User reviews

Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristhofferson play two pro football players who are interested in the the daughter of the owner of the team. This movie is actually humorous. It shows what these two guys will do to try to win over the girl who is playing these guys off against each other and enjoying every second if it. Two men competing for the girl, and willing to make total fools of themselves in the process, until the Burt Reynolds character wises up, steps back, examines the situation objectively and then plots his strategy to gain the girl's attention. It's not the greatest movie, and it's definitely not a sports movie, but it's worth watching, has funny moments, and shows what a guy is willing to do to get a woman.

Advertised as a sexy comedy about pro-football players and their women, this Michael Ritchie film, based on the book by Dan Jenkins, instead takes aim at fads and other eccentricities of the 1970s, using the sports world as a backdrop. It wasn't the big commercial hit some were predicting, though it garnered good notices for Burt Reynolds, doing another of his amiable walk-throughs. Jill Clayburgh, just prior to her breakthrough in "An Unmarried Woman", plays the daughter of the football team's owner, and her rapport with Reynolds is surprisingly instantaneous. Kris Kristofferson, on the other hand, ends up playing straight man to her and pal Reynolds, and the third-wheel position subdues low-keyed Kristofferson even further (he evaporates). There are some funny potshots at the EST craze, with Bert Convy well-cast as a self-help guru, but the romantic comedy at the heart of the piece never quite takes off. Ritchie puts all his sting into the absurdities happening around the principals, a move which consequently leaves the finale seeming half-baked. ** from ****

Well, I loved the book - absolutely LOVED it! This film is a sort of decent stab at adapting Dan Jenkins great book, but, mainly due to language and Political Correctness, it ends up falling flat. Much of the humor in the book is racial (both directions, by the way), sophomorically sexual or otherwise politically incorrect. Since much of that had to be dropped from the film, a good bit of the books' humor is lost. And, as with many films, there is less room for character development than in a book. Still, with Burt Reynold and Jill Claiburgh, it has some considerable charm and humor. The story line is pretty faithful to the book, although there are a couple of changes that I wish hadn't been made to the story. Kris Kristofferson offers up a surprisingly good performance, and he's never impressed me as an actor before (nor singer either, for that matter). Overall, not a bad film, but you'd probably like the book better - I do!

Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson team up to play a pair of amiable pro-football players in Semi-Tough a good natured comedy about these two and the owner'd daughter. Sounds like you should be waiting for punchline and in a sense the whole film is one.

Jill Clayburgh is the owner's daughter, the owner being Robert Preston who is a flamboyant Texas millionaire and owner of the Dallas football team which for copyright reasons is never referred to as the Cowboys.

Having grown up with the team Clayburgh is on a first name basis with all the players and they treat her with due deference. She'd like a little more going with either Reynolds or Kristofferson, but can't make her mind up which one. It's almost like Crosby/Hope/Lamour without any songs.

Some nice performances will be found from masseuse Lotte Lenya, fake motivational speaker Bert Convy, and also the best from Brian Dennehy as a defensive end who's really abusing the steroids. It's from Dennehy that we get some potentially serious moments in an easy going film.

Fans of the leads should appreciate Semi-Tough.

Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson in a football player buddy movie. Both of them are in love with the same woman.

The film takes a real dump on self-improvement cults.

Reynolds Hooper (1978) made fun of pompous British filmakers and Semi-Tough also takes a dig at the pompous people in the publishing industry (jocks of the mind) though the main target is the self-improvement racket.

It also tells the truth about male-female relationships. Men have to tell some lies and act a bit to get the woman. Macho football player Reynolds joins a self-improvement cult to win the woman.

Reynolds is his usual towering, macho and unpretentious self as a football player into Gene Autry movies. Kristofferson holds his own. Jill Clayburg is really cute and lends some sophistication to the proceedings.

This is the kind of movie Marlon Brando and posh Hollywood liberals might have hated.

It is not very woke when it comes to treatment of women. There is a scene where Brian Dennehy tries to throw a woman off a building during a party. Kristofferson talks him out of it and everyone goes back to partying like nothing happened. Early in the film, Reynolds enjoys the view of an airhostess behind.

The directorial flourishes are nothing to write home about except cuts to audience reactions during the football match.

