Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

A Disappointing Continuation

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson team up to play a pair of amiable pro-football players in Semi-Tough a good natured comedy about these two and the owner'd daughter. Sounds like you should be waiting for punchline and in a sense the whole film is one.Jill Clayburgh is the owner's daughter, the owner being Robert Preston who is a flamboyant Texas millionaire and owner of the Dallas football team which for copyright reasons is never referred to as the Cowboys.Having grown up with the team Clayburgh is on a first name basis with all the players and they treat her with due deference. She'd like a little more going with either Reynolds or Kristofferson, but can't make her mind up which one. It's almost like Crosby/Hope/Lamour without any songs.Some nice performances will be found from masseuse Lotte Lenya, fake motivational speaker Bert Convy, and also the best from Brian Dennehy as a defensive end who's really abusing the steroids. It's from Dennehy that we get some potentially serious moments in an easy going film.Fans of the leads should appreciate Semi-Tough.

OK, the movie isn't that great. The plot was confusing and the character's relationships weren't too clearly explored. Also, it wasn't particularly funny nor entertaining and the sub-plot was rather typical and plain. On the whole, not a movie I would sit down for entertainment.But what has got me about this film is the way Burt Reynolds character becomes; laid-back, relaxed, unjudgemental, wise and very respectable. That in itself gave me the image of who I want to be, a man who is laid-back, honest and unjudgemental, a man who is wise and respectable. No doubt, I will try to spend my life becoming that man.

Looking for a comedy about missed romantic opportunities told through a juxtaposition of rough-housing and inner reflections? Then watch "A Mid-Summer Night's Dream". Essentially "Semi-Tough" sells the pain of misdirected love by chasing the emotions down with a shot of football-player toughness and religious/spiritual ineptness. Compare that approach to juxtaposition of the rowdy Nick Bottom and boisterous Puck to pining Helena and Hermia. Semi tough even one-ups Shakespeare by taking using the same characters to embody these disparate virtues.In biting off this challenge, however, the movie strays from the characters and into lapses of football games and farcical "individual awareness" training. Only Puckett's character manages to be mildly interesting, yet he fails to take center stage in the action - which is muddled by distractions. Kristofferson's character quickly becomes 1 dimensional, leaving me indifferent to the final climax. And the closing dialogue begs the question, "where did the title come from?"

Jenkins's novel is one of the funniest books ever written, and THE funniest sports novel. The movie is a total trashing of Jenkins's work. It retains only the title, the names of a few of the characters, none of the book's plot, and none of its humor. The storyline bears absolutely no resemblance to the book. Billy Clyde's diary of the week leading to the Super Bowl, with all its hilarity, has been replaced by a silly look at self-improvement fads and crazes and Gene Autry music. Reynolds and Kristofferson are not believable as professional football players, although Kris would have been a great Elroy Blunt, had that important character been retained from the book. The problem was that Jenkins lost control of the scriptwriting. When the scene in which Billy Clyde and Shake are discussing their rating system for women was written, it used the Dudley Moore scale of 1-10, with 10 being tops. Jenkins informed the director that in the book, the scale went the other way, with a "1" being the top vote. He was informed, "This is the movie!"I give this one a "1", using the movie's scale.