Reviews & Ratings for
Gator More at IMDbPro »

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 1 of 3:

[1] [2] [3]

Index

23 reviews in total

---

7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Burt steps behind the camera for the first time., 30 November 2001
Author: (billybrown41@hotmail.com) from Kimberling City, MO.

I'm a huge fan of Burt Reynolds. The man just won't go down, no matter what odds are stacked against him. People can say what they want about him, he's certainly no quitter and he usually comes out on top. He's been a hero of mine for most of my life and I've grown up loving his movies. Did anyone ever see the good ole boy flick "White Lightning"? Well this is the sequel.

While this might be a strange sequel, I can understand why it is so different from the first. First off, this was made mostly for the drive-in crowd who may not have caught "White Lightning". This allowed the sequel to be a bit looser, where it didn't have to deal too much with what happened in "Lightning". Basically, what you're getting is a a continuation of the Gator McClusky character.

Here's a quickie on the plot: Swamp rat, Gator McClusky is living the life after just being released from the State Penn. He's currently spending his days moonshining with the old man, when the feds come to him with a proposition. Infiltrate a group led by childhood friend, Bama McCall (Jerry Reed), get enough evidence to bust him, or go back to prison for making moonshine. It's a hard choice. Double cross a lifelong friend or go back to prison and lose custody of your daughter. Needless to say, Gator goes with option A and eventually, all hell will break loose.

This was Burt's first shot at directing and, for the most part, he does okay. I have a few quibbles though. This is a PG-rated flick that was most-likely marketed as a comedy. There is plenty of comedy, in fact, from watching the first ten-minutes, you're going to think this is "Smokey and the Bandit" done in the swamps with Jack Weston playing a New York Smokey. There are a lot of laughs in this film and almost all of the characters are likeable. So this leads to my big bitch: Why in the HELL did everything go from lighthearted to cold and violent in the last act? Why did everything have to go down-hill in such a hurry? Maybe it's because the film spends too long meandering in pointless situations and then, when time comes for something significant, it happens lightning-quick. That is why I had such a hard time believing Jerry Reed as the bad guy. His performance was top notch but the film's pacing makes him go from good buddy, to mean, crooked, bad ass way too quickly.

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, but it's all very cofusing. Maybe, had the film been edited and trimmed a bit better, all of this would have been a bit more believable and things would have ran more smoothly. But being as it is, the whole thing has a very truncated feel. Watch it and you'll see what I mean.

I'm giving this film a 7/10 because, despite it's flaws, it's a hell of a lot of fun and Burt gives the kind of performance that you've come to know and love. "Gator" is definitely a good movie, once you get past it's faults. It's a real shame that movies with this kind of theme aren't made anymore.

---

6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Classic Burt!, 22 November 2004
Author: monterfamily from United States

I saw this movie in the theater with my Daddy when I was in the 3rd grade. I came out to idolize Burt so much that I told people my nickname was "Gator'. Okay, give me a break, I was only eight years old! Besides there is no one like Burt. How many men can woo the ladies, be tough, laugh at people , and then laugh at himself? Not too many. "Gator" is an unusual piece of film noir for B-Movie lovers. I think it should be labeled as one of the All time Southern Cult films. It has some decent action scenes, romance, dark humor, and startling and unsettling violence. For instance, Jack Weston getting mugged in the alley was rather unpleasant. It wasn't a fair fight considering a behemoth and a dude with a crow-bar. Jerry Reed's little sawed off 12 gauge proved nasty at times. Alice Ghostley getting fried in the house was pretty sad. So the film does have some real violence. But it was effective. Jerry Reed brilliantly plays a villain. The way film villains should be played, cool, sleazy, charming, alternating with elusive viciousness. Reed is one southern rogue who should have been a more prolific actor. As a kid I thought Lauren Hutton was absolutely gorgeous. Of course this flick isn't refined artistic film making. Nor is it good writing. But it works! Somehow this lowbrow story works and makes for good late night entertainment.

