L'as de coeur

Stroker Ace (1983)

1/2 (out of 4)

I must admit that when people say Burt Reynolds I gladly call myself a fan since I love DELIVERANCE and enjoy both THE LONGEST YARD and SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT. So far I've stayed away from his 80s output but decided to tackle my first one with this turkey and it's rather sad if you really think about how bad this thing is. In the film Reynolds plays Stroker Ace, a hot-shot Nascar driver who signs a contract with a chicken king (Ned Beatty) who soon has the star on the road making a fool of himself. With the help of his mechanic (Jim Nabors) and another associate (Loni Anderson), Ace must try and find a way to get fired and released from the contract. Earlier I said it was sad to watch something like this considering some of the great things Reynolds had done in his career so it's rather stupid of me to highly recommend this film due to how incredibly bad it is. I really wasn't expecting too much but it's rather shocking to see how unfunny this comedy is and the only reason it avoids a BOMB rating from me is simply because it remains entertaining simply so you can see how much worse it's going to get. The movie has no plot to think of and what little there is is just downright stupid. Do we really believe someone would sign this contract without reading it? The movie contains one bad joke after another and we get at least four with Reynolds looking in the mirror to comment on how good his hair looks. I honestly can't say he gives a bad performance because he plays that same Good Ol' Boy that he made a career out of. He's certainly going through the motions but he comes off looking as if he thinks he's doing a great job. Nabors is slightly charming in a few scenes but Beatty comes off pretty bad throughout. Anderson's entire character seems like something from another movie and the supporting cast includes various Nascar drivers, Bubba Smith and even Elvira pops up in perhaps the best gag of the film. I think the scariest thing is that this movie apparently did pretty well at the box office and this wasn't the film that would eventually kill Reynolds career. I plan on going through more of his output from this decade and I really hope nothing is worse than this here. Fingers crossed.

Stroker Ace (Burt Reynolds) grew up with moonshining Seegles being chased by the cops in the backwoods. He is a reckless arrogant womanizing three-time NASCAR champ. Aubrey James (Parker Stevenson) is his ambitious young rival. Lugs (Jim Nabors) is his crew chief. He is taken with virginal Pembrook Feeney (Loni Anderson). She's Clyde Torkle (Ned Beatty)'s new employee. When Stroker loses his sponsor, he signs up with untrustworthy Fried Chicken king Torkle as The Fastest Chicken in the South. He grows to hate his contract and tries to get out of it.

This is Burt Reynolds at his most Burt Reynolds. As a kid, I didn't really mind the bad writing and didn't get some of the jokes. It wasn't my favorite racing movie but I didn't know the critical panning this received. I love Cannonball Run and I knew this is inferior. Watching it again recently gave me a few more problems. Loni is a big robotic problem. Her innocent act does not work. The writing is not that funny either. It's just a lot of camp from the cast. I don't actually hate this but it's not good.

Burt Reynolds goes through the motions as an absurdly-named stock car driver in this dull, deeply unfunny 'comedy' directed by long-time buddy Hal Needham. Nonsensical plot concerns Reynold's efforts to get out of a sponsorship contract (what, he doesn't want to be on a competitive team?) while trying to woo Loni Anderson's PR flack/Sunday school teacher, over the course of a seemingly endless racing season.

Big hair, cornpone accents and superficial performances abound, with particularly annoying turns from Jim Nabors (as Reynolds' crew chief) and Ned Beatty (as a fried chicken magnate). Only potential points of interest are the period racing scenes (including some of the top NASCAR drivers), and the vast cleavage displayed in the few female roles: Anderson, Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson, Debbie Casperson and the legendary Linda Vaughn.

Ever notice how in his later movies Burt Reynolds' laugh sounds like screeching brakes?

Must have been hanging out with Hal Needham too much.

And from the looks of "Stroker Ace", WAY too much.

Can you believe this was based on a book? Neither could I, but it was. And probably not a best-seller, I'll wager.

Burt's another good-old-boy in the NASCAR circuit who hitches up with Beatty as a fried chicken magnate with designs on his team. Anderson provides what love interest there is and Nabors does his umpteenth Gomer Pyle impression as faithful mechanic/best friend Lugs.

A lot of people here are friends of Burt's or Hal's. Others must have needed the work. And even real NASCAR drivers get in on the act, and look to have more talent than those with SAG cards.

As far as laughs go, Bubba Smith (pre-"Police Academy") gets them as Beatty's chauffeur. And Petersen, in full Elvira mode, gets lots of appreciative leers as a lady who wants to get to know Lugs real well. REAL WELL.

It's a shame that Burt threw away as much time and effort in a film like "Stroker Ace" where it didn't matter whether he bothered to act or not. They didn't bother to write a character for him, why bother to act?

Two stars. Mostly for Petersen, and for the out-takes at the end. Now THEY'RE funny.

For racing movie fans, "Stroker Ace" is hard to beat. It's definitely better than Driven and far less effective than Days of Thunder. It offers a comical, honest view of the sport through the life of Stroker Ace, who has secured a ride from a novice car owner intent on leveraging every ounce of Stroker's fame to sell chicken. It's the only race film to cover sponsorship honestly. Few know, Burt Reynolds was a stunt man before making it as an actor. He has always had an affinity for stunt men and this is homage to these icons that entertain us at grave risk to themselves. Hooper is a stunt packed film that is entirely over-the-top in scope from Westerns to bar brawls to cars, you've never seen all of this in one flick. It's a solid movie after all.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.