Smokey and the bandit It was made in 1977, and there is a clear line between it and this year's. The scapegoatabove all because smoked was directed by a former stuntman: it's the kind of movie Ryan Gosling's character would have spent much of his career making, a movie driven by a mix of stuntmen and a charismatic lead rather than much plot or characterization.
The protagonist here is Burt Reynolds, who plays a beer-dealing bandit trying to get a truckload of moonshine to Georgia. This is not a plan that pleases the local police, and they pursue it with largely amusing consequences. The results are worth watching on Netflix.
Is Smokey and the Bandit worth streaming?
Smokey and the bandit It's very, very '70s, right down to its attempts to capitalize on the CB radio craze that was in effect at the time. It has a very similar vibe to The Dukes of Hazzard and the original series The scapegoat: It's a movie where everyone is clearly having fun and no one has the slightest misconception that they're making great art. As Time Out said, “the film's verve makes up for its lack of ideas”: it is “quick but essentially lazy.” Think back to the 1970s Fast and Furious and you have the idea.
The film is a great example of “they don't make them like they used to”, both in terms of the exciting stunt work (this was long before CGI was available) and the lack of real substance in the film: like The Hollywood Reporter says it's actually a one-joke movie, and while it's a pretty good joke (it revolves around the increasingly disgruntled cops and their squad), there's not much more to the movie than that: it's a chase. 97 minutes that the Reporter described as “mildly entertaining and totally stupid”.
It may not have the depth of the best Netflix movies, but it's as fun as any of them and a good way to start the week.
