Stroker Ace

Stroker Ace,a film directed by Hal Needham (the same director of such souped-up hits,like Smokey and The Bandit and Hooper),is a real surprise for the audience!it offers a lot of fun and laughs,all of this accomplished by dangerous and incredible scenes of action,which make Speed look like a boring movie!the character was made for Burt Reynolds,and combines with his own personality and way of interpretation!it's a nice movie,that everybody should discover,specially because it symbolizes a time when what really counted in the box-offices was the protagonist's charisma,and not stupid special effects!good times,when Burt was the best...and this time is going to be back!

Normally I find myself defending Burt Reynolds' supposed lesser works but in this case I have to agree with the majority that this one's the pits. I want to like it much like I love the Cannonball Run and Smokey movies but this just isn't very funny. Jim Nabors has no comedic chemistry with Burt. Every line he utters I'm kind of annoyed. He actually makes me miss Dom Deluise which I never thought I'd say. Loni Anderson looks nice but brings nothing else to the table. I enjoyed her on WKRP so I know she's capable of better with a decent script. Ned Beatty is doing his best Charles Durning and failing miserably. As for Burt he's sleepwalking through this role, which he reportedly only took as a favor to director and friend Hal Needham. If true that he turned down Terms of Endearment for this then wow George Raft is no longer the actor with the worst decision-making skills in Hollywood history. If you like Burt's other 80s comedies then give it a shot but be warned it's not as much fun.

NASCAR driver Burt Reynolds signs a contract with Ned Beatty to drive his car and hates it. He also courts nice girl Loni Anderson and has an on-track rivalry with Parker Stevenson.

Burt Reynolds was a fine actor, but you'd never know it from his career choices. He passed on the Jack Nicholson role in TERMS OF ENDEARMENT because he had a handshake agreement with director Hal Needham to make this; it seems it didn't occur to him to ask Needham to wait. Instead he made this lazy movie, with no dramatic tension and no energy in the comedy bits. It looks like Needham assembled all his friends, made a movie, and cut in some race-track sequences, with no one putting in much effort to learn their lines. If you want to see Reynolds in a chicken suit, or Loni Anderson lying on a bed in her clothes, her eyes shut, and looking like a Barbie doll, this is the movie for you. Not for me.

Ever notice how in his later movies Burt Reynolds' laugh sounds like screeching brakes?

Must have been hanging out with Hal Needham too much.

And from the looks of "Stroker Ace", WAY too much.

Can you believe this was based on a book? Neither could I, but it was. And probably not a best-seller, I'll wager.

Burt's another good-old-boy in the NASCAR circuit who hitches up with Beatty as a fried chicken magnate with designs on his team. Anderson provides what love interest there is and Nabors does his umpteenth Gomer Pyle impression as faithful mechanic/best friend Lugs.

A lot of people here are friends of Burt's or Hal's. Others must have needed the work. And even real NASCAR drivers get in on the act, and look to have more talent than those with SAG cards.

As far as laughs go, Bubba Smith (pre-"Police Academy") gets them as Beatty's chauffeur. And Petersen, in full Elvira mode, gets lots of appreciative leers as a lady who wants to get to know Lugs real well. REAL WELL.

It's a shame that Burt threw away as much time and effort in a film like "Stroker Ace" where it didn't matter whether he bothered to act or not. They didn't bother to write a character for him, why bother to act?

Two stars. Mostly for Petersen, and for the out-takes at the end. Now THEY'RE funny.

Stroker Ace (Burt Reynolds) grew up with moonshining Seegles being chased by the cops in the backwoods. He is a reckless arrogant womanizing three-time NASCAR champ. Aubrey James (Parker Stevenson) is his ambitious young rival. Lugs (Jim Nabors) is his crew chief. He is taken with virginal Pembrook Feeney (Loni Anderson). She's Clyde Torkle (Ned Beatty)'s new employee. When Stroker loses his sponsor, he signs up with untrustworthy Fried Chicken king Torkle as The Fastest Chicken in the South. He grows to hate his contract and tries to get out of it.

This is Burt Reynolds at his most Burt Reynolds. As a kid, I didn't really mind the bad writing and didn't get some of the jokes. It wasn't my favorite racing movie but I didn't know the critical panning this received. I love Cannonball Run and I knew this is inferior. Watching it again recently gave me a few more problems. Loni is a big robotic problem. Her innocent act does not work. The writing is not that funny either. It's just a lot of camp from the cast. I don't actually hate this but it's not good.