Hooper

Hooper (1978)

Runtime: 99 minutes

Directed by: Hal Needham

Starring: Burt Reynolds, Jan-Michael Vincent, James Best, Sally Field, Brian Keith

From: Warner Bros.

This was something I watched yesterday for the first time; it's not my favorite Burt but it's still entertaining; read about it in my Letterboxd review below: 

Somewhat surprisingly this was shown on Turner Classic Movies early yesterday evening. It's not on any streaming platforms (at the moment) so I figured I should see it while I can. It's a movie about stuntmen directed by famed stuntman Hal Needham so I knew what to expect going in, and that's what I got.

The plot isn't too complex: Sonny Hooper is a legendary stuntman, but his body is breaking down, he needs to pound down many cans of Coors beer to survive (and boy do you see many different cans of Coors beer throughout; it's obvious who provided money for advertisement), not to mention popping pain pills. A young upstart played by Jan-Michael Vincent enters the picture and there's a friendly rivalry as they both work together on a ersatz James Bond film. You see Sonny hang out with his pals, get involved in a great bar brawl, deal with filmmakers that just don't understand, and yes there is a big finale that literally and figuratively is explosive.

This is not high art by any means (I mean, Terry Bradshaw was still an NFL quarterback at this time and hadn't yet become a pregame personality) and I wouldn't call it great; yet, it is still a pleasant movie that has laughs (even if some of it is doing illegal activity, such as chugging Coors while driving a motor vehicle or recklessly flooring your stunt car all around the studio while other movies are being filmed), some drama with Hooper fearing becoming old/his body being in such poor shape-even if it's not explored in-depth-and of course, plenty of impressive stunts, and as it was in the past it wasn't CGI and instead it was the brave stuntmen and stuntwomen of old who actually did all of those crazy things. A little of Burt Reynolds and his considerable charisma goes a long way.

The movie is no Smokey & The Bandit when it comes to “good old boys” comedies that are quite silly yet entertaining, but it's still an amusing thing where you get plenty of cool stunts and plenty of Burt's trademark laughter.