Save your money for something good and enjoyable

not horrible nor great

Best movie ever!

An action-packed slog

Just watch the first two and stay away from this one. It's just a waste and if your tired of Smokey just watch Cannonball.

'Smokey and the Bandit.' In case you didn't know (and who the hell starts watching a film series on 'Part III?') was about a car racer, aka 'Bandit' helping his tracker mate 'Snowman' to get their load across America, while constantly being pursued by a relentless policeman, 'Smokey.' Therefore, you'd expect part III would be along those lines. The film's only just over an hour and twenty minutes and for the first half an hour, we don't see the 'Bandit.' That part of the film should just be called 'Smokey and the.' Then the Bandit enters. Only he doesn't. Burt Reynolds didn't come back to play the titular role for the third instalment. Instead, the trucker 'Snowman' takes on his role of car driver.Does he pull it off? Not really. He tries, but it's pretty hard to watch. First of all he's not – and never will be – Burt Reynolds. He can't really bring anything new to the role. Secondly, in terms of character development, the character of Snowman completely changes from what we've gotten used to from the first two outings. For a moment I even thought it was a different actor playing him! Then Snowman (or maybe 'Bandit' now?) gets a girl/partner to drag along. It seems totally forced, simply copying the same plot device used in the first film.However, worst of all, is that there's nothing new here to see. Seriously, you should try this, if you're watching Part III on DVD, just skip a couple of chapters for the hell of it. You won't miss anything and you'll completely be able to work out what's happened. Basically, in DVD terms, every 'chapter' represents a time where Smokey nearly catches Bandit, but he gets away. Each time Smokey's car gets trashed, but somehow still manages to carry on then he moans at his long-suffering son (who he's dragged along for no real reason).If you haven't actually seen the first two and happen to stumble onto this one, I'm not saying you won't smile the odd time. There are moments of fun, but, if I want fun, thrills, good characters (played by the right actors!) and originality, I'll just watch the first one thank you.

There's absolutely nothing redeeming about this embarrassment of a sequel. No Bandit equals no fun. Why they thought they could make a Bandit sequel without the Bandit is a mystery for the ages. While it does have Jerry Reed and stars Jackie Gleason, it just isn't fun at all. Colleen Camp is a poor substitute for spunky and charming Sally Field.The plot is about Buford T. Justice (the villain in the prior films, now the protagonist) transporting a large stuffed fish from Florida to Texas. I feel stupider for just having typed that. I can't believe someone thought this sounded like a good idea. Apparently the original idea was to have Gleason play two roles, Buford and a new Bandit character. Test audiences hated it so much they re-shot the "Bandit" scenes with Jerry Reed's character Snowman. The original idea sounds equally terrible, if not more so. It seems there was never any chance Smokey 3 would have been anything but god-awful.

Well, that might be pushing it, but since this film was theoretically made by professionals and had a big-named distributor, the result is an absolute abortion. This movie is so bad, I will not even call it a movie. Nor will I give it a rating. Smokey 3 is just 85 minutes of stupid lines, horrible attempts at acting, and the lamest stunts ever put on celluloid. Now allegedly, Jackie Gleason was supposed to somehow play both Sheriff Justice as well as the Bandit. I'm not sure how that finished product would have looked, but it couldn't possibly have been any worse than the final product they came up with here.The "story" deals with Big and Little Enos (Enis?) challenging the retiring Sheriff Justice to a pretty lame bet. Instead of trucking Coors Beer or a pregnant elephant across the South, he has to drive a PLASTIC SHARK from Florida to Texas as part of a promo for their new fish restaurants or something. I won't waste any more time on the plot. Just trust me... its stupid. You can tell that Jerry Reed was a fill in after the initial dailies were a bust. He doesn't appear for a while, and many of his scenes seem totally arbitrary. Actually the whole 85 are kind of arbitrary. All we see are a series of boring stunts and detours to ridiculous locations. The stunts are about as original as driving an old Pontiac through whatever they could stack up. Ice, eggs, sand, flowers, Cuban refugees... you name it. There are detours to swinger hotels, nudist colonies, construction sites, etc. None of it is interesting. Even the nudity is laughable. Its like watching an old episode of Benny Hill with flabby early-80s nude people frolicking amidst quick editing cuts. The Trans Am was a weak-looking car by then, too. There is also a truly tasteless scene where a truck full of drunken Klansmen harass two black chicken farmers who sound as stereotypical as Amos and Andy. The mustache Cletus has is a fake-looking porno-stache. And if you want to see Colleen Camp look sexier in something funny, watch Clue.It was so bad that I forgot how it even ended. I think Cletus gives the fish to Sheriff Justice so he can keep his badge and collect $250,000. I hope Gleason was paid a hell of a lot more than that for appearing in this swill. Ughhhh! Worst film ever. Zero stars.The Hound.