In an effort to review classic movies as well as newer ones we have looked back at the film, believe it or not, when adjusted for inflation, is Clint Eastwood's biggest flick. In 1976 Rocky was a hit and in 1977 Smokey and the Bandit was a hit so somebody came up with the idea of mixing the two together and adding an Orangutan. Somebody wanted it to get to Burt Reynolds but Clint Eastwood got it first and claimed it as his own. He grabbed his frequent costars in Geofrey Lewis and his squeeze Sandra Locke and went to work.
What a piece of garbage. I compare this film to the crust that can form on a corpses underwear when they die from crab infestation. I like Clint, and you can tell they are having fun with this movie but what the hell???? Clint barely has more than twenty lines. He does some boxing but who cares. The biker gang steals most scenes they are in. The ape steals every scene he is in. Clint was the only one who would cast Sandra Locke and in this he even tries to turn her into a singer. At least in Smokey and the Bandit nobody felt like Sally Field was a lying whore and that is exactly what Sandra Lockes character turns into. Comedy at its finest. Smokey was all over the place so I guess this thought it could be as well. At no time does it take it self too serious which is fine. How could it? This is the height of 70's rhinestone cowboy country. Mel Tillis is in the film for a cameo singing his song Coca Cola Cowboy which contains the line....you got an Eastwood Smile and Robert Redford Hair........This is like Uma Thurman now doing a film and having Fall Out Boy appear singing their song......Uma Thurman.
But at that time, when films could be trash and still get pimple faced punks to show up when not jerking off to grizzly adams bush porno mags, they also did a sequel a few years later. Hell this even lead to the inspiration, I am sure, for BJ and the Bear. A show on network TV dedicated to a truck driver and his monkey.
If you see this do it only like the person who has to come in to a room to figure out what the bad smell everyone else is smelling. Turn on Outlaw Josie Wells or High Plains Drifter if you are in an old Clint Eastwood mood. Hell put on Paint Your Wagon if you want to see Clint Eastwood in comedy. Of course it is Lee Marvin who steals the scenes in that.
Dr is out
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