10 Films For The Weekend (6/28/25)

Posted on June 28, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This is the last weekend of my vacation! I’ll be back on Monday. Here are a few film recommendations, inspired by both my vacation and the upcoming patriotic holiday!

Keeping The World Safe

Whenever anyone asks me what the best film ever made about Hawaii is (and it happens all the time, let me tell ya), I always reply with From Here To Eternity. Then I smile and say, “Or maybe it’s Hard Ticket To Hawaii!” Directed by Andy Sidaris, Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987) has it all. A mutant snake, a sex doll-carrying assassin on a skateboard, a killer frisbee, the Molokai cops, a single-engine airplane, and Ridge from the Bold and the Beautiful! This is the film that taught me that the proper way to reply to a guy saying, “Nice ass!” was to smile and say, “You too, Pilgrim.” Hard Ticket To Hawaii is one of the most deliriously strange and entertaining films ever made and you can view it on Tubi!

After viewing Hard Ticket to Hawaii, be sure to check out Andy Sidaris’s other great film, Guns (1990). Guns not only features a tropical paradise but it also stars Erik Estrada, giving a totally over-the-top performance as the villain. Guns can be viewed on Tubi.

As a resident of Dallas, I will always have a soft place in my heart for Sidaris’s Day of The Warrior (1996), in which it is established that the world’s most evil secret organization is headquartered on top floor of the Bank America Plaza and that the evil mastermind lives in “North Dallas.” You probably have to be from Dallas to get the joke but it’s a good one. Day of the Warrior can be viewed on Tubi.

Finally, The Dallas Connection (1994) was directed by Andy’s son, Christian Drew Sidaris. I have to recommend this one because it not only takes place in Dallas but it’s actually named after the city as well! Filmed on location, this film features plenty of action and exploding toy boat. The Dallas Connection can be viewed on Tubi.

If you want your action stars to have a bit more of a social consciousness, Born Losers (1967) features Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin) in his first film appearance. In three subsequent films, Billy Jack would go on to fight for pacifism and Native American rights and would eventually becomes a U.S. Senator but, in this film, he just kills a bunch of bikers who have been harassing tourists in California. Born Losers can be viewed on Tubi.

God Bless America

Next Friday will be the Fourth of July. USA! USA! USA!

Invasion USA (1952) takes a look at what happens when a bunch of people take America for granted. Fortunately, Dan O’Herlihy is on hand to hypnotize everyone and force them to experience what life would be like if the communists took over America. Thank you, mysterious hypnotist! This film can be viewed on Tubi.

Years later, those commies were still trying to invade and divide America. Fortunately, Chuck Norris was available to stop them. Invasion U.S.A. (1985) features one of Richard Lynch’s greatest performances and it can be viewed on Tubi.

I Was A Communist For The FBI (1958) claims to tell the true story of a man who spent years working undercover as a communist. His family rejected him. His neighbors scorned him. This film is a real time capsule of the time it was made. That said, it’s portrayal of communists as being a bunch of upper class bigots who manipulate a working class that they have no interest in being a part of still feels relevant today. I Was A Communist For The FBI can be viewed on YouTube.

Odds and Ends

Cold In July (2014) is one of the best neo-noirs of the best ten years and it features an excellent performance from Don Johnson, whose weathered toughness gives him a gravitas that he was occasionally lacking in his younger years. It can be viewed on Tubi.

Finally, Jeff and I watched Smokey and the Bandit (1977) earlier this week. It’s one of Jeff’s favorites and, whenever I watch it, I’m always surprised to re-discover how much I enjoy it myself. Fast cars, a truck that looked a lot like the one my Dad used to drive, Southern scenery, and a theme song that gets stuck in your head, what’s not to like? I related to Sally Field’s confusion as to why anyone would want to eat at a “choke-n-puke.” It’s available on Netflix!

(Check out last weekend here!)

