The Series Project: Smokey and the Bandit (Part 2)

Bandit: Bandit, Bandit (dir. Hal Needham, 1994)

Bandit. Bandit. Bandit. Bandit. Bandit. Bandit. Bandit. Bandit. Bandit. Bandit. Bandit. Mushroom! Mushroom!

Where exactly is Bandit from? Clearly he’s from the South, but it’s unclear as to which state and which city. From the looks of it, he may be from Northern Louisiana, but they make constant reference to “counties,” and Louisiana has parishes. I think he might be from Mississippi, but the Southern accents of the people don’t belie any place; they all speak in generic Southern, so commonly found in movies and on TV. Except, oddly, for Bandit himself. He talks like a guy from California. Here’s my guess: This Bandit bested the old Bandit in a battle of courage, and gained his powers and his connections.

The story of Bandit: Bandit, Bandit involves, as the title implies, two Bandits. There is an ersatz Bandit (Gerard Christopher) tooling around town, hitting on married women, and generally causing havoc, leaving Bandit in quite the pickle. Bandit (Brian Bloom) – trying to go straight – has been hired by Lynn (Brian Krause) on behalf of his Governor father (Gary Collins) to deliver a superfast supercar to a big stump speech in a few days. Bandit keeps it safe inside his rig. The delivery of the car will somehow save the governor’s flagging career. This sounds like a 6-year-old’s version of politics: He who shows off the fanciest car gets to be leader.

I’ve said these four TV movies are all kind of the same, but I think Bandit: Bandit, Bandit, despite it’s fun title, is the least of the four. Onward!

TRENDING

X