Smokey and the Bandit didn’t start the non-stop car chase craze that followed in it’s wake. Hal Needham’s 1977 action-comedy came a full year after Roger Corman and American International Pictures delivered “Cannonball,” “Eat My Dust” and “The Gumball Rally,” and two years after “Death Race 2000.” Thanks to the star power of Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, and Jackie Gleason, “Smokey and the Bandit” took the genre mainstream, leaping from triple bills at the local drive-in to major box office revenue. Read the rest of this entry »