It is not fantastic or anything. But there is something alluring about these Reynolds movies. They are a departure from the pensive and world weary movies that the gatekeepers have promoted to the rest of the world. These films have made a revival thanks to the internet and Bill Burr promoting Reynolds on Joe Rogan. Of course, they cannot be compared to the best of Coppola, Scorsese, Cimino and De Palma. But films like Semi-Tough shows that there was another America far from the gritty streets, devastated war veterans, disillusioned idealistic youngsters, conspiratorial spooks and the lowlife gangsters. This was the mainstream in the 70s. Semi-Tough made $38 million on a budget of $7 million. While I would not go out of my way to promote many of Reynolds films, they are definitely interesting for people obsessed with American cinema of the 70s and 80s. It is American machismo without being apologetic in anyway. And I believe that is the real truth about machismo - pretentious but great artists apologize for their machismo through their art, but not in real life.

(7/10)

Jenkins's novel is one of the funniest books ever written, and THE funniest sports novel. The movie is a total trashing of Jenkins's work. It retains only the title, the names of a few of the characters, none of the book's plot, and none of its humor. The storyline bears absolutely no resemblance to the book. Billy Clyde's diary of the week leading to the Super Bowl, with all its hilarity, has been replaced by a silly look at self-improvement fads and crazes and Gene Autry music. Reynolds and Kristofferson are not believable as professional football players, although Kris would have been a great Elroy Blunt, had that important character been retained from the book. The problem was that Jenkins lost control of the scriptwriting. When the scene in which Billy Clyde and Shake are discussing their rating system for women was written, it used the Dudley Moore scale of 1-10, with 10 being tops. Jenkins informed the director that in the book, the scale went the other way, with a "1" being the top vote. He was informed, "This is the movie!"

I give this one a "1", using the movie's scale.

Director Michael Ritchie was known for comedies but made one of the best sports movies of the 1970s, Downhill Racer about a selfish, self obsessed Olympic skier played by Robert Redford.

Semi-Tough is a satirical light romantic comedy. Billy Clyde (Burt Reynolds) and Shake Tiller (Kris Kristofferson) are football stars who are both involved in a relationship with Barbara Jane (Jill Clayburgh) the daughter of their team owner.

Inspired by a self help guru Friedrich Bismark (Bert Convy) it is Shaker who gets engaged to Barbara Jane which makes Billy Clyde realise that he also loves her.

This is an engaging look at two egocentric men, the influence of lifestyle gurus. There is a scene where an argument between two rival football players ends up being a discussion between rival self help courses.

Ritchie brings an almost anarchic style to the film yet has a cutting edge on the lifestyles of the rich and famous sports stars.

There is a famous scene where Billy Clyde gets involved in a 48 hours intensive find yourself seminar run by Bismark in a locked hotel room. Participants cannot leave even to go to the toilet but Billy Clyde has attached a device where he could relieve himself.

Burt Reynolds gives an engaging fun performance. Bert Convy is also effective as the shallow guru. He is a hoot when he discusses mixed marriages with Shaker. He always reminded me of Tom Jones when I was a kid. It must have been the perm.

If you'd read the book and then went to see the movie, you probably ran screaming from the theater, vowing revenge on the @$$hole writers, director and producers who ruined one of the funniest sports books ever written. The thinly-veiled send-up of "est" was funny enough, but who the heck made that up? It sure wasn't the author of "Semi-Tough", sportswriter Dan Jenkins. I understand the compromises that must often be made when bringing a book to the screen, I understand that cuts and character deletions are necessary to squeeze a good-sized novel into a 2-hour (or so) movie) - but why rewrite the whole damn thing? Big Ed Bookman as the team owner? Where did that $h!t come from? Nothing about what they did to this movie made a lick of sense. Do yourself a favor - instead of trying to track down a copy of this movie on DVD (it's out there), get a copy of the book (it's been recently re-released in trade paperback format) and laugh yourself silly - then track down copies of "Life Its Ownself" and "Rude Behavior" (they're both a bit harder to come by - for reasons I can't fathom), the 2 follow-ons to "Semi-Tough", and laugh some more.

