A great classic of 20th century cinema....

Some movies are worth paying $20 for on DVD. Others I wouldn't buy for $20, but when I find them in the five dollar bin at Wal-mart, they're a must have. So it is with Smokey and the Bandit, the fun-lovin', free-wheelin' story of rebellion on the open road. When I saw the title, I thought surely it must be Smokey and the Bandit 2 or perhaps Smokey and the Bandit 3: Smokey is the Bandit. But no, it was the 1977 original, the first movie that made me think that it would be cool to jump a car over something (a goal I still hope to attain someday). You know what went wrong with Smokey and the Bandit 2, at least for me? It was that it didn't fulfill the promise delivered at the end of the first movie. The fellers (including Sally Field and Fred the basset hound) were headed to New England to bring back some lobsters. Instead of doing that story, though, they brought in the elephant and it was all downhill from there. The less said about Smokey and the Bandit 3: Smokey is the Bandit, the better.