Any Which Way You Can

A charming, and endearingly goofy follow up to the successfully hearty comedy 'Every Which Way But Loose (1978)', which starred Clint Eastwood as cool-hand, bar-brawling Philo Beddoe along with his alcohol slurping orangutan companion Clyde. Slap-stick galore with the easy-going style of the original picking up the pace and having a variety of cartoon-like characters represented by a more than capably fruitful cast (some who are Eastwood regulars). They're here for a good time and it shows. Geoffrey Lewis, Sondra Locke, Ruth Gordon, William Smith, Harry Guardino, Bill McKinney and Barry Corbin give pleasingly amusing performances. However it's the returning John Quade who's a hilarious hoot as the leader of the haplessly crony bikers 'Black Widows'. Eastwood naturally comes across cool and collected in another winning performance. The drama here feels a little more spontaneous, busy and crazy with much more bare-knuckle, sweaty fist fights (which are well-executed) and a real infantile comical imprint. Streaming through is a heart-warming music score with an appealing country swing and open photography sharply frames some beautiful locations and accordingly gets amongst the action. Is it better than the first… I don't think so, but I never grow old of these fun, light-headed features.

This sequel to "Every Which Way but Loose" is as good as the first. Clyde the orangutan is back. Clint Eastwood is a retired bare knuckle fighter with a huge reputation. When a national "title" fight is offered, he hesitates, wanted to quit fighting. But he's forced to go through with the fight (of course - this is EASTWOOD for crying out loud!). There are many humorous scenes and I like this one as well as the first. Good one!

If you have seen the first one (Every Which Way...) you know exactly what you are going to get here. The 2 movies are not so much plot driven but character driven...that is...you enjoy watching their interactions with each other and their situations...what the situations are or the plot doesn't really matter.

Its a relaxed movie with some good laughs and some gentle user friendly action.

Any Clint Eastwood fan will enjoy :)

If any animal deserved its own trailer, chauffeured limousine and personal trainer, it would be Clyde.

"Any Which Way You Can" proves once and for all the similarities of ape to man (and in some cases, the ape's superiority).

Basically, this movie is a great improvement over the stillborn humor of "Every Which Way But Loose". Clint wisely plays straight man to Clyde, who provides the funniest moments, when not befriending William Smith ("Big Bill" Smith from the old biker movies. Go look it up.), then engaging in a bare-knuckle fight with him later on.

Everyone fares better in this movie, in fact. Sondra Locke is far more graceful, Geoffrey Lewis gets more laughs, even Ruth Gordon is seen as the next Bo Derek (bless her heart).

And if the Black Widows aren't more menacing this time around, well... that's kind of hard to do when you're wearing fake wigs and have penciled-in facial hair.

I've seen this movie so many times myself, that I have nearly the entire screenplay committed to memory. What more indelible impression could a filmmaker want to make than that?

It may not be saying much, but Any Which Way You Can is much better than Every Which Way But Loose.

The biker gang are funnier this time around, Clyde gets far more screen time (which is a good thing), and the big fight near the end is a fairly brutal cracker.

A no-brainer, certainly, but who can resist seeing Barry Corbin driving his plane along the roads, in order to get to the fight?