Stroker Ace (1983)

I made the observation very recently that Porky’s II: The Next Day was so scummy that it made me want to take a shower, that it turned women into a hated sexual portal.  Stroker Ace has the exact same problem.

Burt Reynolds returns to the good ol’ boy arena for a movie that has just as horrifying a set of values as Porky’s.  He plays a narcissistic race car driver called Stroker Ace whose time off the track is spent in activities that would no doubt land him in hot water with several sexual harassment suits.  I’m not kidding.  One of the early scenes has Stroker at a NASCAR promotional event making sexual advances on several of the Grid Girls only to realize that he’s already bedded down with each one and abandoned them thereafter.  This is our hero.

The main thrust of the movie doesn’t get any better.  Stroker gets horned up over his sponsor’s new P.R. director (Loni Anderson) who happily announces that she is a virgin.  This means that Stroker will basically spend the rest of the movie harassing this poor woman until she gives in to his advances.

Worse is the plot that gets her into the picture.  Stroker becomes the stooge of a fried chicken restaurant magnate (Ned Beatty) who either has it in for Stroker or is really bad at his job.  He fast-talks him into a ridiculous contract in which he will do promotional stunts that would not only sully Stroker’s name but also destroy the business.  At one point, he is required to drive his race car while dressed in a chicken suit.

This is not a movie, it is a set of scenes badly constructed stuff stitched together.  The movie looks terrible.  The characters are developed at all, Stroker Ace introduced as a freewheeling ladies’ man but there is nothing gained or learned from this.  Plus, the racing scenes are just stock footage borrowed from television.  There is nothing interesting or exciting or insightful about the world of professional racing.  It’s all a hateful series of stupid car jokes surrounded by sexual harassment stuff that just makes you feel creepy.  Put this on a double-bill with Porky’s so I can skip them both.