The Burt Reynolds box set

These are the best / most essential Burt Reynolds films, according the lists of six film and culture critics:

Deliverance (1972)

The Longest Yard (1974)

Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

Boogie Nights (1997)

Semi-Tough (1977)

Starting Over (1979)

Those first four films received five votes, while Semi-Tough picked up four votes and Starting Over three.

Hustle (1975), Sharky’s Machine (1981) and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) each received two votes, while White Lightning (1973), Silent Movie (1976), Striptease (1996) and The Last Movie Star (2017) were mentioned once.



My picks?

Deliverance, The Longest Yard, Smokey and the Bandit and Starting Over are the true essentials.

Boogie Nights and Reynolds’ performance as Jack Horner — his only Academy Award nomination — are deservedly praised, but it’s not a Burt Reynolds movie. Semi-Tough is another football picture, covering some of the same ground as The Longest Yard.

I would add:

Hustle and Sharky’s Machine

Breaking In (1989)

Hustle is a tough film noir, while Sharky’s Machine proves his directing prowess. He plays a cop falling for a call girl in both. Breaking In (1989) is a hidden gem, where he plays a professional thief with a new protégé.



Here is the complete critics list:

WESLEY MORRIS, The New York Times

1. Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

2. Semi-Tough (1977)

3. Starting Over (1979)

4. Sharky’s Machine (1981)

5. Silent Movie (1976)


BILL SIMMONS, The Ringer

1. The Longest Yard (1974)

2. Boogie Nights (1997)

3. Starting Over (1979)

4. Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

5. Deliverance (1972)


SEAN FENNESSEY, The Ringer

1. Deliverance (1972)

2. Boogie Nights (1997)

3. Semi-Tough (1977)

4. Striptease (1996)

5. The Longest Yard (1974)


JENNIFER VINEYARD, The New York Times

Deliverance (1972)

The Longest Yard (1974)

Hustle (1975)

Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

Semi-Tough (1977)

Sharky’s Machine (1981)

Boogie Nights (1997)


JUSTIN KIRKLAND, Esquire

Deliverance (1972)

White Lightning (1973)

The Longest Yard (1974)

Hustle (1975)

Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

Semi-Tough (1977)

Starting Over (1979)

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)

Boogie Nights (1997)

The Last Movie Star (2017)


BRIAN LOWRY, CNN

Deliverance (1972)

The Longest Yard (1974)

Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)

Boogie Nights (1997)

I, Tonya (2018)

Margot Robbie plays disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding and Allison Janney her violent mommy dearest in the most controversial sports story of all time. It’s filmed like a cheeky tabloid, and this much is true: Harding isn’t THE victim, but she is A victim.

d: Craig Gillespie | imdb.com

A Million Ways to Die in the West [2014]

Seth MacFarlane is a divisive pop culture figure — both an undeniable talent and the leading purveyor of fart jokes.

MacFarlane has produced five television series for Fox — one brilliant animated series, two knockoffs of that one, one unwatchable live action sitcom and “Cosmos,” the critically acclaimed space documentary with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

His big band album was nominated for a Grammy. He hosted the Oscars. He directed “Ted” and wrote the lyrics for its best song nominee, “Everybody Needs a Best Friend.”

“A Million Ways to Die in the West” — MacFarlane’s new satire of 1960s Westerns and their macho bullshit — is more ambitious than “Ted” and more coherent than “Family Guy.” It is often hilarious. It mostly works. It is, of course, excessively scatological.

Along with writing (with Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild), directing and producing, MacFarlane also stars as cowardly sheep farmer Albert Stark in Arizona in 1882 — “a terrible place in time” — probably because he can’t help himself. He is the bastard son of Mel Brooks (“Blazing Saddles”), making out with Charlize Theron. He is also quite likeable, probably because he looks like grown-up Peter Brady.

There are fart, piss and cum jokes, because, you know, Seth MacFarlane. There is also a carnival game with runaway slaves as the punchline.

In the middle of all of that, there is a dance number and fancy score (by Joel McNeely) that proves MacFarlane is capable of much more.

The fact that MacFarlane talked Theron (laughing at all of his jokes), Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried and Neil Patrick Harris (with graphic diarrhea) into this thing is half the fun. Theron derides Seyfried’s big doe-y eyes, which takes balls, because those peepers are two of the most adorable things in Hollywood.



If it matters, Theron dumps boyfriend Neeson, and Seyfriend dumps boyfriend MacFarlane. Seyfried finds Harris, and MacFarlane finds Theron, which pisses off Neeson.

Wes Studi, long-suffering Native American supporting character of Westerns, provides spiritual guidance and a drug-induced trip to MacFarlance’s character. Neither MacFarlane nor Brooks have given Indians any revenge for their genocide. Neither has Tarantino.

Sarah Silverman (who else) provides vaginal humor. She is a prolific prostitute who has never had sex with boyfriend Giovanni Ribisi. She is no Madeline Kahn.

