Hello, my name is Justin the clue, and I'm here today with Will Sloan.

And you're listening to The Important Cinema Club.

And today, we are talking about the king of stunts, Hal Needham.

Hal Needham has a dual legacy, which now that I think of it, is actually quite intertwined of, on the one

hand, he's maybe Hollywood's most important or at least most, like, famous and honored

stunt performer.

As we talk about it, we should note that, like, he's probably one of the most famous because

he was also the most public facing as a stunt performer.

And his other legacy is Bert Reynolds' car crash movies.

He directed them.

Some of them were hugely popular, but most of them in their day were talked about in the same way that, you know, people talk about Marvel movies right now.

Like you look up the Siskel and Ebert reviews at the time and every one of them.

Look at the disposable trash.

This is totally witless, you know, zero stars, negative stars, a trillion thumbs down for

Cannonball Run, Cannonball Run 2, Stoker Race, and who could forget, the Big Cahuna,

Smokey and the Banda.

Now, how was that received when it came? I think it had middling reviews, right? I mean, Smokey and the Bandit, which was, you know,

the trend setting one, came out in 1977. It was the number two highest grossing movie of the year,

second only to a little movie called Star Wars. Now we look at it and it's just dumb disposable trash.

You know, I did have a feeling this week watching some of these Hal Needham movies.

You know, is it just that old saying?

Like time makes whatever.

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