Bad/awesome flixxx review: What Comes Around (1986)

"I told you! It was little. It was green, and it was ugly! I'm gonna change my shoes." - Big Jay.
"You better change your pants." - Tom

"It ain't hid Joe. You think I stole this money? I ain't my money. I ain't your money either. It's... It's OUR money, Joe." - Leon

"So Leon has been stealin' from me. I believe that means I've got one comin' ain't it big 'en?" - Joe

Well, its no secret, I've always loved Jerry Reed. From his appearance on Scooby Doo that I saw when I was maybe 5 years old, to SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, to his music, to all the other later flicks he was involved with. This one however was a weird one. Its probably not that well known because he made and funded it himself. Wrote it, produced it, and what have you. Or maybe its not that well known because its not very good. That's not to say that its horrible. Its just instead of the yuck em up country comedies that he's known for, this could potentially have been like a dude version of a Lifetime movie about an alcoholic singer who's been bamboozled by his shady manager for 25 years. Jerry Reed, Bo Hopkins, and Barry Corbin in WHAT COMES AROUND!!!

**********UPDATE*************
I FOUND A TRAILER FOR "WHAT COMES AROUND" ON ANOTHER CHARTER ENTERTAINMENT MOVIE ENTITLED "NEVER TOO YOUNG TO DIE", AND THEN I RECORDED IT WITH MY PHONE AND UPLOADED IT, SO HERE YA GO, WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, THE VERY RARE TRAILER FOR "WHAT COMES AROUND".





There's a handful of really bad things Jerry Reed did there around the mid 80s that didn't get the funding it really needed. One that comes to mind is CONCRETE COWBOYS that was released as RAMBLING MAN with Tom Selleck. This was a few years later, but looks like about the same budget. LOW. Anyway, WHAT COMES AROUND is the story of Joe Hawkins. The flick starts out in 1954 at a little country bar, and the band playing is trying to swing a little more bread out of the manager who is killing it at the door and the bar, because the place is slammed. The sleazeball greasy manager asks the owner for some more bread and gets it. He tells the band that he didn't get anything and a knockdown dragout ensues betwixt all the patrons, emptying out the joint and even knocking the new sign out front down onto someone's sweet (what looks to be) 1953 Buick. The sleazy manager Leon (Corbin) then heads to the sticks and tells this country family that he's got a record contract for their oldest son in Nashville. The little brother is sad that his brother is leaving.



Fast forward to 1979, the 25th anniversary of Joe Hawkins career. Whatever swindling Leon did must have paid off, because Joe is flown in by private jet to Nashville and its quickly put out there that he is overworked and sticks to a heavy regiment of drugs and alcohol. But Leon keeps pushing even at the concern of everyone around him. After his brother Tom sees him flop on national television on a talk show, Tom's wife urges Tom to do something about the condition of his big brother. Tom runs a race car team and garage. Apparently over the years Joe lent him the money, but Tom has done good for himself and paid him back. After it weighs on his mind for a bit, Tom decides to go check on his big bro. When he gets there, Joe is taping his 25th anniversary special. He's nailing the songs, but blowing the "lines" that he was supposed to learn. He is on the brink of exhaustion, but happy to see his lil bro. On the way back to the stage, he collapses, and Tom cusses Leon out before splitting so that he doesn't freak and beat the shit out of him.



At this point, Tom devises a plan to get their buddy Big Jay who works on an ambulance to help him kidnap Joe by blackmailing Jay. Jay is on probation but is a bookie out at the tracks, which violates his probation and probably numerous other laws. So Jay does all this against his will, and gets tricked into staying out and helping rehabilitate Joe. Leon gets pissed and hires a PI to try and find Joe. Tom does some investigating of his own and finds out that Leon has been using Joe and snaking his bread for years including putting 8 mil into an off shore account in his own name. BOGUS.



So the movie wraps up after Joe is pissed and goes through all kinds of withdrawal and denial and slaps his lil bro, and then feels bad about it, and feels bad for himself, and then finally snaps out of it, and does some running out in the woods. Then they catch the PI, throw him in the latrine (shitter) and then they basically get revenge on the manager by boozing him up, and throwing pills all over the car and crashing it into his restaurant. I'm gonna call out WEAK ENDING. For some reason I wanted Joe to get his money back. But whatever, you do get some cool Jerry Reed footage jamming on a big stage. It's 80s footage of a guy doing some weird material, but if you're a fan, you'll dig it.