There are four winning cameos, including one by an Academy Award winner that avenges the earlier goof on slavery. They might be the smartest bits in the movie.

d: Seth MacFarlane | imdb.com | trailer | Sex Night | Dance

Neighbors [2014]

Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne engage in a hilarious, violent spy vs. spy battle with their new neighbors — Zac Efron, the other Franco (little brother Dave) and Delta Psi Beta. There are parties and pot, and Rogen and Efron mix it up in a most inventive fight scene.

d: Nicholas Stoller | imdb.com | trailer | Robert DeNiro party

My favorite movies [2013]

1. The Counselor | Ridley Scott
2. 12 Years a Slave | Steve McQueen
3. The Wolf of Wall Street | Martin Scorsese
4. Blue Jasmine | Woody Allen
5. 20 Feet from Stardom | Morgan Neville
6. Spring Breakers | Harmony Korine
7. This Is the End | Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
8. American Hustle | David O. Russell
9. The World’s End | Edgar Wright
10. Behind the Candelabra [TV] | Steven Soderbergh

American Hustle [2013]

Director David O. Russell convincingly cheats off Martin Scorsese’s paper, Christian Bale channels De Niro and the All-Star cast struts around like they are in “Saturday Night Fever” in a sterling comedy really loosely based on 1970s Abscam scandal.

d: David O. Russell | imdb.com | trailer | He saved my life.
Dry cleaners | He can’t get enough | Science oven

Delivery Man [2013]

Canadian director Ken Scott remakes his 2011 independent film “Starbuck” for Vince Vaughn fans on date night. Vaughn plays another recovering fuck-up — one who has fathered 533 children through donations to a fertility clinic. It is a cloying, lame effort.

d: Ken Scott | imdb.com | trailer

12 Years a Slave [2013]

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northup, a free black man born in the North and sold into slavery in the South, and he is as painfully brilliant as the beatings he endures. Steve McQueen directs, and he is black, so there is no saccharine — just filmmaking.

d: Steve McQueen | imdb.com | trailer | Charlie Rose
What’d You Say to Pats? | Wesley Morris [Grantland]

The Counselor [2013]

Michael Fassbender plays the title role, Javier Bardem plays in designer clothes, and Cameron Diaz plays them both in this stylized drug thriller. Diaz writhes around on a car, makes confession sexy. She is a predatory animal, too feared to win an Oscar.

d: Ridley Scott | imdb.com | trailer | HBO: First Look
Truth has no temperature. | Rattling your cage

Carrie [2013]

Director Kimberly Peirce’s remake of Brian DePalma’s 1976 classic includes more blood, more whatever, but it seems perfunctory. Chloe Grace Moretz, 16, is the right choice and right age for the title role. Sissy Spacek was 27 when she was in the original.

d: Kimberly Peirce | imdb.com | trailer

The Family [2013]

The witness relocated mob family of Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer and their two kids beat up and blow up things in Normandy, France. The results are just OK, not explosive. The highlight is De Niro’s animated review of a certain Martin Scorsese mob movie.

d: Luc Besson | imdb.com | trailer | Dating | Paying the plumber

Kick-Ass 2 [2013]

The ultra-violent sequel isn’t as good as the original, but high school is an uneven period, so Chloe Grace Moretz (now 15) takes down mean girls as well as evil motherfuckers. Jim Carrey (finally) doesn’t chew the scenery — in a movie that actually calls for it.

d: Jeff Wadlow | imdb.com | trailer

20 Feet from Stardom [2013]

The documentary isn’t just a celebration of back-up singers, most of them black women essential to 60s soul and rock records. This is their art, their life. My favorite is Merry Clayton, the force of nature who backs Mick Jagger on “Gimme Shelter.”

d: Morgan Neville | imdb.com | trailer | Interview

This Is the End [2013]

Seth Rogen presents a wholly original premise: He and his movie buddies — all meta-playing themselves — party at James Franco’s house when the Apocalypse hits. The execution is nearly great, with Michael Cera and a musical finale as the highlights.

d: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg | imdb.com | trailer | Emma Watson
Pineapple Express 2 | The Real World | Interview: Rogen, Goldberg

Man of Steel [2013]

Director Zack Snyder, with the help of producer and “Batman” auteur Christopher Nolan, makes a mess of Metropolis, Smallville and the whole “Superman” franchise, duping six Academy Award nominees / winners to stand in front of green screens.

d: Zack Snyder | imdb.com | trailer | Career Arc: Superman

Behind the Candelabra [2013]

Michael Douglas plays Liberace and Matt Damon his gay lover, who
are brazenly intimate, both physically and emotionally — part of the reason why this film is too good (and controversial) for the major studios but just right for Cannes and HBO.

d: Steven Soderbergh | imdb.com | trailer | Making of ...

The Hangover Part III [2013]

The final “Hangover” movie doesn’t include a hangover or the old spirit and wild laughs of the previous films. There is too much Zach Galifianakis and way too much Ken Jeong, but when Galifianakis resigns from the Wolfpack, it is genuinely sad.

d: Todd Phillips | imdb.com | trailer
Archive | The Hangover | The Hangover Part II

Star Trek Into Darkness [2013]

J.J. Abrams makes well-executed but benign PG-13 pop culture, and he has done it again with his second “Star Trek” movie, which seems like just the second part of a reboot. Kirk cries in the first act, then Spock shows he has feelings in the third.

d: J.J. Abrams | imdb.com | trailer | Ultimate Saga trailer
Archive | Star Trek [2009]

42 [2013]

Writer-director Brian Helgeland’s hagiography about Jackie Robinson contains nostalgic lighting, slow-motion baserunning and an overwrought sweeping score. Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford), a cigar-chomping cartoon, is right at home in this afterschool special.

d: Brian Helgeland | imdb.com

Room 237 [2013]

Five film obsessives explain what Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” is really about in this sort-of documentary. Their theories are complete and wonderful nonsense. Ultimately, the meaning of the film doesn’t matter, only that it means everything to these people.

d: Rodney Ascher | imdb.com | trailer | Last Call with Carson Daly
The Shining | The Power of ... | All work and no play makes Jack ...