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To Die For (2022)
Probably the Worst Movie Ever Made, Even if You Love America Like I Do
First off, I really love the United States and I can respect everybody's opinion on politics. I prefer to keep political opinions to myself as I feel it will destroy friendships and relationships. While there is the freedom of speech, there is also the freedom of consequence, which this movie shows that just because you love your country, doesn't mean the story or movie itself will be good.
What we have here is possibly the worst patriotic, if not the worst movie ever made. John Schneider's character is very unlikable and commits quite a few crimes that could easily throw him in jail, like driving and tearing up grass on someone else's property or potentially causing damage to city property with a way too tall flag pole hanging off the back of an El Camino. Also why on Earth is everybody forcing him to take down the American flag?! No real town or human being would force someone to take the flag down even if its on their own property.
That's really the tip of the iceberg as the filming, editing, writing and acting is without a doubt the worst I've ever seen. It makes Asylum movies look like a big Hollywood production.
John Schneider, if this is the best you can do, please stop making movies altogether and call it quits. This is just mindboggling and unprofessional. Obviously money is his goal rather than trying to make any effort to make a movie.
Stand on It! (2020)
Bad Remake of Smokey and the Bandit, Not a Tribute
Before I get into this review, I want to talk about the original Smokey and the Bandit. First off it is my #1 favorite movie of all time since I first saw the film at age five and it was the movie that got me into cars and stunts. I loved all of the action, the directing of Hal Needham, the comedy of Jackie Gleason, the chemistry between Burt Reynolds and Sally Field, the trucking culture of the 70's, and the classic soundtrack by country legend Jerry Reed who played the Snowman in the movies. After seeing the Bandit roll out of the trailer in his black and gold Special Edition Pontiac Firebird Trans Am and I promised myself that one day I would get a car like Bandit's and I am very fortunate enough to now own a Bandit Trans Am. Since then, I have seen all of the Smokey and the Bandit movies, including the 4-part TV movie series from 1994 that while many hate, I for one enjoyed them and they are way better than most movies made these days. I have also seen all of Hal Needham's films and I absolutely love his work both as director and as a stuntman. I'm also a Dukes of Hazzard fan and I was fortunate enough to have met Ben Jones who played Cooter in the show, who also had a brief cameo in Smokey and the Bandit.
Now fast forward to 2020 and John Schneider who played Bo Duke in the Dukes announced that he was planning to make a Smokey and the Bandit tribute film called Stand on It which I was eager to see, until I saw leaks and teasers of the production and I soon realized what this movie was going to be. But I was still willing to see it hoping it would be a decent, all-original movie that payed respect to Burt Reynolds and Hal Needham. After over 8 months and waiting 1 week after I placed my DVD order, I was finally able to watch the movie and here is my review.
What should've been a fun tribute that honored the original movie, Stand On It turned to a huge disappointment for me. It was a cheap, low-budget remake of Smokey and the Bandit, not a tribute. There are so many problems with this movie that makes it probably the worst movie I have ever seen.
The movie consists of Schneider playing his version of the Bandit, Duke Marietta who is asked by two guys resembling Big and Little Enos Burdette from the original to deliver 400 cases of beer from Austin, TX, to Baton Rouge, LA within 24 hours with a $500,000 prize, same plot scenario as in the original, but different locations, more money and 4 hours less time. He enlists the help of his friend Roy Reed who takes on the CB handle "Frosty" and brings his dog Frog along for the ride. Duke then drives out of his rig in a 2017 Dodge Challenger done up to look like the Special Edition Trans Am from the original movies. Like the original, Duke picks up a runaway bride named Fred who is being chased by the local Sheriff Cletus T. Necessary played by Tyrus and his dim-witted son Sonny. Everything from then on just rehashes everything from the 1977 classic with car stunts, plot scenarios, and characters. The only big change to the plot is that Duke and Frosty accidently pick up 400 cases of "green local" instead of the "yellow local" beer, which turns out to be, you guessed it, marihuana. At the end, Duke, Frosty, Fred and Frog make it the fairgrounds that was filmed during Schneider's Bo's Extravaganza event on his studio property where much of the filming took place. The film then concludes with the gang leaving the fairgrounds with Tyrus in hot pursuit with Sonny running after them on foot.
