MovieChat Forums > Smokey and the Bandit II (1980) Discussion > This Movie is God Awful

This Movie is God Awful

posted 16 years ago by jrs-8
16 replies | jump to latest

I just watched "Smokey and the Bandit 2" for the first time since it came out back in the summer of 1980. Back then I thought it was ok but was highly disappointed having enjoyed the original so much. But watching it again made me just shake my head in dis-belief at how truly awful it is.

You know right from the start how bad it is going to be when you see Jackie Gleason trying to calm himself when a woman keeps mentioning the Bandit by name and a stress pager keeps going off. Gleason does this twice alone in that scene indicating director Hal Needham was already padding his comedy with repeat jokes. Gleason's role is so underwritten that they actually wrote in a few of his classic characters from his television show in the 50's. If that isn't a shout of desperation I don't know what is.

Does anyone really believe that even if Frog and Bandit broke up that Frog would go back to the sherrif's dimwitted son? No chance in hell. And why make the Bandit a burned out depressed drunk in this film? In the original he was a happy go lucky go getter who laughed in the face of danger. We rooted for him to bring that Coors back on time. Here he is such a worthless lout we don't care one whit about him and whether or not he and Frog get back together.

As for the story (that's a laugh), the best they could come up with was transporting a pregnant elephant? Did they forget they set up a sequel at the end of the original by having Big Enos offer them a chance (which they accepted) to go to Boston for clam chowder? They could have continued right from there but instead we are treated to a lame performance by Dom DeLuise and stupid moments of fawning over the elephant.

It was at about this point in Burt's career that he started taking his audience for granted and stopped working for creative and artistic joy and simply took big paydays in order to work with his buddy Hal Needham and the same group of cronies that seemed to appear with him at this time. How else to explain Cannonball Run and its sequel and Stroker Ace, the classic stock car racing movie in which Burt dressed as a chicken. He actually turned down Jack Nicholson's Oscar winning role in "Terms of Endearment" to take a $3 million dollar check to appear in this crap.

Sadly Burt's career has never really recovered despite "Boogie Nights." And this film is the beginning of that downfall.

[–] Bubbalardass 16 years ago

I agree, this was horrible compared to the first film.

[–] Eclectic_Flamingo 16 years ago

i agree the only part i like is the beginning when snowman is racing at the ATL motor speedway and "texas bound and flying" is playing.

[–] JohnMcClane88 15 years ago

I am a 31 year fan of the original and agree with you on this one but Burt didnt skip "Terms of Endearment" to make this, he made "Stroker Ace" 3 years later instead of "Terms"

"Watch the Heart!......Spike...aka William The Bloody

[–] jrs-8 15 years ago

Yes I wrote that line after mentioning "Stroker Ace" but didn't word it very clearly that it was that film he took over "Terms."

[–] JohnMcClane88 15 years ago

That's cool, I did agree with everything you said in your post.

Smokey 2 is even worse then God awful, I just watched it again about 2 weeks ago for the first time in years only to remind myself how bad it really was.

The first one has a really special place in my life and I adore the heck out of it and when I watch this one it just makes me so mad on all the missed opportunities they had.

In the first one The Bandit was not only the cool level headed guy but was romantic, slick, funny and charming.
In Smokey 2 he is a buffoon of a jerk.

Also in the first one, Snowman was also really cool and had a scene all to himself that made audiences stand up and cheer when he had the fight with the bikers and then ran over their bikes, and it was done in a real serious way to where you believed it.
In Smokey 2 he is just not cool.

And I can go on and on about everyone else.

To sum it up the first Smokey was Cool in every way possible, if it wasn't it wouldn't have made $119 million 30 years ago.

As far as Burt's career goes, I can spend hours complaining about that.
You have the 1970's where Burt just about couldnt do any wrong, then their is everything after the 1970's with the exception of 3 movies (Sharkey's Machine, Breaking In, and Boogie Nights) where everything was bad.

Oh well, what can you do.

