SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT - PART 3

US, 1983, 81 minutes, Colour.
Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, Paul Williams, Burt Reynolds.
Directed by Dick Lowry.

Smokey and the Bandit - Part 3 begins pleasingly enough with flashbacks to the earlier films and a focus on Burt Reynolds.

However, without Burt Reynolds the film does not have the tongue-in cheek jokiness of the former films. Jackie Gleason is put in the centre and is quite abrasive in his personality, character and his abuse of his son Junior. Mike Henry as Junior continues, quite well, his rather oafish but likable ignorance. Paul Williams and Pat Mc Cormick as Big and Little Enos repeat their roles from the original - but are reduced to playing childish pranks on Gleason. Jerry Reed has the opportunity to step into Burt Reynolds' role but is given such egocentric lines that he lacks credibility. The main pleasant character is Colleen Camp (from They All Laughed, Apocalypse Now).

There are crashes galore - which seem quite unnecessary. The dialogue and the situations become crasser as the film goes on andwith a motel, oglingly lewd.

Burt Reynolds appears for a minute towards the end - quite pleasantly; but it reinforces the fact that he is far too absent from the film.

The first film was quite bright, the second got by on repetition - the third, to what purpose?