A two-time loser like Gator McKlusky (Burt Reynolds) will do anything to avoid a third strike and a long prison stint. So when a big city revenuer asks for Gator's help, what choice does he have? Gator's mission is to get the goods on Bama McCall (Jerry Reed),the nasty crime boss of a neighboring county. Gator gets something else he hadn't counted on, however, when he falls for television reporter Aggie Maybank (Lauren Hutton). Can he get the girl and the goon?

As is the case with most sequels, Gator is a vastly inferior movie to its predecessor, White Lightning. Everything that made that movie so good and so memorable is missing from Gator. While there are a few good moments like the opening boat chase, the movie doesn't have the same gritty feel to it that characterized White Lightning. Gator trades much of the action of White Lightning for a tired, dull romance between Reynolds and Hutton. Not only isn't it believable (especially if you know the Gator character from the first movie),but the outcome of the relationship is terribly predictable. "Sappy" and Gator McKlusky just shouldn't be used together.

But the most offensive part of Gator is Burt Reynolds. In White Lightning, he played it straight. From my review of White Lightning, "One of the coolest things about White Lightning is that it presents Burt Reynolds as an actor at the top of his game. This was a Burt Reynolds who seemed to actually care about the final product and not just yucking it up with his buddies on screen." In Gator, far too often Reynolds reverts to the clown he would become in movies like Smokey and the Bandit and Cannonball Run. That laugh of his just grates on my nerves. There are times in Gator when Reynolds and Reed are on screen together that I swear it's like a test run for Smokey and the Bandit. And it's not surprising to see Hal Needham's name in the credits as Second Unit Director.

Overall, Gator is a huge disappointment. I'm being generous with my 3/10 rating.

Three years before, Burt Reynolds made a very good movie called "White Lightning" and it was so popular that the public was eager for a sequel. Well, they got one...sort of. What I mean by that is that it's not exactly a sequel because some of the details and the tone of the movie is quite different from the first film. Instead of being set in Arkansas, Gator seems to be from Georgia, his father played a different character in the first film, there's a daughter who suddenly appeared from no where AND "Gator" is more of a comedy....but a comedy with some very serious stuff in it as well.

When the story begins, some Feds are chasing Gator McKlusky in the Georgia swamps. But Gator has a hot rod boat and manages to avoid them. But what he cannot avoid are these Feds arresting Gator's dad for moonshining. But they don't want the dad...they want to use him to leverage Gator into working for them.

It seems that long ago, Gator had a friend named Bama McCall (Jerry Reed). The Feds tell him that Bama is a gangster...and Gator simply cannot believe the terrible things they say about him. So, he agrees to go meet Bama and see for himself. Soon he's shocked....his friend IS a real creep who makes his living through extortion and child prostitution!

So what's funny about this? Well, not a lot but there is a super-goofy character played by Alice Ghostly...and she is a hoot and clearly was put in the film for comic relief. They also gave the film a girlfriend for Gator (Lauren Hutton)....who assists him and goofy Ghostly in digging up proof of McCall's criminal empire. As for Gator himself....well, he just doesn't seem quite like the guy from the previous film.

Generally I liked the story, but towards the latter part I felt really irritated....as if they didn't know what to do with the story. After Gator and his friends got the goods on McCall, instead of heading to the FBI or just driving north ASAP, they go to the beach and hang out!! They never say which beach, but it was filmed at Tybee Island....in Georgia like the rest of the story. Now considering McCall controls at least a county and perhaps much of Georgia, this little vacation makes no sense at all and showed that the script could have used a bit of a re-write. It's still enjoyable...but also misses the mark and could have been better. As for me, I think I prefer "White Lightning"....though "Gator" did have more in the way of plot and "White Lightning" was almost pure action.

Burt Reynolds both plays the title role and repeats his character from White Line Fever in this film Gator. Reynolds played one of his most endearing characters as the amiable moonshiner who has certain talents and the right acquaintances that an ambitious Governor of Georgia needs at the moment.

As we saw in White Line Fever Reynolds was a tough man for law enforcement to deal with. But Mike Douglas, the TV host not Kirk's son, is the Governor who has a Phoenix City like county that is gaining national attention and putting a crimp on his plans for higher office.

As it turns out Reynolds happens to know the boss of said county who is played by country singer Jerry Reed. They've got history together and Reynolds has to be hammer-locked into cooperating by federal investigator Jack Weston. But one look at Reed's operation, particularly one aspect of it, and Reynolds then becomes a willing crusader.

Also helping out are Lauren Hutton and Alice Ghostley and this is the fantastic four of Georgia. Gator as a film is nicely paced between some good old boy comedy, serious drama, and some really nice action sequences especially at the climax. I'd give it a look and for Burt Reynolds fans, Gator is a must.