---

5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
vigorous ride of revenge, friendship and violence in the south of Florida, a fast and powerful movie you will not want to miss..., 3 March 1999
Author: ary luiz dalazen jr. (ajr@fortalnet.com.br) from Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil

"Gator " marks a time in that there were not limits for the pleasure, for the happiness and for the adventure! this film is a typical turn to the seventies, and it has as the protagonist the star who reigned absolute for this time and who is finally returning: Burt Reynolds. Seen today, of course " Gator " seems a simple film and with a weak story, but if we analyze the context of the time in what it was done, Gator " is memorable and, without a doubt, an entertaining film and that deserves to be watched! Burt Reynolds offers all his charm, all his talent, interpreting Gator McKlusky, a scoundrel who is forced by the policemen to infiltrate in the criminal organization of an old childhood friend, and discover evidences that will lead him to the prison. Jerry Reed, another great icon of the seventies, is excellent as Bama McCall, the boss of the organized crime who seems to be owner of the south of Florida, Lauren Hutton was never so pretty and nice, particularly in the scene in what she and Burt Reynolds are talking at the beach, at night, near of a bonfire. Gator " is a celebration of a time where everything was simpler, truer and tasty, it is a memorable and efficient film that, even after so many years, preserves the tension and unforgettable scenes . Watch " Gator ", it is not the best film of Burt Reynolds career, but it is one of the good ones!

---

5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Reynold's Best, 13 May 2003

Author: mm-39 from Winnipeg

This is White Lightning with the budget. Great story, and action with a mix of directing that gives the viewer a feel for the south. A tailor made role for Burt Reynolds, which became a high water mark, he never could reach again. I love the part where the tall guy uses the sun roof in order to drive the car, and the beginning narration. Too bad this format was not in use for Sharky's Machine, he would have done better in the 80's. This movie made him a star of the 70's, and this film ages well, which is the test of time. 8 out of 10 rent it today.

---

5 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Reed ascendant, 8 May 1999
Author: matthew wilder (picqueur@aol.com) from los angeles

This 1976 sequel to Burt's successful good-ole-boy movie WHITE LIGHTNING doesn't represent its star in peak form--as actor or director. (The picture was uncreditedly co-directed by James Best, star of several Sam Fuller movies; he didn't learn much from the old man.) But it's memorable for one reason only--for the guy who, for my money, takes the cake for Greatest Character Actor of the Seventies Gone to Waste.

Jerry Reed is best known for his novelty songs and his appearances in bumptious comedies like HOT STUFF (opposite Suzanne Pleshette and Dom DeLuise). But look at his chillingly suave downhome hit man in Michael Ritchie's THE SURVIVORS, or his magnificent performance here, and you see the man who should have had Tommy Lee Jones' career.

As Bama, a dirt-poor boy made good as a pimp and a gangster, Jerry Reed has the kind of unnameable connection with the audience that other singers-turned-actors like Sinatra and, on occasion, Willie Nelson had. His Bama never lets you forget the tin-shack fate he overcame through a life of peddling sin: he's like the redneck star of his own blaxploitation movie playing in his head. The smoothie charmer who can turn sadistic-violent on a dime is as ripe an opportunity for ham as they come, but Jerry Reed is genuinely seductive and chilling--and Reynolds hands him scene after scene to steal. The guy was a great actor--and he never got the chances that a similar (and less varied) actor like Charles Napier got.

If someone's reading this has the opportunity--give the guy a job.

---

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
its the seventies, 5 May 2006
Author: shipes_j from vernon florida

one of the most endearing qualities about this movie is the fact that it brings the seventies back to your memories...it was filmed in 1976 and it shows it often....the scene where jerry (reed) enters the "southside shuffle "topless" bar...nails the period completely... as well as other fashions, lingo, and of course burt himself...who "owned" the seventies....due to this movie and his other good ole boy films of the south....coupled with the overwhelming popularity of smokey and the bandit (yet to come a year later)...established burt as a seemingly permanent fixture in cinema back then...I always thought burt would stay on top I guess...he seemed invincible as the #1 box office attraction...he is definitely an icon of the seventies time capsule...his swagger and his sense of humor put a brand on me as I remember many times in my life (silently) asking myself...what would burt do in a situation like this?....

as pure acting goes...the film had one of the best supporting actors around and due to his lack of experience I guess you would just have to sum up jerry reed as being a "natural".....he played the villain so well you wanted him to stop...and go back to the good ole boy that you knew he could be (later as cletus snow in smokey and the bandit)

gator is/was one of my all time favorite films...from a time period that I thought would never end...I miss it and this film will help you reunite with it if you are nostalgic at all...

---

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Mostly fun, dark toward end, 4 September 2008
Author: vchimpanzee from North Carolina

When I saw this, I was not aware it was a sequel. It just so happens I saw "White Lightning" on the same TV station a week later, after I had found out this was a sequel. So now I can compare the two movies.

If I hadn't known Gator was a character from "White Lightning", I wouldn't have believed it. Gator in this movie was more like Burt Reynolds' "Smokey and the Bandit" character. In other words, Reynolds just being Reynolds, a smart aleck, though intelligent and charming.

