EARLY ACCESS: Smokey & The Bandit

I totally agree! Begging for this!

Chazzie3679

Dolly and Burt in "Best Little Whore House". I know you LOVE Dolly.

JuneBug_TX

No kidding. So cute.

Thomas Yanez

Was trying to place the "Wheels spinnin', beavers grinnin'" guy and it just came to me...he was the "Young lady are you aware of the penal codes in this state?" guy in "Kentucky Fried Movie" lol

Paul Johnson

Now that she is into the Burt movies, Best little whorehouse in texas!

R. Chris Yates

Burt Reynolds didn’t even WANT to be in the third movie, so the producers tried making “Smokey IS the Bandit”, with Jackie Gleason as the Sheriff’s bandit twin brother. But the preview audience was so horribly confused, producers had to go back and reshot half the movie into a new plot where it was Sheriff Justice after all.

Eric Janssen

Saw this in theaters when I was a kid. I named my puppy, Bandit.

Stevilicious

And Burt’s old stunt-buddy Hal Needham directed about 90% of them, prompting Roger Ebert by the mid-80’s to finally write : “Read my lips - Cars are NOT FUNNY. It is not funny when a police car chases a speeding car down a highway. It is not funny when a truck crashes into a car. It is not funny when a car crashes through a road barrier. It is not funny when a car leaps through the air. It is not funny when a car skids a 180 and speeds off in the other direction.”

Eric Janssen

....WHAT ABOUT IT??

Eric Janssen

Or you could just dig up the CW McCall CB-radio novelty song (a craze fueled by the Bandit) on YouTube, since the movie cash-in spinoff that 00’s kids have heard of instead is...not very good.

Eric Janssen

Me on Thursday: “She’s not gonna like this movie....PLEASE do not let her like this movie. She didn’t like the Blues Brothers crashes and all the Mad Mad World highway scenes, we’re safe, she won’t like this movie.....Oh, wait, it’s Ashleigh—She’ll like this movie. Southerners HAVE to like 70’s Burt Reynolds car comedies, it’s some kind of state law down there, like NASCAR. 😖 “

Eric Janssen

I also like Cannonball Run, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The End, and City Heat

Wesley Eskildsen

The Chemistry between Field and Reynolds was spot on. They met doing this movie and dated for 5 years. Reynolds later would say she was the love of his life.

Wesley Eskildsen

Can't wait until after work. You are one of the first things I watch when I'm settled for evening. This is a fun one. Part of my childhood.

Context: In 1974 Congress enacted a 55mph National Maximum Speed Limit which instantly turned just about everyone into a speeder. Most people hated driving 55 and public sentiment towards highway cops (Bears) dropped like a rock. This made a movie about a guy in a fast car outwitting a cop very popular and Burt Reynolds was HUGE at the time.

TheNeonRabbit

Damn how pretty Sally was

Brett Delbridge

Everyone seems to only remember Deliverance for one or two particular scenes, but the whole movie is pretty incredible.

Nick of Time

That was an awesome reaction. I still remember when I first saw this in the theater when I was 11. Jerry Reed (Bandit 2) was one of the greatest guitar players who ever lived. Fantastic musician. ALSO . . . they were in a meeting trying to figure out a MAIN song for the movie, and having trouble. Then Jerry goes into the other room, fiddles around for a bit, and less than a half hour later he came out and had East Bound and Down. He wrote that song literally in less than an hour. Glad you liked this movie! It's one of my favorites.

Raul Melendez

My mom got to meet Burt Reynolds back in the 1970s. I have the picture on my phone. 😆

Andy H.

It's interesting to me that she used to work in radio and /knew/ the lyrics to "Eastbound and Down" without having ever seen "Smokey & the Bandit" but /still/ didn't know who Jerry Reed was by name.

Amstrad

If you like Burt Reynolds, I highly recommend “Deliverance” a very scary movie, and “Starting Over” .

Richard Meyer

I think their song for the Beverly Hillbillies is the best known TV theme song in television history. Even people who never saw the show know the song.

Bill Bevins

That one and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is another good one. As a straight married man, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed those two movies.

Bill Bevins

Also recently picked up an obscure favorite Reynolds film on DVD ..Samuel Fuller's "Shark!"(1968)...

Paul Johnson

I wouldn't put it in the top tier of "asked for" but there's also the 1978 movie "Convoy". You referenced it here, probably without knowing it (but I won't say how).

