Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

haythalk Having read some of the comments from other users and some of the reviews, this film has come in for some criticism. Whilst some of the comments are fair, I think it's important to take into context the life of this film. Another user has already pointed out that Reynolds was suffering with TMJ at the time of the release and had a few flops before hand, so his star was on the wane. However, this movie was supposed to have been released in 1984 and initial filming (judging by many scenes) indicate Reynolds was in good health. Somehow the studio didn't like the first cut of the film,not enough action,too slow,not good for box office. However, the film as a character piece may well have been quite interesting and judging by the first 15 minutes which were excellent,less studio meddling would have more beneficial in this case. Reynolds did not want to make an all out action film but the studios panicked and asked for re-shoots. By this time though, Reynolds had lost a lot of weight due to the TMJ problems and was clearly neither in the physical or mental state to shoot these extra scenes. As a result, we have a number of scenes where Reynolds is markedly thinner than in other scenes. This creates a very disjointed look and obviously doesn't help the film at all. It would be very interesting to see the original cut as Reynolds intended - i'm certain it would have ended up being a far better movie than the result we got. As it stands, I think Stick has some very good moments and some very sub-standard moments. The good are the first 15 minutes,especially the scene with Mokey,Rainy and Stick in the van - nice tense atmosphere in the van, well directed. Other good scenes are when Stick has to remove the ex-driver from the party ('now say goodnight' as he poured gasoline over his face and flicks out a lighter), the mo-key death scene (a superb stunt and not bettered for many years),the scenes with Candice Bergen and Burt (i thought they quite effective). The sub-standard are the poor editing, healthy Burt, v.ill Burt..it's very obvious.Some of the action scenes,especially where sticks stops and waits for mo-key to catch up? the training sequences - why show that, is this Rocky..bit of vanity for Mr Reynolds there i think. The ending was a bit weak..i don't think it was originally intended to be like that - i haven't read the book, so i could be wrong but again we had ill Burt in this scene. In conclusion, this movie could have been a lot better that it was but due to a number of circumstances it turned out to be an fairly average Burt Reynolds thriller. Could have been another Sharkeys but not meant to be. A shame really, now where is that original cut?

Anthony Bannon (bannonanthony) This is the first film of Burt Reynolds' I have seen that he directed as well as starred in. Yes, some elements of the story are clunky but overall STICK is very enjoyable. Reynolds gives an excellent performance as always. Charles Durning is quite good as Chucky but is let down by the very obvious wig he is wearing for the part (at least I HOPE it's a wig). George Segal and Candice Bergen are both good as well, but it's strange how Reynolds and Bergen immediately get into a romance.Stuntman Dar Robinson also makes a memorable villain as albino hit-man Moke. Since he was a stuntman I guess that means he did all his own stunts for the movie, which makes it even more cool. Very few stuntmen are good actors but Robinson plays the part well. The only problem is we don't see enough of him. The BIG bad guy, Nester, is played brilliantly too, but the actor's name escapes me right now. There's also a lovely song played over the end credits. I'm interested in reading the Elmore Leonard book this film was based on. I'm sure it and the film may be very different, but I still give the movie STICK a thumbs-up. I think it should get a DVD release.

Mister-6 Burt Reynolds for the "Miami Vice" generation!Even though pretty faithfully adapted from Elmore Leonard's book (by no less that Leonard himself!), Burt foregoes the good ol' boy routine to play the mean, tough, down and dirty characters like he did in "The Longest Yard", "Sharkey's Machine" and "White Lightning". But even though he did everything but sweep the sets afterwards, Burt just doesn't convince as a career criminal trying to settle a score from a drug deal that killed his friend.Everyone is grim, nasty and vile (stunt-man/actor Dar Robinson comes off best as hit-man Moki - true enough to say he has the best scene!) and with Burt as the lesser of, say, a dozen evils, SHOULD show at least some charisma in the part. But all he does is glower, grimace, threaten and shoot guns. Even love interest Bergen is pretty bland as she plays a character that suggests what would have happened if she never had any "Carnal Knowledge".The only one who comes off good is Segal, who plays a loud, crass, banjo-playing millionaire who hires Stick (Reynolds) for protection, little knowing he is just a cog in a serpentine plot to get back at drug mack Nestor (Guerra). Segal even goes as far as telling the "What's-the-last-thing-to-go-through-a-bug's-mind-before-he-hits-a-windshield" joke. (Punch-line? Go ask your Dad).The worst fate, though, is held for Reynolds steadfast Durning, who has to play a druggie that would look more at home at the circus (Charlie, orange-red hair is NOT your style). How does he intimidate people, by daring them not to laugh??In the end, you just can't help but figure what Michael Mann could have done with something like this. Well, Leonard's stuff is getting made and remade all the time now. Who knows, maybe in a few years....Three stars, one for the effort, one for Robinson's last scene and one for Murphy, whose career survived to do better things (hello, "Murphy Brown"!).Don't get stuck with "Stick".

gridoon Even Burt followers probably won't be satisfied with this. It's a meandering actioner with too little action, somewhat saved by George Segal's joyous performance as an eccentric millionaire.