Stand on It
Director John Schneider
Starring John Schneider, Cody McCarver, Mindy Robinson & Tyrus
Score 4/6

Poker Run
Director John Schneider
Starring John Schneider, Cody McCarver, Mindy Robinson
Score 4/6

Legendary but tired ex-television star Duke Marietta is bet half a million dollars against his big rig that he can’t for real what Burt Reynolds did for pretend in “Smokey and the Bandit!”
With Poker Run Tiny and Timmy Needham are at it again when they bankroll a traveling/racing illegal hybrid Texas Hold’em poker game by fronting Frosty, Fred, Sonny and Papa each half a million dollars while Duke has to put up the $500,000 he just won in Stand On It!

Okay, it might have not been as long as I would usually leave it for a post reviewing two movies but considering that I watched both movies back to back and John Schneider wrote, directed and stared in both of them somehow it seemed appropriate. For those of you who might be interested Schneider had an uncredited role in the 1977 movie Smokey and the Bandit. It has been more than a few years since I last watched a movie that would be considered a tribute to a genre, the last one probably being one of the movies in the Scary Movie Franchise. Both Stand on it and Poker Run don’t look as slick as other indy movies because some of the effects didn’t look entirely right to me and I am willing to assume that there are a few people out there how are going to dismiss these movies are ‘just rip offs’ of Burt Reynolds and Hal Needham movies. That just might be the case, but it’s a trend with a lot of Nostalgia driven Hollywood movies, Schneider’s heart seemed to be in the right place and with all the fourth wall breaks the movies where very much aware of what they where doing. I would also like to point out that in a world of remakes and reimaginations Stand on It really did not seem to venture to far from its source material and I felt that both movies had a similar sense of fun to Smokey and the Bandit. I loved how the stunts progressed across both of the movies with a car jump over a river in Stand on It being topped by a boat jump in Poker Run.
It was great to see the dynamic develop between John Schneider as Duke Marietta, Cody McCarver as Roy and Mindy Robinson as Fred over the course of the two movies. I loved Tyrus’ performance as Cletus T. Necessary in Stand on It and the in-movie reason why Dane Rhodes was cast in the role in Poker Run was one of the more creative ways that I have seen a casting change dealt with in a movie. Both Tyrus and Rhodes where brilliant opposite Dion Baia Sonny T. Necessary.
I suppose my biggest complaint about Poker Run is the fact that a Waylon Jennings song from the 70’s I’ve Always Been Crazy has been stuck in my head for the first days. I’ll leave this question open to everybody are there any Burt Reynolds and Hal Needham movies that I should watch?