Speeding forward at 20 mph! (Smokey and the Bandit II (DVD))

Member Name: berlioz II

Product:	Smokey and the Bandit II (DVD)
Date:	25/09/09 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: One or two jokes here and there

Disadvantages: Pretty much the reminder of the film

It's the oddest thing ever that few sequels ever seem to come even close to matching the first film in any series or, heaven forbid, surpass them in quality or to the effect that made the original worth having a sequel to begin with. There are the exceptions like The Godfather 2, or Star Trek 2, or The Empire Strikes Back that manage to be better movies than their predecessors, but the usual consequence of dipping back into the cash cow is usually met with resounding failure. Unfortunately, the sequel to the action-comedy hit Smokey and the Bandit falls quite squarely into the large group of failures the Hollywood "lets-make-more-money-from-this" machine is so adept at doing. Even with the majority of the crew returning from the original, they can't salvage a poor and overly cutesy script, and a surprisingly wan pacing from completely ruining the film. The set up is pretty much the same as in the first film: The Bandit (Burt Reynolds) and Cledus "Snowman" Snow (Jerry Reed) are hired by Little and Big Enos Burdette to transport something within a short timespan a long distance in a truck. Only this time they are not bootlegging beer, but a pregnant elephant!

If the plot sounds ridiculous, it is exactly that. It is like you can hear the wheels of the producers turning in thinking how to make this movie more "funny" and more "family friendly." Well, of course stick an animal in it and people will love it. NAH! This is wrong. What it does do is pretty much kill this movie in its tracks. Now the one thing that made the original Smokey film the success it was, and such a pleasure to watch, was its sense of energy and the non-stop, tongue-in-cheek action of car chases. This film, however, seriously lacks all of this. There are precious few chases. A lot of time is spent in sorting out Bo Darville's aka. The Bandit's alcoholism and egoist issues, his failed relationship with Sally Field's Carrie, and the problems of the pregnant elephant. And let me tell you, this certainly isn't pretty to watch. All the original cast is back, but even if they put in pretty good performances with what they've got, they at the same time are lacking the vibrancy of their former outing. Burt Reynolds in particular just meanders through the role in a way that just makes the character seem completely different than in the first film. And this is only made worse by trying to inject the character with some kind of personal problems with his depressing alcoholism that fails to elicit laughs, his relationship problems with Carrie that seem lifeless, and the added attempts at angst as the self-proclaimed "folk hero" doesn't get the same kind of adulation he thinks he deserves, every one of these coming out disappointingly mismatched to the character himself (and too superficial to matter in the first place).

The rest of the cast pulls in their weight adequately, but are hindered again by the poor plot. Jerry Reed gets a bit more screen time this time around, while Sally Field is about as annoying as she was in the first film. Again behind the trail of the good guys is Jackie Gleason as Sheriff Buford T. Justice and his idiot son Junior (Mike Henry) who are perhaps even more buffoon-like here than in the original, particularly with the sheriff's attempts at controlling his blood pressure through some Tibetan monk "ummm" exercises that stops being funny the first time you hear it. Rounding out the main cast is Dom DeLuise pulling in a stereotypical Dom DeLuise performance as an Italian hack doctor that is hijacked along to look after the elephant. His exaggerated accent and pseudo-flamboyance along with the poor jokes makes him another eyesore character that is just so cliché, particularly if you've seen the actor in pretty much anything he has done (including the Candid Camera TV show he hosted back in the day). But what really puts the final nail in the coffin of this film past the elephant and the poor attempts at depth, is both the disappointing lack of action as well as humour. There is none of the wildness of running away from the police forces of several counties here. Instead we get a token couple of instances of Jackie Gleason doing some weak-assed chase during which his patrol car predictably gets totalled as the film goes on. Maybe it is symptomatic that The Bandit is driving around in a 1980 Pontiac Trans Am that is legendarily a very poor performer due to restrictions in car performance at the time the film was made, but even the film can't seem to manipulate the car into going faster and not seem like the chase scenes are crawling at a 40 km/h speed limit. There is a big police car wrecking scene near the end of the film, but it just seems like a lazy attempt at having something in the film to hark back to the original's wanton destruction of cars.

Then there's the humour... or lack there of. Hearing Reynolds mumbling drunk is poor, the elephant with her love toward Reynolds isn't amusing, and even the inclusion of the sheriff's two effeminate brothers, Reginald and Gaylord - all played by Gleason - the latter whom gives an irritatingly long singing performance during his first appearance, don't do much to elevate the film with anything else really than one or two laugh-worthy jokes... and even those are usually lukewarm at best. When all of this is piled together, there's very little to actually recommend in this film. The few moments of fun in the film are always swamped by issues that are liable to just irritate, frustrate, or make you feel like asking the question "why am I watching this movie really?" Even the song that runs through the film has been replaced, from the catchy and driving "East/West Bound and Down" song, into a dated and frankly pathetic lullaby that isn't even memorable at all. In all, Smokey and the Bandit II is a perfect example of a rubbish attempt at making more money from something that had been successful before, but failing miserably in capturing the same essence of fun that the original had in spades, only really outdone in how dire a film it is through the nightmare of what was to be Smokey and the Bandit 3. Stick with the original, for the sequel rally just isn't worth the time and effort to invest in.

On Region 2, both sequel films are sold together on Amazon.uk, but make sure you don't pay any more than is necessary if you want them.

© berlioz, 2009

Summary: Ha! This time I didn't tack Tom Selleck into this.