Hooper 1978 * * * Stars

Director: Hal Needham
Year: 1978
Rating: PG
Rating: * * * Stars
Cast: Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jan-Michael Vincent

Screen legend Burt Reynolds stars as Sonny Hooper in this goofy, harmless 4am cable flick about the trials and tribulations of the world's greatest movie stuntman. Along with Burton (I like to call him that), the other members of the cast have a lot of fun with what appears to be a great deal of improvisation.  

Watching this movie you almost get the feeling that during some scenes, I don't think the actors knew that the camera was even rolling. But seriously though, it's okay. When you got Sally Field as Gwen, Sonny's loyal and loving girlfriend who stands by him no matter how dangerous the stunts, current Hollywood burnout Jan Michael Vincent as "Ski," the young and upcoming rookie to the stuntman world who looks to take Sonny's job (not intentionally though), funnyman Robert Klein as the director of the film that Hooper is based upon (it's a movie within a movie of course), and James Best (Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane from the TV show Dukes of Hazzard) as Sonny's assistant and friend, the result is a nifty collection of acting misfits. I'm sure after the shooting of Hooper concluded; everybody who worked on this obvious tinsel town nugget probably became best friends. But heck, that's probably the case with any Reynolds’s film.  

In the end, what you get from Hooper is uninhibited tongue and cheek humor overload mixed with an exciting, sped up, documentary feel. The whole flick concludes with a rocket car rambling through tons of explosions (Reynolds and Vincent are driving) and city wide destruction all for a perfect scene in the movie within a movie. Oh did I mention the big Trans Am (same car) jumping across a 300 foot gorge to get to safety. Oh Hollywood, you never disappoint.  

Written by Jesse Burleson