Curator Watchlist
Hooper
A breezy, old-school Hollywood hangout movie that doubles as a tribute to stunt performers, with genuinely impressive practical action and a surprisingly melancholy look at aging, pain, and fading physical confidence.
Curator Watchlist
A breezy, old-school Hollywood hangout movie that doubles as a tribute to stunt performers, with genuinely impressive practical action and a surprisingly melancholy look at aging, pain, and fading physical confidence.
Where to watch: Buy
Fri · 1h 39m
Director: Hal Needham
Starring: Burt Reynolds, Jan-Michael Vincent, Sally Field
Legendary stunt man Sonny Hooper remains one of the top men in his field, but due to too many stressful impacts to the spine and the need to pop painkillers several times a day, he knows he should get out of the industry before he ends up permanently disabled.
Hal Needham
Burt Reynolds, Jan-Michael Vincent, Sally Field
A breezy, old-school Hollywood hangout movie that doubles as a tribute to stunt performers, with genuinely impressive practical action and a surprisingly melancholy look at aging, pain, and fading physical confidence.
Hooper is the kind of movie that feels like it was made by people who actually loved the bruises, the chaos, and the absurd professionalism of stunt work. Hal Needham keeps things loose and sunny, letting Burt Reynolds drift through a series of hangout scenes, barroom jokes, and increasingly outrageous set pieces that celebrate the craft without ever pretending it is safe or glamorous.
What makes it stick is the tension under the easygoing surface. Sonny Hooper is funny and swaggering, but the movie keeps reminding you that his body is failing him and that the job has an expiration date. That gives the film a real sting: it is a comedy about men acting invincible while quietly confronting mortality.
The result is less a conventional action movie than a warm, slightly ragged love letter to a disappearing kind of movie-making. If you are in the mood for practical stunts, 1970s charm, and a star vehicle with more heart than polish, it is an easy recommendation.
Patrick Willems (4★) · 349 likes
God stuntmen are so fucking cool
Matt Singer (4.5★) · 286 likes
Seduces you with the amazing practical stunts and the low-stakes we’re-just-having-a-good-old-time vibe and then sucker punches you when it suddenly becomes a shockingly personal meditation on mortality. There’s this amazing scene where Burt Reynolds, clad in nothing but tiny briefs, inspects his body with total disgust. No dialogue; just withering self-critique. Hooper is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen about entering middle age. You’re not “old” yet, but you’re getting there, and knowing it’s coming makes it so… more
Will Sloan · 183 likes
When I saw that this was available on an airplane in-flight entertainment system, I smashed the Play button so hard I nearly crashed the whole aircraft. A great-vibes classic! Burt in full Norm-impression mode. Great stunts! Robert Klein as Peter Bogdanovich! Hal Needham gives the movie a really bright and easy-to-look-at neutral style that probably really popped on a drive-in screen. Extra points for imagining a better world where Adam West (as himself) is the biggest movie star in the world.
Matt Singer (4.5★) · 148 likes
We did not need sequels to Smokey and the Bandit (a movie I love) or Cannonball Run (a movie I don’t), but we did need one for Hooper. Another 100 minutes of Hal Needham and Burt Reynolds having a grand old time celebrating the beauty and lunacy of practical stunts and 1970s men’s fashion. It would have been called 2ooper.
Swartacus (4★) · 117 likes
The greatest 99 minute beer commercial ever made. Sonny Hooper with his surgically repaired knees, his turquoise pinky ring, a coffee mug full of John Daniel's to wash down his Percocet, and a yellow striped black leather moto suit with yellow helmet straight out of Kill Bill. That opening scene from The Spy Who Laughed at Danger is a stone cold banger. Fucking print it says the thinly veiled parody of Peter Bogdanovich. This introduction to stuntman greatness is topped… more
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aging, mortality, physical decline, stunt work, Hollywood self-mythology, male friendship, workplace camaraderie, practical action
1970s, action-comedy, hangout movie, practical stunts, Hollywood satire, midlife crisis, male camaraderie, nostalgic, roadshow-era energy, physical comedy