Another dollar movie gets my money once again. Burt Reynolds (Smokey And The Bandit) stars as an arms smuggler who?s on the run after a narrow escape from guards at a roadblock. Stranded in a small coastal town in Africa, Burt is laying low from the law and trying to find a decent razor so he can shave. Holed up
in a third rate hotel with an alcoholic doctor who?s trying to forget his past, Burt befriends a young boy street urchin. Along the way they share some smokes, some jokes and some confusing dialogue. The plot thickens as Burt finds that an aging biologist and his beautiful assistant have the only boat in town and they?ve been diving off the coast doing research. What happens next is your guess as good as mine. Half of the film was overexposed or filmed at night without proper lighting. I really can?t believe they let this run but they did. Evening dive shots are completely lost, and the touching beach romance between Burt and the lovely young assistant is left to sparse dialogue and 10 minutes of black screen. After the artificial glaucoma has subsided the story turns as we realize the crew has been diving for sunken treasure and not science! A love triangle soon entangles the cast in a ride to outrun a police constable hot on the trail. The movie is marked with some underwater stunt photography featuring sharks, one of which claimed the life of a diver. A good afternoon film to occasionally glance at between chores.
October 5, 2010