Then - go find copies of every book by Dan Jenkins that you can lay your hands on and read them all: "Baja Oklahoma", "You Gotta Play Hurt", "Dead Solid Perfect" (the "Semi-Tough" of golf, featuring Kenny Lee Puckett, another Fort Worth native. This book also had an unfortunately mediocre movie made out of it - but with the minor thrill of seeing the luscious Corinne Bohrer (who usually plays squeaky-clean suburban mommies) as the lascivious and uninhibited Janie Ruth Rimmer (Kenny Lee's 3rd ex-wife-to-be), walking full-front naked down the hallway in a British hotel to fill the ice bucket - the shocked middle-aged couple who spot her are author Dan Jenkins and his wife, June, in a quick cameo appearance).

More of Jenkins' books that are must-reads: "The Money-Whipped, Steer-Job, Three-Jack Give-up Artist" ('nother golf book, with another - different - Texas golfer) and its follow-up, "Slim and None". Find these books and read 'em - do it - do it now! You'll be glad you did.

The novel, "Semi-Tough" was authored by Dan Jenkins, possibly the funniest sportswriter who ever lived and a very astute chronicler of football and golf. The novel was absolutely hilarious, completely un-PC but a very realistic satire of pro football 50 years ago. The movie resembles nothing close to the novel. It's not so much even a satire of football as for some reason it becomes a sendup of EST and the various self- help spiritually movements that sprang up in the late 60's, most of which were cons and/or pyramid schemes. The film stinks, but the novel and the sequel, "Life It's Ownself" are a riot. Jenkins was a gem.

"Semi-Tough" has got to be one of the best comedies of all time. The casting is perfect, and the acting is very understated. You could really identify with Kris Kristofferson, Bert Reynolds, and Jill Clayburgh as lost children of the 1960s looking for the answers to life in the 1970s. They parody to a "T" some of the self-help and consciousness raising scams of the times.

I especially loved the thinly disguised "BEAT" which closely paralleled "est" (Erhard Seminars Training, and they always wrote the acronym in lower case) which attracted many followers. I had the misfortune that year of working for a boss who was an est graduate (they called themselves "estholes") and two ex-hippie co-workers. est was their life, almost like a religion to them, and they were always pressuring the other workers on the team to take est. They had their own language -- e.g. "I'll take responsibility for that," "We have an agreement," and especially "I got it." (meaning I understand it). While Kris Kristofferson "got" the training, Jill Clayburgh did not. Since they wanted to get married they were afraid of a "mixed marriage." Fortunately Burt Reynolds also takes BEAT training and pretends to "get it" although you later learn he saw right through it from the beginning. Burt Convy as the seminar leader bore a striking resemblance to Warner Erhard, the founder and leader of est.

For your $300, the training consisted of two weekends spent in a hotel ballroom from about 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM both days. There were no breaks even to eat or go to the bathroom (no kidding!) The stunts in the movie paralleled the real est training, with things like lying on the floor hugging your pillow while kicking your feet in the air. After the training you were supposedly a changed person, free of your old hang-ups. Fortunately, I found another job where I was not subject to "estual harassment."

Robert Preston, the Team Owner, played his role perfectly too. To a background of Gene Autry records which matched his own view of the world, he tried many other psychic movements, including crawling around on the floor rather than walking. They also tried "Pelfing," a thinly veiled send-up of Rolfing. In fact, one other football player was a devotee of "pyramid power," proudly wearing a pyramid from a necklace.

This movie has been on TV but not recently. It would be fun to see it again. Interesting that the IMDB poll for this movie shows that viewers over 45 enjoyed it much more than the kids under 18. Yeah, they weren't around during those happy days of Disco, Leisure Suits, disaster movies, gas lines, est, Lifespring, Rolfing, Pyramid Power, and of course, "Happy Days."

If you enjoyed "Semi-Tough," another film you'd like is "Serial."

Having been a college football star before an injury leading to acting lessons, football became Burt Reynolds' Rosebud... and the second mainstream football flick for Burt Reynolds isn't as gritty as THE LONGEST YARD, which took place in prison involving prisoners vs guards...

But SEMI-TOUGH centers on a professional team where the most famous and beloved players, odd couple Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson (flanked by muscular loon Brian Dennehy and a stable Roger E. Mosely), hardly compete on the field but, as a romantic comedy, seek a relationship with the team owner's progressive daughter, Jill Clayburgh...

