Smokey and the Bandit Part 3

Why can't Hollywood just let good movies die in peace? This 2nd sequel to the original (and quite good) "Smokey and the Bandit" stinks everywhere. The story is lame and the characters have been reduced to caricatures of themselves.

Let's start with the story. The premise here is that those Enos boys are at it again, wanting to have some fun at the expense of someone. That someone is none other than Sheriff Buford T. Justice (key the tuba) who has just put in for retirement. When those retirement plans aren't what he expected, our valiant Sheriff accepts the Enos' challenge: Deliver a plastic shark to the new restaurant the Enos boys opened up. While along the way, those rascally Enos dudes are going to try to stop him at any cost.

Okay, stop right there. In the first Bandit movie, the idea was a simple challenge and bet. The Enos boys were depicted as nothing more than a rich father and son team who were bored so they thought up a good challenge. No real maliciousness involved - just a challenge with some money put up to make people take it seriously. That was fun.

In the 2nd Bandit movie, the Enos reputation (such as it is) is on the line and they want to beat a political rival. Not as strong, but again, nothing terribly malicious involved.

This movie has them just trying to be mean to their new play toy. Namely, Sheriff Justice. So they send him on his way and start trying to sabotage his trip. When Justice beats them at every turn, they figure that they need a professional to deal with him. Since the Bandit isn't around (he's off making "Stroker Ace") they give the job (and the red shirt, belt buckle and hat) to Cledus, our old truck driving buddy.

So, Cledus chases Justice to get the prized shark and fun and laughter ensue. Well, not too much fun and little laughter but look on the bright side - it was a paycheck for Gleason and Reed.

Anyway, from there on out it becomes the now tired old cat-and-mouse game with one side giving chase to the other. But even the chases lack the polish to make you remember back to the ones in the 1977 original. They seem more staged and one dimensional. For example, there's a scene where Cledus and a new buddy "sneak" up from behind and take the shark off of the Sheriff's car. The shot is not technically difficult and it's rather boring. Plus, what law enforcement officer doesn't check his mirror to make sure of what's behind him? I learned that in 11th grade driver's ed.

Anway, to summarize, I think the use of the 1982 (anemic) Trans Am is allegorical to this movie: It's got the right name but is under-thought, underpowered and basically is just a diluted version of its former self.

Smokey and the Bandit (part one, that is) was a really funny movie with a great Burt Reynolds. But this time around, almost everything goes wrong. Almost...

Because there is this one scene at the beginning of the movie as Jackie Gleason spoofs 'Patton', and I loved that part (as I love Patton), but that's about all the joy this movie gave me...

Cledus 'the snowman' is the bandit in this one, as Burt Reynolds turned it down (and rightfully so), but he's so awful it's hard to describe. If he'd said 'I am the bandit, I am the bandit' one more time I would've slapped him in the face.

As everybody deserves a good slapping after making this one. One question left: What were they thinking?

2/10.

Somewhere in a vault is the original cut of this and I'd love to see it.

The released film is very obviously a re-edited mess.

Jerry Reed was brought in to remake the Gleason as bandit scenes, Sadly at no point does he seem to be the Snowman of the first 2 movies

The plot is really just scenes sown together to fill the run time, massive gaps of logic and story.

Simply a poor film but what was the 1st cut like...Sadly we'll never know.

Call me weird, but I love bad movies. I just get a kick out of seeing what a couple of million dollars really means to Hollywood. In this case, it doesn't mean much. Smokey 3 is one of the biggest stinkers ever produced by a major studio. Besides asking the obvious questions that this movie poses (Why would "The Great One" actually star in this disaster and how could Universal create, release, and advertise this movie and still be able to sleep at night?), you have got to wonder one thing...where in the heck did all of these ramps come from? One example (out of too many to count) is how Jerry Reed (Snowman posing as Bandit) actually jumps his Firebird out of his garage...from a dead stop...huh?? The plot is putrid, the supporting cast is horrible (Jerry Reed used to be lovably annoying as Snowman...all he can do here is utter obnoxious one-liners and triple-speak while hooting and hollering about getting to pretend to be Burt Reynolds), and there is actually a point during all this mess when the pity for Gleason lifts, and you actually want something to fall from the sky onto Buford T. Justice and end it all. But watch this movie...I beg you...this is the worst bad movie ever made, and it is worth the rental money to spend 1 and 1/2 hours being embarrassed for the families and friends of everyone who had a hand in this disaster.

Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason) is retiring despite never having caught the Bandit. Big Enos and Little Enos challenges him to transport a fish sign from Florida to Texas for his beloved badge. After getting hounded, Buford accepts the challenge with his son as his co-pilot. Big Enos hires Snowman (Jerry Reed) for $250k who dresses up to be the new Bandit. Dusty Trails (Colleen Camp) has have enough of her lecherous boss and quits on TV. She hitches a ride with the new Bandit.

This is a mess and I don't care about any of it. Other than the archival opening, Burt and Sally are not even in this movie. It is really Smokey and the Fake Bandit. The movie doesn't even make geographic sense. He leaves Florida for a shortcut through Mexico which is complete non-sense. The first two movies survived on Burt and Sally's charisma and chemistry. That cannot be recreated with Fake Bandit. It's an impossible task.