“Twice the Tire Screechin’ Action” - I love it!
Synopsis: Tom Selleck lives in an absent rich guy’s home, drives the dude’s expensive sports car, and presents himself as a private investigator….wait, that sounds awfully familiar. Um…Jerry Reed plays second banana to good-looking guy with a moustache as they evade a crooked sheriff and rescue a damsel in distress…no, that’s the Synopsis for Smokey and the Bandit.
Blurb From the VHS Jacket: “RAMBLIN MAN starring Hollywood Hunk Tom Selleck and country legend Jerry Reed is a story of mystery and deception that leads these two wild men into an action packed adventure.”
What Did I Learn?: 1) Charm don’t fill your belly. 2) You need more than good looks to make it in the music business. 3) Luxury car dealers are more than happy to lend out their showroom models for the weekend if you promise to purchase five of them on Monday.
You Might Like This Movie If: You're such a Tom Selleck fan, he could even persuade you to take out a reverse mortgage. Wait, what...?!?
Really?: 1) See: “What Did I Learn?”, #1. 2) I’m curious…why would anyone call this film “Ramblin Man” (no apostrophe, by the way), when there are two stars? 3) So, Will Ewbanks (Selleck) discovers Lonnie Grimes has an elaborate video taping surveillance system set up in his bedroom, and it’s never used for anything. 4) Reed was a master at delivering glib Southern slang, but boy-howdy, Selleck sure sounds awkward when he recites lines such as: “I’ll give you this, JD, I reckon you could start out with a toothpick and end up with a lumber yard.” 5) So, wait… Will and JD (Reed) drive their borrowed Corvette through the front window of a police station, and the cops let them go? Oh, and the same cops let them go a second time after a local gangster attempts to steal their car and it explodes on him? Even if Lt. Blocker doesn’t think they’re guilty of anything, wouldn’t he at least hold them for questioning?
Rating: Ramblin’ Man is a cheesy made-for-TV movie that was one of Tom Selleck’s many unsuccessful pilots before Magnum PI. I’m giving this long-forgotten clunker a barely-passing grade only because I enjoying the bickering interactions between Selleck’s and Reed’s characters. 5.5/10 stars.
Ramblin Man 2
Synopsis: It’s the further adventures of Will Eubanks and JD Reed, featuring a budget Tom Selleck.
Blurb From the VHS Jacket: “…this rip-roaring country/action/comedy takes you from Memphis to New Orleans in an adventure of murder and revenge….If you liked Ramblin Man 1 you’ll love Ramblin Man 2!”
What Did I Learn?: 1) Deep down, every man wants to be a cowboy. 2) The El Dorado is the best con, ever.
You Might Like This Movie If: You're a ramblin' guy.
Really?: 1) I realize Jerry Reed probably wanted to promote his country music career, and the producers of the show wanted to capitalize on his popularity within that genre, but isn’t a little self-indulgent to eat up maybe 10 or 15 minutes with full-length songs from Reed? Heck, they even played the same song twice, and showed flashback clips from the earlier half of the episode! 2) I could point out any number of plot holes, convenient coincidences, etc, but I’ll only mention a couple… villain Red Asher (Charles Napier) attempts to have Will kidnapped as an insurance policy in his dealings with JD. Amazingly, JD never thinks to change any details of his elaborate con, which involves Will wearing a phone moustache and playing a wealthy investor in front of Red. That makes no sense. Similarly, I was flabbergasted to learn that the El Dorado con essentially hinges on switching the mark’s money with an identical suitcase filled with counterfeit cash using a fast-turning round table. Really? What if the mark insists on leaning his elbows on the table? What if he didn’t transport the cash in the black suitcase JD noticed in Mississippi? What if Red or one of his goons didn’t fall for the distraction and noticed the rotation of the table?
Rating: Ramblin Man 2 was the first episode (“El Dorado”) of the short-lived TV series Concrete Cowboys that was made without Tom Selleck and nearly two years after Ramblin Man aired. Reed is still a funny and charming Southern good ole boy, but the story is contrived, poorly-written fluff (see: “Really?”), and there’s no real chemistry between Reed and Selleck’s replacement, Geoffrey Scott - Will Ewbanks becomes an uninteresting cypher, and a very second fiddle to JD. 3/10 stars. I cannot recommend this movie.
Would it Work for a Bad Movie Night?: Hell yeah! Take a drink any time you find yourself questioning the logic of the plot.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081845/?ref_=hm_rvi_tt
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