happy go lucky like he was in the first and it was more boring but Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason) was great as usual, even though in the third one was where he was at his best.
I only recommend this movie if you're a diehard car chase movie buff.

unable to play on dvd here in australia, they send me the wrong zone dvds and i cann't play them