Mein Name ist Gator (1976)

Mein Name ist Gator: Directed by Burt Reynolds. With Burt Reynolds, Jack Weston, Lauren Hutton, Jerry Reed. Agents force a former con man to help them nab a corrupt politician.

“Iu0026#39;m a huge fan of Burt Reynolds. The man just wonu0026#39;t go down, no matter what odds are stacked against him. People can say what they want about him, heu0026#39;s certainly no quitter and he usually comes out on top. Heu0026#39;s been a hero of mine for most of my life and Iu0026#39;ve grown up loving his movies. Did anyone ever see the good ole boy flick u0026quot;White Lightningu0026quot;? Well this is the sequel. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enWhile this might be a strange sequel, I can understand why it is so different from the first. First off, this was made mostly for the drive-in crowd who may not have caught u0026quot;White Lightningu0026quot;. This allowed the sequel to be a bit looser, where it didnu0026#39;t have to deal too much with what happened in u0026quot;Lightningu0026quot;. Basically, what youu0026#39;re getting is a a continuation of the Gator McClusky character.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHereu0026#39;s a quickie on the plot: Swamp rat, Gator McClusky is living the life after just being released from the State Penn. Heu0026#39;s currently spending his days moonshining with the old man, when the feds come to him with a proposition. Infiltrate a group led by childhood friend, Bama McCall (Jerry Reed), get enough evidence to bust him, or go back to prison for making moonshine. Itu0026#39;s a hard choice. Double cross a lifelong friend or go back to prison and lose custody of your daughter. Needless to say, Gator goes with option A and eventually, all hell will break loose.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis was Burtu0026#39;s first shot at directing and, for the most part, he does okay. I have a few quibbles though. This is a PG-rated flick that was most-likely marketed as a comedy. There is plenty of comedy, in fact, from watching the first ten-minutes, youu0026#39;re going to think this is u0026quot;Smokey and the Banditu0026quot; done in the swamps with Jack Weston playing a New York Smokey. There are a lot of laughs in this film and almost all of the characters are likeable. So this leads to my big bitch: Why in the HELL did everything go from lighthearted to cold and violent in the last act? Why did everything have to go down-hill in such a hurry? Maybe itu0026#39;s because the film spends too long meandering in pointless situations and then, when time comes for something significant, it happens lightning-quick. That is why I had such a hard time believing Jerry Reed as the bad guy. His performance was top notch but the filmu0026#39;s pacing makes him go from good buddy, to mean, crooked, bad ass way too quickly. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMaybe Iu0026#39;m being a bit harsh, but itu0026#39;s all very cofusing. Maybe, had the film been edited and trimmed a bit better, all of this would have been a bit more believable and things would have ran more smoothly. But being as it is, the whole thing has a very truncated feel. Watch it and youu0026#39;ll see what I mean. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIu0026#39;m giving this film a 7/10 because, despite itu0026#39;s flaws, itu0026#39;s a hell of a lot of fun and Burt gives the kind of performance that youu0026#39;ve come to know and love. u0026quot;Gatoru0026quot; is definitely a good movie, once you get past itu0026#39;s faults. Itu0026#39;s a real shame that movies with this kind of theme arenu0026#39;t made anymore.”