The film Burt Reynolds famously turned down Terms of Endearment to do. You can't blame him for the box office safety of a Hal Needham car movie but such is life this was his first car movie not to be a success. It's not that bad, just not as fun as their other collaborations.
It's not a chase movie like Smokey or Cannonball - it's more a comedy character piece like Hooper only looking at a stock car racer. But it doesn't do that was well as Hooper. Hooper was a lot more sympathetic - he was a stuntman trying to do his job, dealing with age and injuries, worried about ageing. Here, Stroker Ace is an idiot for signing a contract without reading it and his adventures are played broadly. I think the movie would've been better had it been more serious: worried about aging, the young rival (Parker Stevenson), dealing with sponsors. You could've still had laughs, romance, crashes and fun, just underpinned it with a bit more drama.
Jim Nabors is fun as Stroker's mechanic, I like Loni Anderson's character as the virginal good girl who gets involved but she's not that much on screen, no Sally Field. Ned Beatty is excellent as always as a chicken tycoon and the support cast includes interesting faces like Bubba Smith (as Beatty's driver), though he doesn't do much. Parker Stevenson's character feels like a wasted opportunity.
The film lacks the core that Hooper had - that was about an aging stuntman. This is just about a driver who's a bit dim.
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