Now with the plot summarized, lets talk about the editing and acting.
This film has to be one of the worst edited films I have ever seen, as there are scenes of flopped footage of people driving on the right-hand side of the cars, bad camera work and bad acting. One example of the bad editing is the scene where they redo Justice's door getting hit by a truck, but in this movie the truck is seen hauling a trailer and when it cuts to hitting the car door, the trailer disappears and the truck is completely different. For some reason the movie uses mostly green-screen backgrounds and you can see a dark green background inside the cars when the film cuts to the characters inside. You can also tell that the mural on Frosty's semi-trailer is fake and was pasted on in post-production, which gives the movie a very cheap look and feel to it. The lighting was completely awful as it made everything way to bright at least on the DVD cut of the movie and many of the clips don't make any sense such the redo of the convoy scene that for some reason cuts to a family sitting still in their truck that is supposed to be moving. Many of the shots were likely recorded from cheap cameras and phones that make the movie look even more awful to watch. It seems Schneider wanted to get this thing out asap and didn't bother to fix the continuity errors and wanted to make this movie as cheaply as possible. I understand that the budget is low, but that should translate for more creativity of the filming, but this is sadly not the case for the movie. As an ambitious filmmaker and one who has taken film classes, there is no excuse for bad filmmaking.
The acting was very poor and was very cheesy and cringe-worthy. I often paused the movie because I was laughing at how poorly executed the movie was. Some of the actors in the movie looked like they did not receive any training or guidance at all. Its also off-putting to see John Schneider play a Bandit-like character in this movie, as he is the same guy to played Bo Duke in the Dukes of Hazzard. His acting was poor and I'm very disappointed how him and the other cast members are lifting a lot of the dialogue from the original Smokey and the Bandit film. Supposedly John wrote the script for this movie, but I believe all he did was just copy-and-paste of the original Bandit script with only a few changes to incorporate Dukes references which is a shame because it just makes this movie feel like a rip-off remake of the original. He didn't even give credit to Universal Studios or Hal Needham for characters based off of the original movie.
Another big problem with the movie is Duke's blocker car. Now I know Schneider is a Dodge guy and is known for driving Dodge cars, but he stated how he has always loved the Bandit's Pontiac Firebird Trans Am since he saw the car in person when he was an extra on the set. Now I figured he was going to drive a Dodge in this movie, but I was hoping for an original car that had its own unique look to set the movie apart or a black and gold General Lee as a nod to the Dukes. The car in this movie is a 2017 Dodge Challenger, done up to look like the Bandit Trans Am. It has a fake and poorly-cut t-top roof, a bird on the hood that resembles the original screaming eagle decal from the Trans Am, and throughout the production of the movie, John refers to it as a Hellcat. The Challenger in this movie is actually a V6 base-model, not a Hellcat which has different bumpers, wider wheels, and a 707 HP 6.2 liter V8. There is video of the car jump and you can hear that is a V6 and the Hellcat sounds were added in post-production from a Charger he borrowed that was recorded on Facebook. It would have been awesome to see Schneider drive a 77-81 Trans Am or a new Trans Am Depot Camaro conversion T/A to honor the original car that Burt, Hal, and many Bandit fans loved. If you are trying to pay respect to the Bandit and the fans, you need to bring back the car to further pay tribute to the original. This movie to me was trying to pull a Knight Rider 2008, which had a Ford Mustang for KITT instead of a Trans Am or a new Camaro.