This movie was more fun but not as high quality as "White Lightning". Nevertheless, it did have its dark side. Although it started out with a "Dukes of Hazzard" style chase but with boats, and it was mostly a comedy, the final scenes were not funny at all. It was a real shame.

Jerry Reed did a very good job; Bama did come across almost like J. R. in most of his scenes with Gator, though in a lot of his scenes Bama was hardly a J. R. Ewing type. He was just plain nasty, and that one scene that nearly spoiled the movie for me was the real proof of just how evil he was.

The standout performance came from Alice Ghostley as a woman who loved cats and once worked in the courthouse. Her former job meant she knew where to find information that could put Bama away--but because it was her former job, illegal tactics had to be employed. Of course they did! What fun would a movie like this be otherwise?

It's mostly a movie for the type people who enjoyed "Smokey and the Bandit". Too silly for Oscar, but entertaining.

---

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Another Burt Reynolds Classic, 25 February 2007

Author: Gary Dibert (garyldibert@yahoo.com) from Pittsburgh Pa.

Burt Reynolds returns as Gator McKlusky in the motion picture Gator which was released in 1976. Starring in this picture along with Reynolds was Jack Weston as Irving Greenfield, Lauren Hutton as Aggie Maybank and Jerry reed as Bama McCall. Gator is released from prison after serving 26 months for making homemade whiskey. Enters Irving Greenfield who's with the justice department from the Big Apple, New York City. Greenfield hunts down McKlusky in the swamps to offer him a deal. Either Gator goes undercover to bring down his boyhood pal bring Bama McCall or his daughter gets moved around from foster to foster home, and his dad does time for making moonshine. Bama McCall runs Dunston County with his hand in everything from extortion, prostitution to murder. Enters Aggie Maybank who's a local reporter trying to a documentary on crime in Dunston County that McCall pulls the plug on. However, things start to change when Gator starts to realize just how ruthless McCall is. Therefore, when Gator tells McCall he wants out, Bama decides that him and Gator are going to sit and talk about. However, what Gator gets is a strong mix drink and finds himself in his car sitting outside the Dunston County line. Therefore, along with Greenfield, and Aggie Maybank, Gator sets out to destroy McCall. This was your typical Burt Reynolds picture with lots of suspense and action. The problem I have this picture it has no leading lady in it. Based on that fact I give this movie 8 weasel stars for the action alone.

---

Who Ya Gonna Call -- Gator McKlusky, 26 March 2012

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

Burt Reynolds both plays the title role and repeats his character from White Line Fever in this film Gator. Reynolds played one of his most endearing characters as the amiable moonshiner who has certain talents and the right acquaintances that an ambitious Governor of Georgia needs at the moment.

As we saw in White Line Fever Reynolds was a tough man for law enforcement to deal with. But Mike Douglas, the TV host not Kirk's son, is the Governor who has a Phoenix City like county that is gaining national attention and putting a crimp on his plans for higher office.

As it turns out Reynolds happens to know the boss of said county who is played by country singer Jerry Reed. They've got history together and Reynolds has to be hammer-locked into cooperating by federal investigator Jack Weston. But one look at Reed's operation, particularly one aspect of it, and Reynolds then becomes a willing crusader.

Also helping out are Lauren Hutton and Alice Ghostley and this is the fantastic four of Georgia. Gator as a film is nicely paced between some good old boy comedy, serious drama, and some really nice action sequences especially at the climax. I'd give it a look and for Burt Reynolds fans, Gator is a must.

---

Glossy but weakly plotted sequel to White Lightning, 10 February 2012

Author: Dave from Ottawa from Canada

One of Burt Reynolds' signature early roles came as good old boy moonshine runner Gator McCluskey, who finds himself squaring off against supposedly legitimate authorities whose criminal activities by far dwarf his own in White Lightning. This sequel came a few years later and followed much the same formula. 'Gator', while still set deep in the Everglade swamps, has a glossier look than its predecessor and Burt now has ex-supermodel Lauren Hutton for a love interest (a plus), but their romantic sub-plot tends to get in the way of the story and the middle of the picture really drags as a result. With fewer stunts and chases, this sequel is simply less exciting and less fun that the original, while looking more like a Big Hollywood Production. This is not a plus, it is a step down. Watch White Lightning first, and enjoy its action, its sense of fun and its grungy lack of pretense. Then, if you just have to have more, hold your nose and try this one.

---

---

Page 1 of 3:

[1] [2] [3]

Add another review

---

Related Links

Ratings	External reviews	Plot keywords
Main details	Your user reviews	Your vote history