Agarra-me se Puderes

This movie,as far as I know,never won any special honors.It perhaps is not listed as one of the top 1,000,000 movies of all time.It may not be considered by many to be a great film,but I (and I am not ashamed to admit this),love this movie.Perhaps it is the charm exuded by Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed.Perhaps it is the beautiful Sally Field(she never looked better on film).Perhaps it is the comic genius of Jackie Gleason.Perhaps it is all these things rolled into one.This is the absolute "king" of redneck comedy movies(and I use the term "redneck" with the utmost affection).I am a fan of great films,but I have my guilty pleasure movies as anyone has. This one tops my list of those.Love it!

Enormous good fun.. and I am flabbergasted that this film is 33 years old. In 1977 a 1944 film sure did look old but now in 2009 this 1976 production still looks fairly modern albeit super-bad 70s. In fact I really enjoyed the time-trip to this free 70s with its good natured roadside and trailer-park American fun times which echo all through SMOKEY. Burt Reynolds perfected his good ol' boy image thru DELIVERANCE in 73 then WW AND THE DIXIE DANCEKINGS in 74 via some lovably clumsy tap dancing in AT LONG LAST LOVE in 75 then rum running with doe eyed Robbie Benson and shrieking Liza Minnelli in LUCKY LADY (what a campy film!..no wonder it has never surfaced again ... yet...maybe after Stanley Donen dies)...) and then into SMOKEY which sets the scene for stunt car comedies for the next 5 years. In 1978 we got HOOPER then in 1979 THE BLUES BROTHERS and CONVOY and then more SMOKEY sequels. It was seemingly endless. SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT must be one of the most profitable films ever made. Seen thu 2009 eyes it seems to be the most simple of productions: there is not even ONE set used... every shot is taken on the road in a car or a truck, at a raceway fun-park, in a roadside diner, in a car park or in a picnic ground. It is all real .. and with real ordinary people as extras in most scenes..which was a clever way of ensuring incredible expectant word of mouth for the film to open in a big way. And it did.. one of the biggest cinema successes of the late 70s. More good fun than I remembered and evoking a wonderful nostalgia for the 70s, and with the most awful fashions imaginable.. brown pants and incredibly tight clothes.. eek! The budget must have been less than $3 million and it brought in over $100m in rentals! SMOKEY shows why everyone loved the 70s and Burt Reynolds at 42 years old hit his stride as a mega-star of the time. Sally Field was about 36 when she made this and still looks like a teenager!

One of the first films to tap into the anti-authoritarian aspects of the Citizen's Band (CB) radio craze, "Smokey" is basically a movie-length car chase and a pleasantly insipid slice of late-'70's Americana.

The tissue-thin plot has good ole boy pals The Bandit (Reynolds) and Cletus (a surprisingly good Jerry Reed) running a load of Coors cross-country on a tight deadline while trying to avoid an assortment of less-than-bright cops, led by pompous blowhard Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason). Sally Field, as a runaway bride who thumbs her way into Reynolds' car, brings charm and a welcome sense of irony to the macho proceedings.

Stunt coordinator-turned-director Hal Needham stages the action competently, and the actors, who supposedly improvised much of the dialogue, obviously enjoy themselves. A good choice for those who want to relive the glory days of CB rebels, long sideburns, plaid western shirts, and black Trans-Ams with "screaming chicken" decals on the hood. Avoid the two vastly inferior sequels.

I grew up in the south as a teen in the 70's and this movie was the South at that time. It was all about CB radios. I remember when my dad got one in his 1972 cherry red Chevy Impala. He had this big ol' whip antennae on the back and his CB handle(name) was Midnight(because he worked the night shift at Pan Am airlines). I think part of the reason Smokey was such a huge hit was threefold. First off, we were going thru an energy crisis and the age of muscle cars was over and most of us were driving around in small pieces of crap like the Chevette or the VW Rabbit! The thrill of seeing a muscle car like the Pontiac Trans Am tearing across the land was a huge thrill! Secondly, the country as a whole was in a malaise of the "Me Generation"..and all the self-help crap! People were listening to soft-rock like Helen Reddy and John Denver and taking self-help courses like est! People wore earth-tone colors and sandals. So when we saw these 'real-men" like Burt and Jerry Reed in thier plaid shirts and tight jeans, taking on the establishment by disregarding the rules of the road and all that, we got excited! Finally, the sheer delight in seeing people enjoying life was a thrill we all wanted to partake in! I can see why so many people, who were bored with life in the pre-disco late 70's, really enjoyed the escapism of this simple but extremely fun flick! We wanted to be a part of it! It was late-night chocolate we never admitted to eating. It was a movie you partly felt dumb to admitting you liked! But the movie itself inspired the hugely popular TV series Dukes of Hazzard, right down to the cast. Burt and Jerry became Bo and Luke Duke..Sally turned into a Daisy(with better legs!) and Sheriff Buford T. Justice became Boss Hogg with his bumbling sidekick Sheriff Roscoe B. Coltrane! And of course the Trans Am was replaced by a true muscle car, the 1969 Dodge Charger (was thier ever a better muscle car than the 69 Charger?) What followed in the aftermath of this movie was the explosion of disco and letting oneself enjoy life again! The whole world got back into living life and having fun! Maybe Smokey had something

I've never been much of a fan of Burt Reynolds fan, but he happens to star in many 70's and early 80's movies that are right up my alley. We're talking about movies with charismatic macho man protagonists, fast cars, trucks so large they seem to be overcompensating for something else, infantile comedy and flamboyant action stunts. Movies like "White Lightning", "Hooper", The Cannonball Run", "Sharky's Machine", "Gator" and of course the "Smokey and the Bandit" trilogy and I can't help the fact they all star Burt Reynolds. "Smokey and the Bandit" is basically a very simplistic story and approximately three quarters of the film seems improvised at the spot, but a premise like this just can't fail. Two Texan big shots hire the notorious trucker Bandit to illegally transport a lorry of Coors Beer from Texarkana to Georgia in barely 28 hours. Bandit develops a nifty plan where his buddy Snowman drives the beer truck and he drives a Trans-Am in front to divert the attention of the coppers. During the wild and time-pressured ride, Bandit picks up the hyperactive runaway bride Carrie and becomes involved in a testosterone showdown with the fearsome Texan Sheriff Buford T. Justice. You easily forgive "Smokey and the Bandit" for its lack of originality and ideas, simply because everyone involved in the film seems to be so very enthusiast and cheerful. Former stuntman Hal Needham delivers a fast- paced script and taut direction (his other film "MegaForce", on the other hand is a terribly boring turkey) whilst all his cast members are having the time of their lives. Jerry Reed is excellent as the lesser cool sidekick Snowman and he also provides the film with a sublimely irresistible hillbilly soundtrack, including the fantastically catchy songs "East Bound and Down" and "The Legend". Sally Field and Burt Reynolds definitely have on-screen chemistry, but the show is undeniably stolen by Jackie Gleason as the persistent and downright obsessive Sheriff Buford T. Justice. Heck, even his character's name alone is awesome to write and pronounce repeatedly! He has the best lines, allegedly a large part of them were ad-libbed, like when he says to his slow and unintelligent son: "the first thing I'm going to do when we get home, is punch your mother in the face" (referring that the son can't possibly have inherited his stupidity from him).