The only parts I really enjoyed were the car stunts and the cameo of the Bandit and Justice characters which the actors did a great job with capturing the charm of Burt and Jackie, but I hated how they were written into the story. All they do is just appear in the General Lee taking Fred the bride to the wedding, instead of working in a surprise appearance of the Bandit helping Duke with a car chase with Buford T. Justice. That would have been so cool to see and it was a huge letdown for me that they chose to not go that direction.
My final thoughts.
Stand On It to me was just a cheap remake of Smokey and the Bandit that fails to capture the spirit of the original films. What should have been a fun original storyline turned into a rehash of the Smokey and the Bandit that many fans will find very disappointing. The one good benefit of this movie is that it makes the poorly-received sequels look great and have better appreciation. Some really good examples of a Bandit tribute done right was Fast N' Loud's Bandit Trans Am build episode and NASCAR's Mobil 1 short series Smoke IS the Bandit on YouTube. Another amazing tribute to both the Bandit and the Dukes is Stuntlife: The Bandit Project, which is a documentary film about the Burt Reynolds Bandit Tribute Jump and the obstacles the stunt team faced to recreate the Bandit Trans Am jump from the original movie. If you are a fan of Smokey and the Bandit, DO NOT watch Stand On It and go watch the original movie, along with Parts 2, 3 and the 1994 TV movies. They are well more worth watching and what you are paying for compared to this poor excuse of a movie.
Thankfully this will likely fade into obscurity while the original Smokey and the Bandit will continue to thrill audiences for generations to come.
John Schneider, I'm extremely disappointed in your attempt to bank off the Bandit with this so called "tribute" movie. I know deep down in my heart that Burt Reynolds and Hal Needham would be very disappointed in this remake of their iconic classic.
Tributes are supposed to be original stories with a few nods to the material, not a beat-for-beat remake solely made to make money.
Firebird 2015 AD (1981)
Concept Is Great, But The Execution Was Poor At Times.
I came across this movie by accident on a Pontiac Firebird group on Facebook and I thought I'd check this flick out. Now the concept of the movie revolves around the government banning oil due to a supposed shortage, which in the film has a U. S senator proposing a bill to bring it back. In the mean time, a group of car drivers called burners use muscle cars as the ultimate form of rebellion. To stop these burners, a police group called the DVC ride gas burning motorcycles to hunt down these cars.
First I'll talk the negatives about the movie.
The main problem with the movie is simply how the story is told. Its pretty boring throughout as much of the film contains many cars driving, but without any suspense or performing stunts, along with long conversations between the characters, which focus on either the burners or the DVC officers.
Now on to the positives.
The cast for the most part were great and did the very best job they had with the story given and the budget, which was obviously low considering the whole movie was shot in the Badlands of Drumheller, Alberta, which does make a very cool setting in a wasteland desert, sort of like the Mad Max films, but with more green and mountains. The main draw for me were the cars featured in the film. The main star car was of course the black and blue 1980 Pontiac Firebird Turbo Trans Am that McGavin drives, along with a black 1970 Plymouth Cuda and a white 71 Mustang coupe that gets blown up by the DVC. Another positive of the movie was the soundtrack, especially the theme song "Firebird" by Billy Ledster. I really with that song was released as a single, but unfortunately this is the only place where it can be found.
Overall I didn't mind the vibe of the movie as I can understand and appreciate a low budget movie and I had an good time with it. Thankfully it is currently free to the watch on YouTube, but I really wish this movie was given an official release to DVD fully restored in HD. Hopefully one day that will happen, but I'll give this movie 1 thumb up for not being a huge disappointment.
