1980: "Any Which Way You Can"

                             I've only seen Every Which Way But Loose once and I remember being misled. I had the impression that it was some sort of buddy movie with Clint Eastwood and an orangutan. It turns out....the monkey is barely in it (at least that's my recollection). I also remember the movie being bad. And that's about it.
                             The movie was actually a surprise hit when it came out, since it was Eastwood's first real foray into comedy, and I guess it's intended audience were Southern hicks with stunted ideas of humor. Well, the first one was a success, why not follow it up?

                             Any Which Way You Can is the sequel and, if I recall, an almost identical movie to the original, only it's about a minute or two longer (they're both a little under two hours). It's about Eastwood as this bare-knuckle brawler who gets into escapades with Neo-Nazi bikers, the police, the Mafia, all while his trusty orangutan accompanies him through this mire of wackiness. Both movies are supposedly farcical romps with loose structures (even the title of the movie seems to imply a devil-may-care attitude, like "ehhhh, which ever way you want it, we don't care!"). Watching this, I was sort of reminded of The Blues Brothers: it's got two brothers, Neo-Nazis, musical numbers (cameos from the likes of Glen Campbell and Fats Domino), car accidents, and lots of other craaaaaazy shit. But it's a mediocre Blues Brothers, with broad humor and a meandering, inert plot (lots of pointless scenes of gangsters making bets about who will the big fight and a kidnapping that's easily resolved....just get on with it!).
                             What prevented me from totally hating this movie (my eyes were glazing over for most of it) is that, well, there is a talented cast here (though I don't think Clint Eastwood is cut out for comedy) but it's mostly wasted talent. Clyde the orangutan is fairly charming, a bit pandering but this movie desperately needed something to keep my interest (even though there is some disturbing footage [animal cruelty?] of a weasel fighting a snake, which left a sour taste in my mouth). There's some "good ol' boy" music to keep my feet tappin' (there's even a kitschy duet with Clint Eastwood and Ray Charles at the beginning). The bare knuckle fight at the end has a contained insanity that was somewhat watchable.

                        There's really not much to say about it. It wasn't horrible, but I was mostly bored by the proceedings.