Smokey and the Bandit 3 (1983)

This third entry is easily the bastard son of the Smokey and the Bandit franchise and deservedly so -- it's a mess! Originally entitled and shot as Smokey Is the Bandit, the film starred Jackie Gleason as both Sheriff Buford T. Justice and the Bandit but was scrapped when test audiences deemed the whole thing confusing. Thus, cue in a seemingly coked-up Jerry Reed, who was then shot and edited into the film as Cledus, the friendly truck-driver buddy who steps into the Bandit's wardrobe (including the mustache) for this wacky outing. Confused yet? So were they! Reed is a comical mess in the film, continually repeating his "I'm the bandit!" lines over and over again, whether to his dog, a hitchhiker he picks up, or even scarier, to himself. Plus, he doesn't even show up for the first 30-minutes! When it comes down to it, this is really the Gleason show, with the plot revolving solely around Buford and his son Junior (Mike Henry), who himself doesn't look too hot, with the few years between this and the second film lending him a haggard, zombie quality that is evident in both his looks and line delivery. Burt Reynolds eventually shows up in an out-of-nowhere cameo that was intended to kick-start the series if the third entry was a hit, which as evidenced, it was not. Smokey and the Bandit 3 lives on as an account of Hollywood's damage control at its most confused and mockingly hilarious. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide