I first seen the original Smokey and the Bandit when I was 13 when it was first released the summer of 1977 I was so in love with the first one I seen it 17 times in the theaters. I once walk in the rain to see it, I took my first date to see it and I have probably seen it 100 times on TV and Video.
With all that said I think I have the right to critique the sequel. I remember waiting 3 yrs for part II, I remember hearing there might be one in 1977 and I was so excited. Well, I remember I thought something was going wrong early in 1980 when I herd reports they wanted to call it "Smokey and the Bandit have a Baby" But I was still eager to see it, I rushed to see it the first night it was released, I remember it was a packed house and I was really excited. Then it happened, while watching it I couldn't help thinking this thing was awful!
It had nothing what so ever from the first one, they went for nothing but laughs, goofy plot, goofy gags, goofy jokes and transporting an elephant for $400,000 was so stupid! At first you might say, well wasn't the first like that? NO!!. Watch the first one again after watching the sequel, First - The Bandit was cool thru the whole movie, never lost his cool, never went for just a laugh, He was kinda the straight man. Even Jerry Reed (Snowman) had a really cool seen where he gets beat up (and this was a serious seen) and then runs over all the bikers bikes, that was great!! I remember the audience cheering when that happened. You even believed the Bandit and Frog really fell in love.
True it had a lot of slap stick screw ball humor but that was all from the sheriff's (Buford T. Justice) character, and it was all really funny. They could have really done a lot with this movie, like in most sequels they forgot the first rule - Continue with the original story! Don't repeat it!! The trick is to make it look like one whole movie cut in half, not a remake done badly. (for more research on how Not to make a sequel see Another 48hrs)
With all that said I think I have the right to critique the sequel. I remember waiting 3 yrs for part II, I remember hearing there might be one in 1977 and I was so excited. Well, I remember I thought something was going wrong early in 1980 when I herd reports they wanted to call it "Smokey and the Bandit have a Baby" But I was still eager to see it, I rushed to see it the first night it was released, I remember it was a packed house and I was really excited. Then it happened, while watching it I couldn't help thinking this thing was awful!
It had nothing what so ever from the first one, they went for nothing but laughs, goofy plot, goofy gags, goofy jokes and transporting an elephant for $400,000 was so stupid! At first you might say, well wasn't the first like that? NO!!. Watch the first one again after watching the sequel, First - The Bandit was cool thru the whole movie, never lost his cool, never went for just a laugh, He was kinda the straight man. Even Jerry Reed (Snowman) had a really cool seen where he gets beat up (and this was a serious seen) and then runs over all the bikers bikes, that was great!! I remember the audience cheering when that happened. You even believed the Bandit and Frog really fell in love.
True it had a lot of slap stick screw ball humor but that was all from the sheriff's (Buford T. Justice) character, and it was all really funny. They could have really done a lot with this movie, like in most sequels they forgot the first rule - Continue with the original story! Don't repeat it!! The trick is to make it look like one whole movie cut in half, not a remake done badly. (for more research on how Not to make a sequel see Another 48hrs)