Stroker Ace (1983)
1/2 (out of 4)
I must admit that when people say Burt Reynolds I gladly call myself a fan since I love DELIVERANCE and enjoy both THE LONGEST YARD and SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT. So far I've stayed away from his 80s output but decided to tackle my first one with this turkey and it's rather sad if you really think about how bad this thing is. In the film Reynolds plays Stroker Ace, a hot-shot Nascar driver who signs a contract with a chicken king (Ned Beatty) who soon has the star on the road making a fool of himself. With the help of his mechanic (Jim Nabors) and another associate (Loni Anderson), Ace must try and find a way to get fired and released from the contract. Earlier I said it was sad to watch something like this considering some of the great things Reynolds had done in his career so it's rather stupid of me to highly recommend this film due to how incredibly bad it is. I really wasn't expecting too much but it's rather shocking to see how unfunny this comedy is and the only reason it avoids a BOMB rating from me is simply because it remains entertaining simply so you can see how much worse it's going to get. The movie has no plot to think of and what little there is is just downright stupid. Do we really believe someone would sign this contract without reading it? The movie contains one bad joke after another and we get at least four with Reynolds looking in the mirror to comment on how good his hair looks. I honestly can't say he gives a bad performance because he plays that same Good Ol' Boy that he made a career out of. He's certainly going through the motions but he comes off looking as if he thinks he's doing a great job. Nabors is slightly charming in a few scenes but Beatty comes off pretty bad throughout. Anderson's entire character seems like something from another movie and the supporting cast includes various Nascar drivers, Bubba Smith and even Elvira pops up in perhaps the best gag of the film. I think the scariest thing is that this movie apparently did pretty well at the box office and this wasn't the film that would eventually kill Reynolds career. I plan on going through more of his output from this decade and I really hope nothing is worse than this here. Fingers crossed.
1/2 (out of 4)
I must admit that when people say Burt Reynolds I gladly call myself a fan since I love DELIVERANCE and enjoy both THE LONGEST YARD and SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT. So far I've stayed away from his 80s output but decided to tackle my first one with this turkey and it's rather sad if you really think about how bad this thing is. In the film Reynolds plays Stroker Ace, a hot-shot Nascar driver who signs a contract with a chicken king (Ned Beatty) who soon has the star on the road making a fool of himself. With the help of his mechanic (Jim Nabors) and another associate (Loni Anderson), Ace must try and find a way to get fired and released from the contract. Earlier I said it was sad to watch something like this considering some of the great things Reynolds had done in his career so it's rather stupid of me to highly recommend this film due to how incredibly bad it is. I really wasn't expecting too much but it's rather shocking to see how unfunny this comedy is and the only reason it avoids a BOMB rating from me is simply because it remains entertaining simply so you can see how much worse it's going to get. The movie has no plot to think of and what little there is is just downright stupid. Do we really believe someone would sign this contract without reading it? The movie contains one bad joke after another and we get at least four with Reynolds looking in the mirror to comment on how good his hair looks. I honestly can't say he gives a bad performance because he plays that same Good Ol' Boy that he made a career out of. He's certainly going through the motions but he comes off looking as if he thinks he's doing a great job. Nabors is slightly charming in a few scenes but Beatty comes off pretty bad throughout. Anderson's entire character seems like something from another movie and the supporting cast includes various Nascar drivers, Bubba Smith and even Elvira pops up in perhaps the best gag of the film. I think the scariest thing is that this movie apparently did pretty well at the box office and this wasn't the film that would eventually kill Reynolds career. I plan on going through more of his output from this decade and I really hope nothing is worse than this here. Fingers crossed.