The Georgia Peaches (1980)
Hidden Gem of the Car Chase Genre
I first discovered The Georgia Peaches by accident on YouTube and after learning about, I decided to check it out. I absolutely loved it and it was a blast to watch being a Trans Am enthusiast, a Smokey and the Bandit and Dukes of Hazzard fan. I heard many negative things about this movie, more particularly from "Dukes" fans who claim it was a knock off of the series. This movie while does share some of the elements of Bandit and Dukes, it didn't feel like a knock off at all and did more of its own thing IMO. One thing that did strike me was that this movie seemed to be based off of a Dukes episode that aired months before this movie titled "Mason Dixon Girls" which had two girls and their male friend out whit bad guys, which the Dukes help out in. In the episode, they are seen driving a silver 1979 Trans Am convertible with blue decals. Georgia Peaches has a very similar format that has two girls and their male accomplice, who drives a silver Trans Am, but is an 1980 model with the 301 turbo and has red interior with the silver/red decals. Both programs were aired on CBS which makes it the more interesting.
Given the task to produce this film was Roger Corman and his studio, who mainly produce low-budget, yet very thrilling car action films with credits such as Cannonball (1976), Eat My Dust (1976), and Grand Theft Auto (1977). You can tell that they did not have a lot of money to work with this movie, but they did the very best they could and utilized it very well with great car chases, good stunt work and some car crashes, and a good cast.
Dirk Benedict was great and makes for a really great good ole boy character driving the Trans Am around and out-pacing the cops. Being a Trans Am enthusiast myself, the car was outstanding and the filmmakers added a unique feature to the car that not even the Dukes boys in the General Lee never thought of using to stop bad guys or the cops. The Trans Am here has a firing mechanism referred to as the claw that can tear out the rear axles of enemy vehicles and destroying evidence of moonshine. Tanya Tucker was great and does a good job acting considering she isn't a professional actress. Everybody was also great and gave their best in this film.
If you are a fan of Smokey and the Bandit, Dukes of Hazzard, or car chase films, I highly recommend this movie. For a low budget movie Georgia Peaches/Follow that Car was a blast to watch and its a very underrated gem of the 70's and 80's car chase genre. 8/10.
The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (2007)
Not The Dukes
I remember seeing a preview of this movie back in March, 2007 on ABC Family when I was 9 years old at the time and as a big Dukes of Hazzard fan, I was very excited about this movie. I did watch many episodes of the original TV show and I absolutely enjoyed it very much with great car action, comedy, and family values that made the show so awesome. When I turned on the this movie known as "The Beginning", the excitement I had faded away immediately with the crude acting and inappropriate behavior of the plot and I immediately shut my TV off, hoping to never see it again.
Years later, now an adult in my 20's, I found clips and reviews of this movie on YouTube that made me glad I didn't watch the whole movie. It has some of the worst acting and cinematography from a major film studio and I didn't realize that they made it unrated for the dvd release! Nudity and inappropriate behavior has no business being in a Dukes of Hazzard movie and its an insult to the original series and the 2005 movie which I actually enjoy. If you are a Dukes of Hazzard fan of either the TV show, the 2005 movie, or both, don't bother with this "Dukes" movie, its not worth it. Sadly this is the last form of Dukes media by Warner Bros. And I can see why they haven't done much with the Dukes of Hazzard franchise since then.
The Dukes of Hazzard (2005)
A Fun Wild Ride and Tribute to the Dukes of Hazzard TV Show
As a big fan of the original show, I absolutely loved this movie. Yes it is not like the show, but for me that is a good thing as it does not take anything away from the show and does things different for a change. Yes there are elements in this movie that I think should've been left out, but at the same time it helps set this film apart from the show. While the show is great, a family-friendly show like Dukes of Hazzard would've been very difficult to adapt to a feature film, hence why Warner Bros made it to appeal to the younger generations. This movie along with the 2004 Starsky and Hutch film are great tributes to their source materials, while doing their own spin for a change. I will say it is a shame that despite their reflections on the script, none of the surviving cast from the show appear in this film, which could've made the film better. The cast were all great and Sean and Johnny do a good job playing Bo and Luke. This movie IMO deserves better appreciation from Dukes fans as it really isn't as bad as they make it out to be and it could also bring younger crowds to watch the TV show. If you are a fan of the Dukes of Hazzard TV show or car chase films, I highly recommend this movie. Its close enough to what the show was really about, but adding its own twist to the formula that makes this movie stand on its own.
Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983)
Underrated Sequel of the Smokey and the Bandit Series.
As a huge Smokey and the Bandit fan and Trans Am enthusiast, I really enjoyed watching this movie since I first saw it a few years ago. I don't know why everybody hates this, but its probably due to Burt Reynolds not playing the Bandit besides his cameo at the end. Many people don't know that the reason why Burt chose not to reprise the role in this film was to due to his dislike for the 2nd movie. He felt Universal made it solely for money, rather than caring about the quality. I agree with his opinion as the 2nd felt like a slow-paced, childish-like comedy without any of the action and charm of the first film. While this film is not as good as the first, its way better than the 2nd. Despite not wanting to reprise the role for the whole movie, Burt visited the set to see his friends working on the movie, which he was then asked to do a short cameo which he agreed to.
I heard about the original cut called Smokey IS the Bandit and while I do wish Universal would release it, I am glad they got Jerry Reed in to reprise his Snowman role and had him drive the Trans Am to distract Buford and steal the fish for the re-shoots. Reed does a great job with the acting and IMO, he was the best 2nd choice to play as the Bandit for this storyline. In case if you forgot, Reed was originally cast to play the Bandit in the 1st film, but Universal wanted Hal Needham to cast Burt Reynolds since they were roommates and Burt was the #1 box office star at the time. To me, this movie gives a glimpse of what Reed would've been like had he played the Bandit and I don't understand why people are upset with him playing the Bandit. He is still Cletus Snow for this movie, but is in the Bandit wardrobe and gets to drive the Trans Am. Its not like Burt's Bo Darville character was re-casted with Reed taking over.
Jackie Gleason is still as hilarious as the first two films, but has more to work with than the 2nd film since he is the main star character in this film. Mike Henry as Junior is also hilarious to watch and has more to do in this than the 2nd film.
Another great aspect of this movie are the car stunts. For this movie, they brought in a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am for the Bandit like the first two, but since Part 3 was released in 1983, they brought in the new 1983 model T/A for this. The car is great and does many cool driving stunts, but I wished Pontiac or Universal would've gave the Trans Am a big bird on the hood and the gold pinstripes like the 1977 and 1980 Special Edition Trans Am's from the first two films. The car looks alot like KITT from Knight Rider, but considering Universal produced that show, I wonder if the Bandit Trans Am's in this movie were going to be used as KITT for Knight Rider considering Pontiac gave Universal the Trans Am's for both franchises? Besides that, I loved seeing the Trans Am in this movie.
For this movie, Buford drives the new 1983 Pontiac Bonneville and it was fun to see it get wrecked throughout the movie, to the point where the body was blown off leaving the chassis, seats, floor, and drivetrain still going.
At the end, we see Buford catch the Bandit, but Buford then see's Burt Reynolds as the Bandit, which I thought was great to see Smokey and the Bandit together for one last time since this was the last Smokey and the Bandit movie released in theaters.
My only dislike for this movie was the motel sequence and nudist group scene. I cannot stand nudity and considering this is a Smokey and the Bandit movie, it felt forced and was unnecessary, as if the filmmakers were hoping that it would attract more audiences, which didn't work. But this can be skipped over if you have the DVD or Blu Ray copy.
Overall I really enjoyed watching this movie and I consider it the 2nd best of the Smokey and the Bandit franchise. Number 3 would be Smokey and the Bandit 2, and the 4th would be the 1994 TV movie series that had a Dodge Stealth for the Bandit's car, but none of these films are nowhere as bad as John Schneider's Smokey and the Bandit remake called Stand On It from 2020. I am also happy that Universal is bringing back the Bandit for an upcoming TV show, but I hope they do a good job to pay respect to the original movies and honor the past cast members.
If you are a big Smokey and the Bandit fan, I highly recommend Part 3. Its a great action comedy that while its not as good as the first, its much better than most movies made these days.
8/10