Big and Little Enos (Pat McCormick and Paul Williams) decide to have some more fun, with plans to open "fish'n'chips" restaurants, offering $250,000 grand to the "retiring" Sheriff Buford T Justice (Jackie Gleason, trying his damnedest to make the material work despite itself, with lines like "Junior, when this is all over, I'm gonna buy you a nice lobotomy.") if he'll transport a dummy shark with their advertisement from Miami to Austin, with multiple attempts along to way to deter them from their quest. But each time the Enos duo seem to throw up roadblocks, Buford and his oft-ridiculed son, Junior (Mike Henry, as amiable and clueless as ever) just seem to keep going. Buford is relentless, even as the Enos duo elicits the assistance of a "new Bandit", Cletus (Jerry Reed, still plenty appealing and relishing the chance to be in the driver seat for a change instead of second fiddle to Burt Reynolds), to secure the shark himself, offered the same reward if he can make the trip in a few days time. With a tagalong, Dusty Trails (Colleen Camp; I swear this is the poor girl's character's name in the film!) as his passenger, Cletus will further complicate matters for poor Buford, stealing away the shark (he uses a lasso as Dusty takes temporary control of the steering wheel!), and forcing the sheriff to play a game of "take the shark" throughout their journey cross country.
This film seems designed specifically to destroy Gleason's cop car (and, man alive, does that car take a beating!) as it explodes through a milk hauler (that showers the Enos duo who planned to use the truck as a diversionary tactic), takes out the Klu Klux clan (who had been tormenting a black chicken farmer and his father (but the chicken farmers get the last laugh when the Clan is tarred and feathered!), smashes through a flower stand and cartons of eggs, not to mention, a bumper is torn off from a tow truck, the tires are flattened, and the Enos duo drop bombs at the end leaving it a skeletal wreck. Gleason and Reed try really hard to make the comedy work, and that saddens me to no end because the film just does them no favors. The script leaves Gleason trying to make "flea pecker" and "you dumb sht" zingers tickle our funnybone, and after a while I could only feel sorry for him. It isn't for a lack of effort, though. Reed has this one scene where he must go into a bar with Harley bikers hanging around and fall out over and over while asking Camp what all she wants on her cheeseburger, repeatedly returning to eventually vanquish the baddies giving him a hard time it feels like a daunting task for poor Jerry, having to get laughs out of spilling from a bar, all smiles and flashing the "ah, gee, whiz" attitude despite punches to the face nearly damaging his shades. Camp is given little to work with, trying (bless her heart) to use her bright personality to overcome uninspired dialogue that is more or less chatty back and forth with Reed. I did like Reed allowing Buford the chance to win at the end; it was very "un-Bandit like". The Burt Reynolds cameo still feels as forced as I remembered from childhood. Gleason and Henry got some giggles out of me, and I love Reed even if his role is overwhelmingly reduced in relation to Gleason's. Right from the song sung during the credits sequence, this film was designed around the Buford T Justice character; even the poster for this film has Gleason's face at the forefront. As the film goes, everything from a sex hotel orgy to a colony of nudists is hurled at us, with Gleason reacting exhaustingly, "What has this world come to?!?!" Don't worry, you get to see the Trans Am drive right through an inferno with Gleason following suit, the two cars joining a race, and a dirt hauler dumps a load on poor Gleason's car, helping the Bandit get a little distance from the persistent sheriff. I think the absence of the star power of Reynolds and Sally Field can be felt, but even the previous sequel with them in it proved that the first film probably should have remained standalone. There are times where a film feels like a desperate attempt to keep a dead franchise resuscitated, and this is such an example...also an example of fun actors unable to overcome the odds compounding them. At least you get to see Gleason standing in front of a giant American Flag, dressed as George C Scott's Patton, boring the audience of his law enforcement peers while praising his career and announcing his retirement...
This film seems designed specifically to destroy Gleason's cop car (and, man alive, does that car take a beating!) as it explodes through a milk hauler (that showers the Enos duo who planned to use the truck as a diversionary tactic), takes out the Klu Klux clan (who had been tormenting a black chicken farmer and his father (but the chicken farmers get the last laugh when the Clan is tarred and feathered!), smashes through a flower stand and cartons of eggs, not to mention, a bumper is torn off from a tow truck, the tires are flattened, and the Enos duo drop bombs at the end leaving it a skeletal wreck. Gleason and Reed try really hard to make the comedy work, and that saddens me to no end because the film just does them no favors. The script leaves Gleason trying to make "flea pecker" and "you dumb sht" zingers tickle our funnybone, and after a while I could only feel sorry for him. It isn't for a lack of effort, though. Reed has this one scene where he must go into a bar with Harley bikers hanging around and fall out over and over while asking Camp what all she wants on her cheeseburger, repeatedly returning to eventually vanquish the baddies giving him a hard time it feels like a daunting task for poor Jerry, having to get laughs out of spilling from a bar, all smiles and flashing the "ah, gee, whiz" attitude despite punches to the face nearly damaging his shades. Camp is given little to work with, trying (bless her heart) to use her bright personality to overcome uninspired dialogue that is more or less chatty back and forth with Reed. I did like Reed allowing Buford the chance to win at the end; it was very "un-Bandit like". The Burt Reynolds cameo still feels as forced as I remembered from childhood. Gleason and Henry got some giggles out of me, and I love Reed even if his role is overwhelmingly reduced in relation to Gleason's. Right from the song sung during the credits sequence, this film was designed around the Buford T Justice character; even the poster for this film has Gleason's face at the forefront. As the film goes, everything from a sex hotel orgy to a colony of nudists is hurled at us, with Gleason reacting exhaustingly, "What has this world come to?!?!" Don't worry, you get to see the Trans Am drive right through an inferno with Gleason following suit, the two cars joining a race, and a dirt hauler dumps a load on poor Gleason's car, helping the Bandit get a little distance from the persistent sheriff. I think the absence of the star power of Reynolds and Sally Field can be felt, but even the previous sequel with them in it proved that the first film probably should have remained standalone. There are times where a film feels like a desperate attempt to keep a dead franchise resuscitated, and this is such an example...also an example of fun actors unable to overcome the odds compounding them. At least you get to see Gleason standing in front of a giant American Flag, dressed as George C Scott's Patton, boring the audience of his law enforcement peers while praising his career and announcing his retirement...