--- title: "Smokey and the Bandit II" year: 1980 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/smokey-and-the-bandit-ii" fi1m_id: "smokey-and-the-bandit-ii" imdb_id: "tt0081529" tmdb_id: 12705 wikidata_id: "Q957698" fi1m_score: 44 critics_score: 45 critics_reviews: 4 published: "2026-10-04T16:42:41.962435+00:00" updated: "2026-10-04T16:43:21.378218+00:00" region: "SA" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Smokey and the Bandit II (1980) Directed by Hal Needham · 1h 41m · Action, Comedy ## Identity Smokey and the Bandit II - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/smokey-and-the-bandit-ii - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** smokey-and-the-bandit-ii - **IMDb ID:** tt0081529 - **TMDB ID:** 12705 - **Wikidata ID:** Q957698 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081529/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/12705, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q957698 **Fi1m score: 44** · Critics 45 (early) from 4 reviews *In a sentence:* The Bandit is back, hungover and hauling an elephant to Dallas; two of those three were mistakes > Hal Needham brings everyone back and gives them an elephant, and the result is a chase picture that forgets to chase. Gleason earns his laughs three times over; Reynolds, Field and the rest coast, and the crashes at the end are loud, long and dull. ## Synopsis Big Enos (Pat McCormick) and Little Enos (Paul Williams) have a crate that must be in Dallas inside a few days, and the only driver they trust is a man nobody has seen in months. Cledus (Jerry Reed) tracks the Bandit (Burt Reynolds) to a motel room, bearded, heavier and drinking through the afternoon, and sets about putting him back behind the wheel of a black Trans Am. Carrie (Sally Field) is about to marry Junior (Mike Henry) again, and runs out of the church when she hears the Bandit is driving. The crate holds an elephant, which falls ill on the road and needs a doctor, Doc (Dom DeLuise). Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason) sees the car go past and gives chase. ## Review Hal Needham’s *Smokey and the Bandit*, from 1977, was a chase: a car, a lorry, a case of beer and a sheriff, and not much else got in the way. The sequel has the same people and a new cargo, and the cargo is the problem. Brock Yates and Jerry Belson’s screenplay, from a story by Michael Kane, gives the Bandit an elephant to carry from Miami to Dallas, and an elephant cannot be driven fast. The film is 101 minutes long and a good third of it is spent standing in a lay-by looking at the animal. It starts better than that. Cledus (Jerry Reed) finds the Bandit (Burt Reynolds) in a motel room, bearded, bloated and drunk by lunchtime, and for ten minutes this is a more interesting film than the one it turns into: a star playing a man who has read his own notices and taken them to heart. Then Reed hoses him down, the hat goes back on, and Reynolds spends the rest of the picture grinning at the camera as if he had a bet on how little he could do. He is capable of more, and you can see him knowing it. Jackie Gleason is the reason to stay. He plays Buford T. Justice again, red-faced and roaring at his son Junior (Mike Henry), and then he plays two of Buford’s brothers as well. We laughed at Gleason, properly and more than once, which is more than the rest of the cast managed between them. The jokes are not clever, and he does not need them to be; the sight of that face deciding whether to explode is the joke, and Gleason times it every time. The elephant, meanwhile, is an idea for a comedy rather than a comedy. Dom DeLuise comes aboard as Doc to nurse it, and he and the animal are given a run of set pieces in which one of them is slow and the other shouts about it. We found we felt sorry for the elephant, and that is not a feeling a farce can afford. Sally Field has it worse. Carrie leaves Junior at the altar for the second film running, and once a bride has done that twice the writers have told you they have nothing new for her. Field plays the rest as a woman waiting for a lift. The craft is serviceable and no more. Michael C. Butler shoots the highways in a flat midday glare that makes every state the convoy passes through look like the same mile of Georgia. William D. Gordean and Donn Cambern cut the gag scenes with a pause after each line for a laugh that mostly does not come. Snuff Garrett’s music is the one department that remembers what the first film sounded like, and Brenda Lee and the Statler Brothers turn up on screen to help. Henry Bumstead is credited with production design, and we would be hard pressed to say what he designed; this is a film of motel rooms, truck cabs and grass verges. The crashes are the other half of the picture, and there are a great many of them. These are real cars and real stunt drivers, and the metal really folds. We were bored by them, and then annoyed at ourselves for being bored, because the men behind those wheels were doing something dangerous for our benefit and the film gave them nothing to be dangerous for. The first film’s great stunt was one car and one broken bridge, and you knew why the car had to jump. Here the cars pile up because the script has run out of other things to do, and a wreck with no reason is a scrapyard with a camera in it. Needham was a stuntman before he was a director, and his first two films, this one’s predecessor and *Hooper* in 1978, were about men who did things with their bodies and were paid for it. This is about a studio noticing what sold and ordering more of it. The reviews so far have split between mixed and hostile, and we are with them. If twenty minutes of Gleason bellowing at Mike Henry across the front seat of a patrol car is your idea of an evening, those twenty minutes are here. The other eighty-one are an elephant walking slowly across a car park. *Fi1m score 44, published 4 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Smokey and the Bandit II worth watching?** *Smokey and the Bandit II* is not worth your evening, and we scored it 44. Jackie Gleason, playing Buford T. Justice and two of his brothers, earns proper laughs; Burt Reynolds and Sally Field coast, and the elephant the Bandit has to haul to Dallas slows a chase picture to a walk. Only devoted fans of Gleason's bellowing sheriff need stay. **How long is Smokey and the Bandit II, and what is it rated?** *Smokey and the Bandit II* runs 1h 41m. It is an action and comedy film. **Where can I watch Smokey and the Bandit II in Saudi Arabia?** *Smokey and the Bandit II* is not on any streaming or rental service in Saudi Arabia at the moment. It is available in 42 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. ### Reviews we read (4) - **Time Out**, DMacp (64/100, inferred): The page identifies this as a film review, but the review text is unavailable, so its verdict cannot be established. The visible description begins by noting the original film’s box-office success but does not reveal what this review praises or criticizes. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/smokey-and-the-bandit-ii) - **Radio Times**, Tom Hutchinson (3/5): The critic says the sequel is less a chase comedy than a run of piling-up sight gags. They note Reynolds is capable of more than his genial show-off role, but suggest viewers can enjoy what he offers here. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-vyb9o7/smokey-and-the-bandit-ii/) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (20/100, inferred): The critic finds the sequel stale and says it feels like a commercial exercise rather than a fun follow-up. The sluggish, overdone elephant gags are singled out as a particular problem. [Read](https://variety.com/1979/film/reviews/smokey-and-the-bandit-ii-1200424664/) - **Eye for Film**, Mimmo (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the sequel a disappointing, farcical follow-up that has lost much of the original’s charm. Some sight gags still get laughs, but the critic complains that the escalating car crashes and contrived plot feel like studio-driven excess. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/smokey-and-the-bandit-part-ii-film-review-by-mimmo) ## Details - **Director:** Hal Needham - **Director:** Hal Needham - **Screenplay:** Brock Yates, Jerry Belson - **Story:** Michael Kane - **Cinematography:** Michael C. Butler - **Editor:** William D. Gordean, Donn Cambern - **Music:** Snuff Garrett - **Production design:** Henry Bumstead - **Producer:** Michael A. Cherubino, Hank Moonjean - **Cast:** Burt Reynolds as Bandit; Jackie Gleason as Buford T. Justice / Reginald Van Justice / Gaylord Justice; Jerry Reed as Cledus; Dom DeLuise as Doc; Sally Field as Carrie; Paul Williams as Little Enos; Pat McCormick as Big Enos; David Huddleston as John Conn - **Runtime:** 1h 41m - **First release (the US):** 15 August 1980 - **Genres:** Action, Comedy - **Budget:** $17 million - **Box office:** $66 million ## Where to watch in Saudi Arabia Not streaming, renting or buying in Saudi Arabia at the last check. Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HR, HU, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, TH, UA, US, VN. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Smokey and the Bandit* (1977): The original: one car, one sheriff, one case of beer, and nothing in the way - *Hooper* (1978): Needham and Reynolds on stuntmen, and this time the falls have something behind them - *Convoy* (1978): Peckinpah takes the CB-radio lorry picture seriously, which turns out to be stranger - *Vanishing Point* (1971): A white Dodge, a desert and a man who will not stop; the chase film as a mood - *Taxi* (1998): Marseille, a souped-up Peugeot and a hopeless policeman; the French do this cheaper and faster --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/smokey-and-the-bandit-ii