The first of two giant problems is the horrendous miscasting of the ingenue, looking more like a random substitute teacher than a woman two sex symbols would give up their womanizing freedom for... and second's the fact Kristofferson, technically the best suitor and her fiance through most of the picture, becomes a selfish New Age flake, making the turnout of Burt's maverick winning-out too predictable, far too soon...

Although as a chance to enjoy the extremely enjoyable mustached star embracing the comedy chops he garnered the same year as the game-changing SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, it's not a bad little feature to sit through: in particular Burt's bizarre, longshot dare to conquer overweight Mary Jo Catlett, and then a grueling EST seminar where he surreptitiously gets the upper hand, which could've been a story all its own -- one that needed way more sport (especially with THE BAD NEWS BEARS director Michael Ritchie at the helm) and a little less... play.

This is one of the worst abominations to come out of Hollywood during the 70's. Not even Burt Reynolds can save the script of this forgettable drivel. I lost all respect for the author of the book, Dan Jenkins, for allowing this thing to be made. The book BTW is hilarious, and has no resemblance to the film. Want to watch a football movie try the Longest Yard or North Dallas Forty. 1/10

I loved the book, but failed to heed warnings to steer clear of the film. The script is hackneyed. Reynolds, as Billy Clyde Puckett, gives his usual smirking performance, while Kristoffersen devil-may-care mien of his character, split end 'Shake' Tiller, and Dennehy adequate captures the man-child, T.J. Lambert. However, the script does little justice to Clayburgh's character, Barbara Jane, who was the best developed and most interesting character in Jenkins' novel.

Somewhat surprised that this Michael Ritchie sendup of the Motivational Self Help 70s, disguised as a sports flic, gets such a low rating (below a 6) from my IMDB colleagues. Maybe, like me, they were hoping for more of a gridiron "Jules And Jim" since that was the tone of Dan Jenkins' fine novel. And whenever Reynolds and Clayburgh are onscreen together the film achieves perhaps the most elusive quality in Hollywood, genuine charm, so that when we cut from them to the EST spoof scenes and the Pelf stuff the film seems to die a little before it is semi revived by the force of Ritchie's and screenwriter Walter Bernstein's mordant humor. Still, I always admire Ritchie for grabbing the satirical football handed off from Sturges and Wilder and running with it, the only 70s Hollywood director to do so successfully other than Altman and, occasionally, Mazursky, in my opinion. B minus.

PS...Wish there were more Gene Autry songs.

This at times fuzzy and unfocused comedy struggles with trivialities until it settles into a series of spoofs on the contemporary phenomena of various conscious-raising, quasi-philosophical existential movements that found their way into the celebrity scene in the 1970s. The Kris Kristofferson character is the tool (which eventually makes his role somewhat thankless), while his roomie, teammate, and long-time buddy Burt Reynolds is his unpretentious opposite. The love triangle is lightweight and not even particularly charming, but the tone of the film is brilliant, and the dialogue is at times hilarious. Director Michael Ritchie may not have the tightest command of his work, but he has a delightfully baffling quality to his storytelling that emphasises the film's clever satire. In the end, though, it all comes down to Burt's charm and buoyancy. He walks through the film portraying both jealousy and despair without ever truly exposing himself. It would be disrespectful to call it "acting", but he is darn brilliant.

I remember when Burt Reynolds being Burt Reynolds was enough to carry a movie. I don't think that's a concept that aged particularly well. I don't feel like this movie much went anywhere, but maybe I missed the point. I doubt it, but it wouldn't be the first time.

Billy Clyde Puckett (Burt Reynolds) and Marvin 'Shake' Tiller (Kris Kristofferson) are best friends and professional football players in Miami on a team owned by Big Ed Bookman (Robert Preston). The two players live with the owner's daughter Barbara Jane (Jill Clayburgh) in a friendship triangle.