JHB

That was a wonderful reaction to one of my favorite guilty pleasure flicks. This is by no means sophisticated humor but the dialogue is snappy with spot-on characterization. Burt Reynolds' chemistry with both Jerry Reed and with Sally Fields is obvious and feels very real to me. Thank you to Ashleigh and to Chris for bringing this to us. I do have to take one issue with you Ashleigh. For someone who has claimed to love classic country music, how could you not know Lester (Flatt) and Earl (Scruggs)? These two supremely able pickers were major forces in early country and bluegrass music. It is seriously difficult to overstate their influence and it would be wrong to diminish them by calling them mere country music royalty. Check them out here if the mood strikes you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_Y3mnj-8lA

T.J. Gengler

Glad you watched this one. Two other things you should watch ASAP are: The Producers (Mel Brooks won an Oscar for it, plus - Dick Shawn, who you saw in mad mad mad mad world will leave you in stitches), and Good Morning Vietnam (as a radio person, you will appreciate it even more, and Robin Williams will leave you in stitches).

SCSponge

Great Reaction!! $80,000 in 1977 would be a little over $355,000 today.

Randy Alexander

ROBOCOP!

Timothy Estrada

He also plays a great villain in Brian De Palma's cult musical Phantom of the Paradise.

Tyler Foster

Awesome review. So glad you liked this one.This is one of my all time favorite movies. Me and my friends quote this one all the time. Speaking of the Duke's of Hazzard the motorcycle cop at the end played Deputy Enos on the Duke's. And Paul Williams who played Little Enos was a major song writer in the 70s and 80s He co wrote Kermit the Frogs Rainbow Connection.

Mike Johnson

Got some bad news for ya. But at the time this was made Burt Reynolds wore a toupee. That hair wasn't real.

Keith Boyd

Beans and Fred are kindred spirits!! It’d be like the thunderdome over some kibbles boy🤣 Every time Jerry Reed grunts picking up Fred I think of you picking up Beans chunky butt

Freddy Spence

So excited you got to see this! I am pretty sure you set a new record on the OMG counter too. Natural progression dictates that you have to watch Canon Ball Run! Pleeeeease? 😻

Ullatec

Great reaction! I 1st saw this movie with my family at the drive-in when I was 10 back in 77....If you think Burt was young here you should see his appearances on TV's "Gunsmoke" and "Dan August"...also Burt and Sally fell in love IRL making this movie and were an item for a few years after and Jerry Reed(Snowman) was also a country singer who sang the theme song "Eastbound and Down" he also had a couple of country/pop hits in the early 70's: "Amos Moses" and "When You're Hot You're Hot"

Paul Johnson

"Bad News Bears" was great...with Walter Matthau("The Taking of Pelham One Two Three") and Tatum O'Neal("Paper Moon")...

Paul Johnson

if ur thinking of watching something for Pride month may I suggest "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar" (1995) it's a comedy with Patrick Swayze... In drag.

Elisa H.

The song you're talking about is a 70s movie, too! CONVOY! They could not use the song in this movie, as the film, CONVOY was already in production when this came out.

Jill Peterson

I'm glad you liked it, I think it's fun too! This movie and Convoy started a trucker craze in the late 70's. I got a toy walkie talkie when I was a kid and learned some of the lingo.

Michael Waldrep

Loved your reaction. This is a true 70's movie, for another good 70's movie you need to watch "THE BAD NEWS BEARS" from 1976. It's hilarious and probably one of the best baseball movies ever made.

Billy Hogner

Mike Henry, who plays Junior, is in it. Avoid at al) cost the stupid Adam Sandler remake.

Bill Bevins

Saw this when it first came out. The second one was good too but the third one was pretty bad. I grew up watching Jackie Gleason on TV. He had a variety show that was on every Saturday night. This was a breakthrough role for him because it was shocking to see his character curse so much. My favorite performance was Mike Henry as Junior. He played in the NFL for a few years for the Rams and Steelers. His was also known for playing Tarzan in 3 movies in the mid 60s. He also did more serious roles like in The Longest Yard and The Green Berets. When he played Junior it was great to see how funny he could be as he never did comedy before. After he was known for playing Colonel Donald Penobscot on MASH.

Bill Bevins

Speaking of Burt and films of that era: 'The Longest Yard'.....If you have not seen it 10/10 would recommend.

Carl Sage

Jerry Reed, who portrayed the Snowman, was originally thought of to play the part of Bandit but was otherwise engaged in another film. Smokey And The Bandit's theme song, which plays endlessly in the movie, was "Eastbound And Down," a #2 hit on the Billboard country chart for Jerry Reed.

Andy Hafler

The movie “Convoy”,released the same year 1977,has the “Convoy” song in it. React to that movie,pretty please?

Richard Stegman Jr.

After this movie came out sales of the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am went up 700%.

Thomas Ivie

OMG I can’t wait to see your reaction to this movie! Haha

Michael Waldrep