"Watch the Heart!......Spike...aka William The Bloody

[–] jrs-8 15 years ago

And it appears I agree with you about everything you said. When I saw Part 2 back in 1980 I was 15 and eager beyond words to see it. My dad, who likely got worn down from the constant begging, took me to the first show on opening day and even as an easily pleased 15 year old I remember thinking how little I enjoyed it but more significantly how little the characters in this film resembled those from the original.

I always wondered why they didn't just pick off where the original left off and watched them go to Boston for Clam Chowder but I am sure critics and fans would have screamed they were essentially just making the first picture again. What I can't imagine is Burt or some production head first hearing the idea of transporting a pregnant elephant and thinking it was a great idea for the sequel.

Just an odd sidenote: I know exactly where I was and what the date was when I first saw the original "Smokey and the Bandit." The reason is because when we were driving home it was announced that Elvis was found dead.

[–] jnoble11 15 years ago

he said in an interview once that the first Bandit was "a comedy based around a plot". And the second one was "a plot loosely based around comedy".

SATBII is boring and no-one's playing the same character. Snowman is the same, I didn't notice Reed changing much, but the running gag about Bandit being a depressed has-been was lame and real bring down.

And there's only like two or three real chase scenes in the whole thing! Hell, even the loathed part 3 had a ton of chases! This one is like "talk talk talk, look at the elephant, talk talk talk, drive, talk, elephant, etc etc"

and Buford T Justice was hardly a major part of it. He was like a side character.

[–] thetheeyecreature 14 years ago

It's on cable; I just watched the first ten minutes and turned it off. What a lifeless, unfunny imitation of the first movie.

"The truth 24 times a second."

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] thetheeyecreature 14 years ago

Thanks, I didn't know that. Too bad; the first movie had a good combination of plot-driven action and character-driven comedy.

"The truth 24 times a second."

[–] Low_Rent 14 years ago

Unfortunately, I have to agree with you. I bought the first one on DVD and watched it twice in the same week. It is such a fun movie to watch, you can tell the actors as well as the characters were just having fun. I avoided watching the second because I saw it when it came out in the theater and came away disappointed. So I figured that time has passed and maybe I didn't like it because I was too young to truly appreciate it. Well, I talked myself into buying it and found out I was partially right. I didn't truly appreciate it...appreciate how awful it was. Geez, I have to exert a great effort to find anything good about this film. I won't repeat what you stated but I agree with your points.

One thing that bothered me though was that it never made sense to keep an elephant in a crate. They couldn't get away with that today, but could they even back then? So the elephant just stands in this crate all the time, never laying down or eating or peeing or crapping? And someone was going to keep the elephant in that crate for 2 weeks because it was quarantined. If they knew she was pregnant then shouldn't they have moved her to the nearest zoo? I don't know, maybe I am nitpicking but the whole elephant plot point just didn't make sense from the get go.

Oh and why did they need a Trans Am for this movie? It was supposed to be a blocker to keep the police away from the truck but I can't remember that happening at all.

[–] gpapa1998-24-961204 13 years ago

Totally agree. Not my kind of movie anyway. I am more into action packed.

[–] eXaR_kUn_04 13 years ago

Funny that I barely watched this movie last night, having still the fond memories of the 1st (as well as high expectations), and throughout watching this I just kept on thinking, man... this sucks!
I still haven't watched the 3rd, but I'm not looking forward to it now that I've seen the 2nd.
Good thing I only have the 1st one on DVD, and can catch the rest of them on Netflix.

ha ha... awful!

[–] jrs-8 13 years ago

Trust me when I say the third movie makes Part II look like an Academy Award winning classic. That is how truly awful and horrible the third one is.

[–] fast_cash 13 years ago

Man reading this brought back memories how much i hated watching "Smokey and the Bandit 2".
This movie should stand high amongst directors and producers of what not to do in a movie sequal.

[–] acecrisp-1 11 years ago

Im sorry but im reminded of an old saying when i read all your ranting

GOAT ALERT TIME

BAAAA BAAAAA BAAAAAA

sounds the same

it was a great movie