Review by ArtVandelayImporterExporter

The End is pretty much a Woody Allen movie except Burt Reynolds directs and stars in it. Guy goes to the doctor and learns he has a few months to live, whines a bit, cracks some jokes, and away we go.

Reynolds is just OK, doing altogether too much whining and even more shouting. Sally Field picks up a paycheque. But the rest of the supporting cast really brings it. Norman Fell as the bad news doc is a reminder that Fell was much better than his broadly drawn landlord character on the terrible 70s sitcom Three's Company. ''Father" Robbie Benson has a funny scene. And then there is Dom DeLuise who, like Buckley's cold medicine, is usually best in small doses. His first scene in the hospital next to Burt's bed. I had tears in my eyes by the end of that I was laughing so hard. Dom is channeling Henny Youngman, Jack Benny, Rodney Dangerfield, Robin Williams, at least two of the 3 Stooges, and the aforementioned Woody Allen, all in one crazy scene. The punchline about metric killed me. Academy Award to whoever edited that scene. You gotta know they shot miles of film and then stitched it into a perfect 5-minute bit.

Compared to all those fake good-ol' boy car chase movies Burt churned out in the 70s this was a real nice change of pace.