Any Which Way You Can (1980)

Things I Learned:

- If you’re jogging and a Cadillac is sneakily following you, just slow down and punch through the window. Then they’ll back off.

- If you don’t know how to open a movie, why not sing a duet with Ray Charles called “Beers to You”? Clint Eastwood pulled this off wonderfully.

Just Cold Reviewin'

There are many terrible movies that aren’t fun to watch, like “Pearl Harbor” or “Police Academy.” But “Any Which Way You Can,” Clint Eastwood’s sequel to his unlikely 1978 hit “Any Which Way But Loose” isn’t one of them. It’s a terrible movie, in many ways, but it’s Clint Eastwood punching people, sharing beds with cop-hating chimps and Sondra Locke, Fats Domino in a cowboy hat, and Ruth Gordon cursing about random shit and kneeing men in the balls. In short, this is everything you’d want from a terrible movie.

The movie follows Eastwood's Philo Beddoe, who's just a guy who fights people, for money. His manager is a chimp. That should really say it all. It's not a high concept film, by any means. So some mob guys arrange a fight, because they love betting on fights, and Philo agrees to fight a dude with a mustache for an fuckload of money. Along the way he romances Sondra Locke's struggling country singer, again (although opening for Fats Domino isn't really struggling).

“Any Which Way You Can” is a great period piece, as many b-movies are, capturing Southern California in the late 70s/early 80s haze, complete with goofy biker gangs, freeways covered with smog and tacky urban cowboy bars. California hedonism is represented well here--In the middle of the movie we’re treated to a sex montage, as three couples simultaneously get it on—Clint Eastwood & Sondra Locke, two chimps, and a frumpy Midwestern couple attempting to experience the California dream.

The movie keeps getting weirder—we’re also subjected to a clip from Blake Edwards' “10” with Ruth Gordon’s face imposed on Bo Derek’s body running on the beach. When you think about it, this is an improvement on Bo Derek.

The film's climax is an homage to John Ford/Wayne's classic 1952 film "The Quiet Man." The two main rivals, Clint Eastwood and the guy with a mustache, have an all out brawl at the end for shits and giggles. Much like "The Quiet Man," the two rivals duke it out, pause in the middle of the fight to have a drink and reflect on their mutual admiration, then continue beating the shit out of each other. Which of the two films was the classier one I'll leave you to decide.