Smokey and the Bandit Part 3

Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983)

Runtime: 85 minutes

Directed by: Dick Lowry

Starring: Jackie Gleason and the rest of the expected cast. There's also Colleen Camp

From: Universal

Oof, I remembered this being bad, which it was. It was more disjointed than I recalled. Read all the details below: 

I was not planning on seeing this movie at this time, but yesterday I got a flat tire (and this was a week after my battery went bad and died) and as from a YouTube video I know that there's a scene where Buford T. Justice and Junior get two flat tires (and minutes later drive away as if the car has no flat tires? I can tell you that is poppycock) and it seemed appropriate on what was a crappy day. At least that tire was replaced today and with any luck my string of bad luck will end.

Before I get to that, I have to talk about the obvious: the long-standing rumor that the movie was originally known as Smokey IS the Bandit, where Jackie Gleason played both roles, until it was shown to a test audience, who hated it/was endlessly confused, and Jerry Reed and Colleen Camp came in as The Faux Bandit and Faux Frog. There's been a lot said about the veracity of this rumor and no one knows for sure what the truth is. Yet, I can say it's apparent it was a troubled production and there is footage shot which obviously looks done after the fact so it'd match footage shot earlier. The whole film is a mess and incredibly disjointed. There is the rumor that the film wasn't going to be Gleason playing both roles but instead it'd be Buford T. Justice who would be acting like The Bandit and doing the challenge of Big and Little Enos. Maybe that was what happened... it'd explain why the Enos clan try to troll Buford and make him fail the challenge, and why The Bandit's only role is to be another troll.

The plot, as it is (and unlike the plot listed on this site): Big and Little Enos bet money that Buford can't drive a police car with a large stuffed fish from Miami to Texas. It advertises a fish & chips joint they're about to open, which I understand. I can't quite get why their restaurant will be known as Enis Fish & Chips... you can see the attention to detail that went to this product. There's car crashes and many things being run into or run over, but the story is so not cohesive and it's quite dumb, I can't say this is worth watching, even with some funny lines from Justice and oddball moments, like a scene involving a pickup truck full of Klan members, or the amount of nudity in this PG movie (ahhh, the 80's and the days before PG-13).

The brief appearance from Burt Reynolds is not enough to make this worthwhile, either. Instead, you have to see Jerry Reed cosplay as The Bandit and quite frankly act real kooky about cosplaying as his longtime buddy. As people call him The Bandit, it is easy to see how footage can be tacked on after the fact. I'd love to see different versions of this so at least some of the tales can be put to bed and we can find out what is true and what is apocryphal. Alas, I know that aside from the footage that was added on for network TV airings, all the footage was likely thrown into a dumpster in 1983 and has been gone for over 30 years. I don't know if it'd be any better than what was released but it'd be nice to have the mystery solved, you know. Instead, what we have is a movie where a lot of the action is obviously filmed on either the most rural of roads or on roads that aren't even open yet for the public. What a shame this was not the fun movie it could have been.