Song of the Day: East Bound and Down by Jerry Reed

Posted on March 6, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hey, it’s Hal Needham’s birthday. What other song could we go with?

East bound and down, loaded up and truckin’
A-we gonna do what they say can’t be done
We’ve got a long way to go, and a short time to get there
I’m east bound, just watch ol’ “Bandit” run

Keep your foot hard on the pedal
Son, never mind them brakes
Let it all hang out ’cause we got a run to make
The boys are thirsty in Atlanta
And there’s beer in Texarkana
And we’ll bring it back no matter what it takes

Ol’ Smokey’s got them ears on
He’s hot on your trail
And he aint gonna rest ’til you’re in jail
So you got to dodge ‘im and you got to duck ‘im
You got to keep that diesel truckin’
Just put that hammer down and give it hell

Writer(s): Jerry Hubbard Reed, Dick Feller

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Hal Needham Edition

Posted on March 6, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

Today, we take a moment to remember the great director and stuntman, Hal Needham. It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Hal Needham Films

Smokey and the Bandit (1977, dir by Hal Needham, DP: Bobby Byrne)

Hooper (1978, dir by Hal Needham, DP: Bobby Byrne)

The Cannonball Run (1981, dir by Hal Needham, DP: Michael Butler)

Rad (1986, dir by Hal Needham, DP: Richard Leiterman)

Scenes That I Love: Burt Reynolds Meets Burt Reynolds in The Last Movie Star

Posted on January 2, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, the national speed limit is 50 years old.

Boooo!

Yes, it was 50 years ago today that President Richard Nixon signed the law that set the national speed limit as being 55 miles per hour. Perhaps this was Nixon’s final revenge on a nation that was making a huge deal out of Watergate. Who knows?

In honor of the occasion, today’s scene that I love is from 2018’s overlooked The Last Movie Star. In this scene, an elderly Burt Reynolds finds himself transported back to the days of Smokey and the Bandit, where he meets his younger self and takes a ride in a famous black sportscar. It turns out that the two Burts do not agree when it comes to observing the posted speed limit.

Smokey and the Bandit (1977, directed by Hal Needham)

Posted on August 26, 2020 by Jedadiah Leland

Smokey and the Bandit is a simple film. Burt Reynolds is the Bandit. He’s hired by two bored brothers to smuggle beer from Texas to Georgia. Working with the Snowman (Jerry Reed), Bandit is easily able to pick up the beer but it’s while driving back that the two of them run afoul Smokey, a.k.a. Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason, who reportedly improvised most of his profane lines). Bandit also picks up a hitchhiker and runaway bride (Sally Field) who he calls Frog.

There’s not much to Smokey and the Bandit. The Bandit has an incredibly cool car and he drives really fast. Snowman is funny and has a dog. Smokey has a dumb son and is constantly threatening to hit people. It’s a dumb movie but it works. The cars are fast, the crashes are spectacular, and the entire film is the perfect daydream for when you’re sitting in your office at work and wondering whether there’s something more rewarding you could be doing with your life.

Who hasn’t wanted to the Bandit at some point in their life?

Who hasn’t wanted to get behind the wheel of black trans am and just take off, driving down country roads while giving the slip to old Smoky and joking with Snowman on your CB radio and maybe picking up a young Sally Field while smuggling beer and winning a bet?

(There’s been a lot of terrible moments on The Family Guy but, for me, one of the absolute worst was when Brian Griffin went into the past and asked 70s Burt Reynolds, “So, you’re going to go get some of that hot Sally Field action, huh?” Anyone who has seen Smokey and the Bandit knows that Sally Field was smoking hot back in 1977!)

Smokey and the Bandit comes to us from a different time. No one worries about what speeding halfway across the country in a little over 24 hours is doing to the environment. No one apologizes for who they are or where they’re from. The Bandit lives by a simple rule: Treat him with respect and he’ll treat you with respect. Talk down to him or try to tell him what to do and the Bandit’s just going to jump in his car and leave you standing in a cloud of dust.

