Smokey and the Bandit II Reviews

So unimaginative that it's more of a remake than a sequel, this film opens with "the Bandit," Burt Reynolds, who was a folk hero at the end of SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (1977), now a washed-up drunk. His girl friend, Sally Fields, has deserted him, but he gets a chance for redemption when wealthy brothers Pat McCormick and Paul Williams offer him a fortune to haul a pregnant elephant to the Republican National Convention in Dallas--and they want it done in a hurry. Jerry Reed is again along for the ride, Jackie Gleason reprises his role as the hot-tempered sheriff pursuing Reynolds, and Dom DeLuise is a gynecologist kidnaped to care for the elephant. Reynolds and his buddies all act as if they're in a home movie as they rehash the same tired gags and dull chases that filled the original. Still, like its predecessor, it cleaned up at the box office, prompting an even more dismal follow-up, SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT--PART 3 in 1983.