Any Which Way You Can (1980)

Director: Buddy Van Horn

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, William Smith, Harry Guardino, Ruth Gordon

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Faster, funnier and wilder. It'll knock you out.

Plot: Philo takes part in a bare knuckle fight - as he does - to make some more money than he can earn from his car repair business. He decides to retire from fighting, but when the Mafia come along and arrange another fight, he is pushed into it. A motorcycle gang and an orangutan called Clyde all add to the 'fun'.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? Yeah.

What's up with that movie poster? It looks like the cover for an Atari 2600 game.

I actually like this one a little better than the first one, EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE (1980). The two things I loathed about that one were the stupid detectives and the stupid biker gang. The mafia now takes the place of the cops and the biker gang has a much smaller role this time. That also means that the shitty biker gang theme is heard much less which is a good thing. This automatically makes it a better film. Then you've got the inclusion of badass William Smith as Clint fighting rival. He's fantastic. Not only is he a super cool dude, his character in the picture is super cool and professional. I'm sure if this movie were made today his character would be completely different...and an asshole.


By the way, in the real world, Smith would have pummelled Eastwood. Their fight together is a lot of fun and the idea to film it in Jackson Hole, Wyoming was inspired. The landscape is magnificent. Everything I liked about LOOSE is back. The jokes are a little funnier and there's less dumb shit. Hell, the only thing about LOOSE that's better is the theme song...plus you didn't get to hear Eastwood sing. I'm sorry, try to sing. But you do in CAN. I challenge you to enjoy this...