Stand on It!

I recently came across "Stand on It!" on YouTube, and although I didn't sit through the entire movie, I saw enough while skipping through scenes to get a solid impression-and unfortunately, it wasn't a good one.

Right away, the film's production quality is distracting. The camera work is subpar and often feels shaky and amateurish, like it was shot on a low-end device. It doesn't resemble something ready for release-more like a rough first cut or a student project. Even more jarring were the clear signs of green screen usage in certain scenes. These moments completely pulled me out of the viewing experience and made the film feel even more cheaply made. There may have been some low-budget CGI involved too, which only adds to the artificial, unpolished atmosphere.

The storytelling is hard to follow-not just because I skipped around, but because the narrative feels disjointed even in the scenes I did watch. It lacks flow and cohesion, making it tough to care about what's going on. There's no real charm or wit, which makes this especially disappointing for a movie that's meant to pay tribute to the 1977 classic Smokey and the Bandit.

Speaking of tribute, the characters here fall completely flat when compared to their iconic counterparts. Tim Phillips, who plays the Bandit-like role, does give a somewhat decent performance. He has a bit of screen presence and occasionally channels the charisma you'd expect from a Bandit figure, so I'll give him that. However he doesn't resemble the Bandit as his and Burt Reynolds eyes and facial structures don't match. Also, the Sheriff Bufford T. Justice character-originally made legendary by Jackie Gleason-is a major letdown. Matthew Cutter's portrayal lacks Gleason's over-the-top energy, and his accent doesn't come close. It's a failed imitation of a larger-than-life character, and it stands out in all the wrong ways.

As someone who loves the original Smokey and the Bandit, this film felt more like a parody gone wrong than a genuine homage. It doesn't capture the excitement, humor, or heart that made the 1977 film so memorable. If anything, it undermines the legacy with a lazy, thrown-together effort.

It's honestly kind of funny that Universal Pictures hasn't taken any legal action-maybe they saw Stand on It! For what it is: a harmless, low-budget imitation that poses no threat to the original's legacy. In that sense, ignoring it might be the wisest move they could make.

If you're a diehard fan of the original and are hoping to relive the fun, I'd recommend steering clear of this one. Unless you're morbidly curious or in the mood to see how not to do a tribute, there's really no reason to spend your time on Stand on It!

Yeah it's a low budget. But it's fun. And it is like the Smokey and the Bandit version of Not Another Teen Movie.

It has something from almost every classic car / truck movie that has been made in it. Every scene has either something in the background or in the script that is directly related to another show. The fun part is seeing what you find. From My Cousin Vinny to Beverly Hillsbillies it's all in it. You need to pay attention, and make sure you got your ears on or you're going to miss them.

Test your movie and show knowledge by seeing how much you can find.

Most of the movie was filmed on the stars ranch, so yeah don't sweater the movie because of its budget, it wasn't made in Hollywood.

John Schneider is a big kid at heart and it shows in this movie. How many of us would love to relive one of your favorite movies from your youth and star in it? He obviously didn't have the budget but he paid tribute to a classic the best he could. Sure the acting and editing were rough. But I didn't expect anything else. Thanks John and team for taking me back to my youth. I am actually in the process of obtaining and recreating a movie car from a different movie and now I want to make a tribute movie.

I grew up with the Bandit and Dukes of Hazzard, so I am the target market for a film like this - and there's some really good stuff here! But unfortunately I think the low budget created obstacles that just could not be overcome.

First, the good: The pace of this film is really good, it moves along and never drags. There are some editing issues which I'll get to, but the filmmakers were clearly very capable in a larger sense, which is so important, particularly for this genre.

Great performances across the board. Schneider (who stars, wrote and directed) is a fine actor. His dramatic performances show us he can hold his own, and in lighter fare like this, his charisma shines through. The supporting cast is in my opinion uniformly good, too. Robinson, as the bride, hits all the right notes. Tyrus, as the Sherrif, was delightful. What he lacks in acting experience he more than makes up for in presence, and as a result I loved every minute that he was on screen.

There were some nice stunts here. One car is jumped, another is rolled, and a bunch are dunked into rivers and swamps. They even include the famous Bandit stunt where the roof of the police car is torn off - that was pretty ambitious for such a small film!

