Semi-Tough

I didn't think this movie was good at all. I expected it to be a lot better. Some parts were okay but it just didn't make a lot of sense. Burt did better in the movies he did before this movie even. Some parts were funny like when he smiled almost evily but other than that, not that good. 2/5

Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristhofferson play two pro football players who are interested in the the daughter of the owner of the team. This movie is actually humorous. It shows what these two guys will do to try to win over the girl who is playing these guys off against each other and enjoying every second if it. Two men competing for the girl, and willing to make total fools of themselves in the process, until the Burt Reynolds character wises up, steps back, examines the situation objectively and then plots his strategy to gain the girl's attention. It's not the greatest movie, and it's definitely not a sports movie, but it's worth watching, has funny moments, and shows what a guy is willing to do to get a woman.

Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson team up to play a pair of amiable pro-football players in Semi-Tough a good natured comedy about these two and the owner'd daughter. Sounds like you should be waiting for punchline and in a sense the whole film is one.

Jill Clayburgh is the owner's daughter, the owner being Robert Preston who is a flamboyant Texas millionaire and owner of the Dallas football team which for copyright reasons is never referred to as the Cowboys.

Having grown up with the team Clayburgh is on a first name basis with all the players and they treat her with due deference. She'd like a little more going with either Reynolds or Kristofferson, but can't make her mind up which one. It's almost like Crosby/Hope/Lamour without any songs.

Some nice performances will be found from masseuse Lotte Lenya, fake motivational speaker Bert Convy, and also the best from Brian Dennehy as a defensive end who's really abusing the steroids. It's from Dennehy that we get some potentially serious moments in an easy going film.

Fans of the leads should appreciate Semi-Tough.

Billy Clyde Puckett (Burt Reynolds) and Marvin 'Shake' Tiller (Kris Kristofferson) are best friends and professional football players in Miami on a team owned by Big Ed Bookman (Robert Preston). The two players live with the owner's daughter Barbara Jane (Jill Clayburgh) in a friendship triangle.

The premise starts with a questionable setup. I don't buy these three hot folks never having slept with each other. It would be more compelling if all three have some romantic history together. Nevertheless, I really like these actors and want to buy into their characters. They have plenty of charisma. Burt going with Mary Jo Catlett is very unexpected. I wonder if more could be done with that. After the marriage announcement, the characters start doing some weird stuff. The self-help group has its fun moments but it would work much better if Shake is there with them. I get the attempt at comedic satire but it's a lot of non-sense. The characters and relationships lose their reality. Even the football game has flaws in its realism. The movie does work as a football satire. The self-help satire deteriorates into gobbledygook. Despite the actors' charms, the love triangle struggles.

The novel, "Semi-Tough" was authored by Dan Jenkins, possibly the funniest sportswriter who ever lived and a very astute chronicler of football and golf. The novel was absolutely hilarious, completely un-PC but a very realistic satire of pro football 50 years ago. The movie resembles nothing close to the novel. It's not so much even a satire of football as for some reason it becomes a sendup of EST and the various self- help spiritually movements that sprang up in the late 60's, most of which were cons and/or pyramid schemes. The film stinks, but the novel and the sequel, "Life It's Ownself" are a riot. Jenkins was a gem.