Tough take-charge lawman Buford Pusser (Bo Svenson ably filling in for Joe Don Baker) gets reelected as sheriff and continues to go after moonshiners as well as the folks who killed his wife.

Director Earl Bellamy keeps the familiar, but engrossing story moving along at a steady pace, makes nice use of the rural Tennessee locations, and stages several exciting action scenes with a reasonable amount of skill. The strong cast of dependable character actors helps a lot: Luke Askew as no-count ringleader Pinky Dobson, John Davis Chandler as sniveling creep Ray Henry, Robert DoQui as feisty deputy Obra Eaker, Bruce Glover as the loyal Grady Coker, Richard Jaeckel as corrupt stock car driver Stud Pudee, and Logan Ramsey as slimy toad John Witter. Brooke Mills as sassy moll Ruby Ann and Angel Tompkins as sultry femme fatale Marganne Stilson provide tasty eye candy while Libby Boone amuses as smitten receptionist Joan Lashley. However, this PG-rated film lacks the hard gritty edge and raw power of the R-rated original, so it doesn't pack the same fierce punch to the gut that the first one did. Instead this movie feels like it was sanitized to appeal to a bigger family audience, but still manages to be entertaining enough to be worth a watch just the same.

Follow-up to 1973's "Walking Tall" continues the real-life drama surrounding Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser, but this installment plays like a lame TV-movie. Bo Svenson takes over the lead role from Joe Don Baker, but he's much too mild for the part; he comes off like an ambling country singer with a bat instead of a guitar. Good supporting actors like Richard Jaekel, Luke Askew and Robert DoQui end up with very little to do. I would give the film one-star strictly on its good intentions, but the screenplay is a transparent and lazy mass of routine predicaments and the production is cheapjack. Followed in 1977 by "Final Chapter-Walking Tall" and in 1978 by the television film "A Real American Hero".

Part two in the Buford Pusser homage-trilogy begins during the aftermath of the assassination attempt that killed Pusser's wife and heavily injured the Sheriff of McNairy County himself. After spending eight long months in the hospital, Pusser is ready to pick up the fight with corruption and moonshining again.

The "Walking Tall" movies are difficult to rate and review. They basically qualify as Rednecksploitation, but since they are inspired by true events and pay tribute to a real-life "American Hero", the films don't feature comic elements (don't expect goofy banjo-music chases here) and have a much more stern and depressing atmosphere. And yet, part two is also typical and clichéd kind of sequel, with a lot more action footage and crazed supportive characters than the in the first. John Witter, the cowardly head of the moonshine-syndicate, hires numerous people to eliminate Buford Pusser (including a duo of merciless crooks, a deadly prostitute and a brute Nascar-driver) but every attempt spectacularly fails, even though there are sad losses again.

What makes "Walking Tall: Part Two" even more of a cult movie is that it normally would have starred the real Buford Pusser if he hadn't died in questionable circumstances prior to the start of production. Bo Svenson took over the role from Joe Don Baker (who refused in honor of Buford Pusser) and portrayed him in this film, the last part of the trilogy, and a short-lived television series. The rest of the cast is also terrific, with many great names reprising their roles (like Bruce Glover) but also a bunch of freshly loathsome faces, like Luke Askew, John Davis Chandler, Angel Tompkins and Richard Jaeckel.