I love the indie nature of this film, and I have a tonne of respect for Schneider for setting up John Schneider Studios to make small-scale films of a more personal nature. While I don't agree at all with his politics he shares on YouTube, I can see he is a decent man who is putting his money where his mouth is. I really do respect him as an artist. Everyone should check out his other films (they are criminally under-rated by users on IMDB for some reason, whereas I feel this film is rated too highly - but hey, this is just my opinion).

Now the not-so-good: Road trip / car chase movies are tough to do cheaply. We can see that a lot of the budget for this one went into the car stunts/wrecks, and these scenes are all done pretty well. However, the stuff in between has two problems: First, there is not enough coverage shot of the cars actually on the road, resulting in some very confusing and disorienting editing. I suspect this was due to the editor just not having enough footage to piece the scenes together in a better way.

All of the shots in the interior of the vehicles were done using a green screen, and it is very obvious. It would have been less distracting if there was better continuity when the camera switched from driver to passenger, and an entirely different topography is visible on the other side of the road! When I compare these scenes to, say, "Anderson Bench" (also written and directed by Schneider), which had some similar scenes but was shot on location, it looks awful in comparison. I know that much of this film is dialogue-heavy, and the vehicles are the main locations, so I am sure green-screen made economic sense.

These budget-related sacrifices unfortunately will mar this film as amateurish, and unfortunately for a film in this genre I don't think it could have been avoided. However, my biggest complaint could have been: The story here spends too much energy getting the set pieces of the original Bandit in place that it misses the mark on character development. He don't see the bond between Schneider's Duke and Robinson's Fred really happen like it did with Bandit and Carrie in the original. There is one brief scene that hints that maybe that was going to happen (off camera?), but while they have lots of dialogue together in the car, it doesn't drive their relationship forward very well. The actors share some charisma with one another, so I would have preferred some space for that. There are other scenes, including a bar fight, that don't lead anywhere, that could have been sacrificed instead.

It's a decent tribute to Bandit, with enough of a modern twist to make it just different enough that it's not a remake - and there are enough nods to the original, and to the Dukes of Hazzard, to make any fan smile. This is obvious by its high rating on IMDB in comparison to Schneider's other films - this movie has a lot of nostalgia behind it, and that's not a bad thing.

But as a film on its own merits it has some serious flaws. Still, I look forward to seeing what John Schneider Studios will make next, as the world needs more creative independent films. And you know what they say, if you don't fail sometimes, it means you're not trying enough new things.

Coming from a long-time fan of Smokey and the Bandit, I just have to say that this movie really hit home for me. Not only that, but this really felt like a true combination of Smokey and the Bandit and Dukes of Hazzard. Of course they couldn't make it the tribute they wanted it to be with the budget they had, but John still somehow managed to make it loveable and memorable. The music of this movie is just incredible. The songs really felt like true country songs right down to the instruments and singing. Every song in this film truly felt special in its own respective way while being true to legendary country music. The acting is also really good for a movie with a tight budget. John Schneider may have played as the star of the movie, but the best acting in the movie definitely goes to Tyrus for playing Jackie Gleason's role as the sheriff. Tyrus not only managed to make the dialogue still funny, but he also incorporated new, original dialogue that was not in Smokey and the Bandit. Tyrus really played his part well, and it even looked like he had fun while doing it. But nothing in the movie could top the good stunts and crashes. The crashes were really spot-on to the movie it was tributing while being original in its own, creative way. They even somehow managed to make the backwards car jump into the pond more satisfying by jumping a police car, specifically a Crown Victoria, through a old, abandoned trailer at John Schneider Studios. But the big epic stunt of the movie took place at the Tickfaw River where they jumped the star car, a 2017 Dodge Challenger Hellcat, 100 feet over a demolished bridge right over the Tickfaw River to recreate the famous Mulberry Bridge jump in Smokey and the Bandit. Also, this movie was filmed during the 2020 Bo's Extravaganza event at John Schneider Studios in Holden, LA in July. John allowed anyone to be a part of the movie as an extra character. Not to mention that the upcoming sequel, Poker Run, was filmed at the 2021 Bo's Extravaganza event in April. Now, this movie is not perfect, but this was still a memorable film that I will surely watch over and over again. This really hits home for me, and if you're looking for a great family film to just kick back and enjoy, then this is definitely the one.