During the latter part of his career, Burt Reynolds would often lament that appearing in financially successful but critically lambasted films like Smokey and the Bandit made him a huge star but also kept him from getting the type of roles that he felt he deserved. Reynolds was right but there are worse things than being known as The Bandit. For many, Burt Reynolds will always be the Bandit because he was so perfectly cast for the role. Not many actors could pull off the scene where, after fooling a cop, the Bandit looks straight at the camera and grins. Burt Reynolds could. Playing the Bandit may have never won Burt Reynolds an Academy Award but it did make him an American icon.

If you’re feeling down, watch Smokey and the Bandit. If you need an escape, watch Smokey and the Bandit. It demands so little and gives so much.

Scenes That We Love: The Bandit Fools Smokey in Hal Needham’s Smokey and The Bandit

Posted on March 6, 2020 by Jedadiah Leland

Today would have been Hal Needham’s 89th birthday and that means that it’s time to celebrate with Smokey and the Bandit.

Before he made a name for himself as a director, Hal Needham was a legendary stuntman. In 1977, the same year that Smokey and the Bandit came out, Gabriel Toys even sold as a “Hal Needham Western Movie Stunt Set,” which came with a spring-launched Hal Needham action figure. When Needham went into directing, he made unpretentious movies for people who wanted to have a good time at the theater. The majority of his films featured fast cars, tough good old boys, and spectacular action. They also often featured Burt Reynolds doing what he did best. Needham made the type of movies that never won Academy Awards but which audiences loved. In fact, audiences still love them. When I watch Smokey and the Bandit, I always want to quit my job and just smuggle Coors east of the Mississippi for a living. I know that Coors is legal now so there’s no need to smuggle it but that’s the power of a good Hal Needham film.

In the scene below, the Bandit (Burt Reynolds) and Snowman (Jerry Reed) manage to avoid getting caught by the Mississippi Highway Patrol. Not only do we get to hear Eastbound and Down but this scene also features the moment that Hal Needham knew the film was going to be a hit. He later said that, as soon as Burt Reynolds broke the fourth wall and stared straight at the camera with “that shit-eating grin on his face,” he knew that audiences were going to love the Bandit.

And he was right.

Hal Needham died in 2013 and Burt Reynolds followed him five years later. However, their legacy lives on. The characters of Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time in Hollywood were based on Burt and Hal. If anyone could have taken on and beat the Manson family single-handed, it would have been the great Hal Needham.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Burt Reynolds Edition

Posted on February 11, 2020 by Jedadiah Leland

Today would have been Burt Reynolds’s 84th birthday. In honor of a legendary career that is only now starting to really be appreciated, here are 4 shots from 4 of Burt’s best films.

4 Shots From 4 Films

Deliverance (1972, directed by John Boorman)

Smoky and the Bandit (1977, directed by Hal Needham)

Sharky’s Machine (1981, directed by Burt Reynolds)

Boogie Nights (1997, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson)

Just A Good Ol’ Boy: RIP Burt Reynolds

Posted on September 6, 2018 by gary loggins

cracked rear viewer

I had just got back from a long afternoon walk on this gorgeous day when, after checking for incoming texts and calls, I checked my Facebook feed and discovered Burt Reynolds had passed away at age 82. Coincidentally, I have a post on Burt’s THE LONGEST YARD scheduled for Saturday, but rather than just move it up, I’ve decided to write this small tribute. Burt Reynolds has earned it. He was arguably the biggest box-office attraction of the 1970’s, number one from 1978-82, and his charismatic, wiseass persona made him a hit with audiences, if not with the critics. But what did they know… Burt Reynolds was The People’s Star.

Born in 1936, Burt’s family moved to Florida when he was ten, his father taking a job as Police Chief of Riviera Beach. Burt may not have been a straight-A student, but he excelled in sports, playing fullback for Palm…

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