The premise starts with a questionable setup. I don't buy these three hot folks never having slept with each other. It would be more compelling if all three have some romantic history together. Nevertheless, I really like these actors and want to buy into their characters. They have plenty of charisma. Burt going with Mary Jo Catlett is very unexpected. I wonder if more could be done with that. After the marriage announcement, the characters start doing some weird stuff. The self-help group has its fun moments but it would work much better if Shake is there with them. I get the attempt at comedic satire but it's a lot of non-sense. The characters and relationships lose their reality. Even the football game has flaws in its realism. The movie does work as a football satire. The self-help satire deteriorates into gobbledygook. Despite the actors' charms, the love triangle struggles.

This was "based" on a very funny book, one of the most enjoyable I have ever read. But as other reviewers have said, the producers gutted the story and replaced it with something utterly different. Didn't work for me, at all. And I usually liked Burt Reynolds and Jill Clayburgh, and didn't mind Kris Kristofferson in a couple of other movies.

"Semi-Tough" is an odd film, as it seems to have less plot than most movies. Instead, it's like taking a slice of a couple football players, warts and all, showing what happens to them during the course of a single season. However, unlike a tell-all sports story like "Ball Four", this one is complete fiction.

Billy Clyde and Shake (Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson) both play football for Miami's pro team*. Their team is doing quite well and they might end up in the Super Bowl...though the film focuses much more on their lives off the field than on. The main emphasis is on the strange threesome.... Billy Clyde, Shake and the owner's daughter, Barbara Jane (Jill Clayburg). While they live together, Billy Clyde and Barbara Jane are friends...no benefits. And, Shake and Barbara Jane are going to get married. There also is a subplot involving a self-help guru and his teachings which were like EST, Scientology, and Primal Scream. But apart from these , the film shows a variety of antics...most of which involve Billy Clyde bedding various women...or trying.

There just isn't a lot more plot to this one. It's more like getting a peek into the lives of a couple playboys and their various antics. But because there isn't a lot of plot, the film seems very inconsequential and is easy to like or just skip. Undemanding and not bad...just not especially memorable.

Looking for a comedy about missed romantic opportunities told through a juxtaposition of rough-housing and inner reflections? Then watch "A Mid-Summer Night's Dream". Essentially "Semi-Tough" sells the pain of misdirected love by chasing the emotions down with a shot of football-player toughness and religious/spiritual ineptness. Compare that approach to juxtaposition of the rowdy Nick Bottom and boisterous Puck to pining Helena and Hermia. Semi tough even one-ups Shakespeare by taking using the same characters to embody these disparate virtues.

In biting off this challenge, however, the movie strays from the characters and into lapses of football games and farcical "individual awareness" training. Only Puckett's character manages to be mildly interesting, yet he fails to take center stage in the action - which is muddled by distractions. Kristofferson's character quickly becomes 1 dimensional, leaving me indifferent to the final climax. And the closing dialogue begs the question, "where did the title come from?"

It's too bad Michael Ritchie died of prostate cancer in 2000. So there's no opportunity for a commentary track unless Reynolds, Kristofferson and Clayburgh decide to get together to do it, which would be an excellent idea. Bert Convy who played a caricature of Werner Erhard named "Frederick Bismark" died in 1991 at the age of 57 of a brain tumor. An unfortunate loss; his performance, one of his few in films is superior and worth the price of the disc. He's remembered as a game show host, but he earned his acting chops from 1958 in television dramas. Carl Weathers, who would have a major role as Apollo Creed in three Rocky movies, has a small role here. Jill Clayburgh's best work is arguable, but for someone who got her start in soaps in th 60s and whose movies include Portnoy's Complaint, Gable and Lombard and Hanna K., Semi-Tough has to be a highlight. It's difficult to think of someone who might have been better in this role. Robert Preston is one of those actors who hasn't been replaced. The movies he made, for the most part, can't be remade because there's nobody like him. From 1938 until his death in 1987: This Gun For Hire, Whispering Smith, The Bells of St. Mary"s, How the West Was Won, The Music Man, S.O.B.,Victor, Victoria. His performance as the football team owner is priceless. Lotte Lenya has a small role as Clara Pelf, in a not-to-be-missed scene as a masochistic masseuse by this great actress. True, it's not a great movie, but for those of us who were there or who'd like to know about the excesses of the 70s, this movie is very hard to beat for laughs and a sometimes painful look at the way we were.