Director: Dick Lowry
Written by: Stuart Birnbaum, David Dashey
Cast: Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, Paul Williams, Pat McCormick

Year / Country: 1983, USA
Running Time: 81 mins.

Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 lives up to the Hollywood law of always making sequels to box office hits, but fails to make it bigger and better. The movie starts with a recap of the first two films with references to Star Wars and Patton thrown in. After that, the usual plot unfolds about Big and Little Enos, offering a fat reward for the transportation of a large stuffed shark from Florida to Texas.

Burt Reynolds doesn’t return as the Bandit (except in a small cameo at the end), so Snowman (Jerry Reed) decides to play the Bandit instead. Both him, and Sheriff Buford T. Justice aka Smokey (Gleason) accept the Enos’ challenge. Buford even bets his badge against the 250.000 dollars reward money. The Bandit, and the girl Dusty he picked up, outperform Smokey and his dim-witted son Junior in a cross-country race filled with the usual obstacles.

A logical disappointment to fans when it came out, due to the absence of Reynolds and the questionable necessity of another sequel. It contains the usual car stunts and funny dialogues, but both to a lesser extent. This can probably be explained by the non-involvement of original director and stunt professional Hal Needham and the re-dubbing of Gleason’s originally crude dialogues. A crying shame, because those could have made the film much more enjoyable. Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 became a box office flop. Not entirely without reason, I must conclude after eighty wasted minutes. Far from recommended.

Rating:

Biography: Dick Lowry (1944, Oklahoma) started his movie career in the seventies with directing episodes of TV-series Barnaby Jones. He would spend most of his career making TV films and mini-series, including western series The Gambler, starring Kenny Rogers. He also made a TV movie of Alf, the famous furry alien who lives in a garage after crashing down. Lowry also directed Tom Selleck in Last Stand at Saber River, adopted from the novel by Elmore Leonard. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three children.

Filmography (a selection): Barnaby Jones (1973, TV episodes), The Draught (1975), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV episodes), Kenny Rogers as The gambler (1980, TV), The Jayne Mansfield Story (1980, TV), Missing Children: A Mother’s Story (1982, TV), Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983), Kenny Rogers as The Gambler: The Adventure Continues (1983, TV), Murders with Mirrors (1985, TV), Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, Part III: The Legend Continues (1987, TV), Case Closed (1988, TV), Miracle Landing (1990, TV), The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (1991, TV), Skin (1992, short), Her Final Fury: Betty Broderick, the Last Chapter (1992, TV), One More Mountain (1994, TV), Texas Justice (1995, TV), Smoke Jumpers (1996, TV), Project: ALF (1996, TV), Mr. Murder (1998, TV), Atomic Train (1999, TV), Attila (2001, TV), NYPD Blue (2001, TV episode), Silver Bells (2005, TV)