was there ever anymore smokey and the bandit movies

#WAS THERE EVER ANYMORE SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT MOVIES MOVIE#

He once recorded a song called, “Let’s Do Something Cheap and Superficial,” which seemed to mock the mores of the day and the heartthrob he was supposed to be. Indeed, there was a sly comic sensibility to everything he did. Reynolds certainly would’ve gotten a good talk show story out of that one. Ironically, attempts to post the famous centerfold photo on Facebook on Thursday reportedly ran into the site’s standards-and-practices police. Love and sex didn’t seem to be such pejoratives back then. It was as if he said: “Feminism has come to this? Sign me up.” Trust me, that 1972 “Cosmo” centerfold could’ve been his ruin were it not for his smirky, self-mocking tone. Those pairings helped to soften the swagger. Even apple-cheeked Sally Field seemed too goody-goody for the rogue stock car driver.

#WAS THERE EVER ANYMORE SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT MOVIES MOVIE#

Just look at the contrasts: DeLuise as his longtime comic sidekick on the movie screen and all those spots with Carson his romance with Dinah Shore, 20 years his senior and out of a different Hollywood era. Odd-couple pairings would come to define him. His go-with-the-flow approach was a big part of the appeal to many of the roles, including as convict/quarterback Paul “Wrecking” Crewe in “The Longest Yard.” Men-on-the-run was a theme of “Smokey and the Bandit” and “Deliverance,” after all, but never was there a hint of pushback. Mind you, his re-definition of the smoldering leading man came amid sweeping cultural changes in sexuality, male-female relationships and traditional notions of manhood. He was a hellbent Florida kid with a cop for a father who never seemed to forget where he came from, even as he married actresses and lost - then regained - his fortune. What they mostly have are entourages and the grim expressions of hostages held at gunpoint. In my humble estimation, most big stars don’t seem to have much fun anymore.

Reynolds didn’t invent that sort of easy-going outlaw, he just perfected it.Īnd his sweeping career - in action movies, drama and comedies - has us thinking of Peter O’Toole’s great line from “My Favorite Year”: “I’m not an actor. There are trace elements of him in the careers of George Clooney and Matthew McConaughey as well. In the manner of Richard Pryor and Steve Martin, Reynolds carved a kind of comedy niche. Ellen DeGeneres does some of Reynolds’ same self-deprecating shtick, and you see signs of Reynolds in nearly everything Dwayne Johnson does. Journalists who profiled him in later years say he worried over how he’d be remembered. “Lots of problems, lots of laughs,” one fellow actor remembered Thursday.

Hey, kids, want to “own” your upcoming talk show appearance? Study those clips of Reynolds, whose career was a masterclass in storytelling, physical humor and slivered wit.įriends say he was difficult and complicated.

Was there ever anymore smokey and the bandit movies