Any Which Way You Can (1980)

The dude forcing an extended kiss on a woman and the attempted rape in AWW You Can don't seem hilarious these days, but taking Clyde to the zoo with drugs so he is prepared to knock out a female so he can rape her? Funny movie and whatnot, but, golly.

Every Which Way But Loose was bad enough, so, two years later, the producers decided to make a sequel. And Clint Eastwood went along for the ride.Every Which Way But Loose was Clint Eastwood's career low-point. Not necessarily the worst movie Clint Eastwood ever made, but it must be close to to it. No, a career low-point because he chose to be in it. The script alone, and the fact that his co-star is an orangutan, should have tipped him off that this movie was not going to be anything more than mediocre. He should have listened to WC Fields: "Never work with animals or children".The money must have been good.Quite silly, lowest common denominator stuff. Pointless, random, hole- filled plot. The whole aim seems to be to get to the next fight scene.Any Which Way You Can is more of the same. Once again, the money must have been good...

At the risk of offending those who state proudly that you don't need to be intoxicated to have a good time; plenty of beer will most likely enhance your enjoyment of this flick. Silly, low-brow humor abound, idiotic character behavior and less than stellar acting from Mrs. Eastwood (at the time) and Mr. Cool himself (ever so wooden in his early comedic roles) but it's all good if you're in the mood for this kind of film. Clyde (the orangutan) is pretty funny at times, Geoffrey Lewis and William Smith provide the quality acting and those bikers are hilarious. The scene where they're pulled over for speeding and the cop doesn't have the heart to give them a ticket is a Hall-of-Fame moment in my books. Plus that fistfight in the end is impressive. Overall; "Any Which Way You Can" (and it's prequel; "Every Which Way But Loose" for that matter) isn't for everyone but these kinds of silly comedies can really hit the spot if you're in the right mood. The country music ain't all bad either.

Crude, sophomoric, irreverent, silly, stupid, overly macho, etc., etc. - yet, an endearing and very enjoyable film for a lot of people. I wouldn't put myself in that category any more, calling it "endearing," but when I was a lot younger and more less discerning, I laughed a lot at this. I enjoyed this as much, if not more, than the original film, "Every Which Way But Loose." Now, it's a bit too seedy and I don't care for all the abuses of the Lord's name in vain, especially in comedy. However, this is an entertaining film. No one falls asleep watching the antics of the orangutan or Clint Eastwood and his fighting opponent or the irascible Ruth Gordon. The villain in here - Eastwoood's boxing opponent "Jack Wilson" (William Smith) was a good guy and the bare- knuckle was something to see!It's low brow stuff, but a lot of that kind of humor was big in the '70s and early '80s.