an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Blistering performances.

All the major cast members return in 'Any Which Way You Can (1980)', aside from perhaps the first picture's most crucial star. Manis the orangutan is here replaced by another (not named in the feature's credits) who just isn't quite as good. This shortcoming ricochets across the entire piece with most beats being revisited but never reaching the heights of the original. There's still irreverent fun to be had, though, and the inherent charm of a monkey sidekick still remains so, despite the fact that it retreads much of the same ground and actually retracts some of the character work done previously, this is still an entertaining flick that provides a few laughs along the way. 6/10

First off, do not see this movie unless you have already seen "Every Which Way but Loose", as this film is a sequel to that.Now, the first film was known to have a pretty shallow story. This one has the same problem - in fact, the story seems even weaker than the first. The plot doesn't go anywhere; it sits there and watches as the film's comedy takes the wheel.The film is definitely intended to bring up laughter, but I'm not sure if it's sole purpose of production was to be a comedy. The laughs are good, but too rare to make the movie's lack of a story acceptable. The humor is very similar to that of the first film, only, like this film's story, never jumps to the point of surpassing anything we've already seen.However, despite these flaws, the film was overall enjoyable. There's not much you'd miss if you skip this one, but if you enjoyed "Every Which Way but Loose", you're probably going to like "Any Which Way You Can" - just probably not as much as you enjoyed the first. Like the first film, the ape "Clyde" is the source of all true amusement, with "Ma" charging up a scene or two of good laughter in this one. Clint Eastwood's performance may feel a bit weaker or equal to his in "Every Which Way but Loose", but it definitely adds to the experience.Overall, a good film to see if you really enjoyed the first. The two films are very similar, so much so that if you stumbled upon one on television, it may take you awhile to figure out which one you're watching. Many of the scenes take place in the same places: "Clint's house, the bar, etc.", and there are only a few slight additions to the cast. Really nothing too "new" in this film, but a surely entertaining viewing if you enjoyed "Every Which Way but Loose".I give the film a 6/10. I gave "Every Which Way but Loose" a 7/10, and this one lost a point as although it was a bit funnier than the first, the story wasn't as thought-out as the firsts at all, and I seemed to loose my interest a bit more easily on this one. Nonetheless, incredibly similar to the first film in all sorts of ways, so if the first one left you wanting more, definitely check this one out!

"Right turn, Clyde!" – and the orangutan's fist shoots out the passenger window, impacting anyone dumb enough to have their face there. It's just one of many running gags in this inexplicable, fuzzy film.Any Which Way You Can (sequel to Every Which Way But Loose) opens with an illegal street fight, pitting bareknuckle street machine Philo Beddoe (Clint Eastwood) – now a local legend – against a Marine-beating bent cop, cheered on by a rowdy mix of truckers, crooked cops and busty chickie babes.While Philo ogles some jiggling boob, the cop catches him unawares. Before he rises from the sand, Philo gives his opponent a menacing look – that tilted head with one eye slightly squinting… All I know in this world is: you don't wanna be on the receiving end of the Clint Glare. Ever. In short measure, the cop goes down. Meanwhile, Philo's orangutan, Clyde, has crapped in one of the squad cars… Any Which Way You Can, written by Stanford Sherman and directed by stuntman extraordinaire, Buddy Van Horn, is one of those rare movies that takes everything good about its predecessor and mashes it up in a big bowl of wrong that tastes just right.One of the reasons this movie works is the palpable camaraderie on set – even between Clint and his "enemies." They've all worked with him before, in a cavalcade of past Clint classics: John Quade (in High Plains Drifter) along with his Black Widow gang of Clint regulars, Dan Vadis (Bronco Billy), William O'Connell (Josey Wales), Bill McKinney (The Gauntlet); underworld bookie Beekman is Harry Guardino (last seen chewing out Dirty Harry); there's the team from Every Which Way, Ruth Gordon once again steaming the screen as trash-talking Ma, Geoffrey Lewis as ever-faithful Orville, Sondra Locke still skeletal and untalented as Philo's girl, Lynn Halsey-Taylor; (the luminous Beverly D'Angelo was sorely missed in this sequel), and then there was Clyde the orang utan, always in the background, yet somehow in the furry foreground whenever a punch or a fart was needed to punctuate the action.Philo is still trying to make ends meet in Anytown San Fernando Valley by rebuilding engines and bareknuckle boxing. A $10,000 underworld match comes his way, against a man-mountain renowned for maiming and killing his opponents, Jack Wilson (William Smith). Philo and Wilson meet unofficially in a – what else? – barroom brawl, eventually befriending each other enough to cancel their bout and anger all the underworld figures who organized the betting stakes. They end up fighting unofficially, the fight growing in intensity and public attention until the whole betting populace of the small town is cheering them on, all bets on.With both competitors pushing 50, we wonder how this plot could even be plausible, yet through a blend of laconic humor and outlandishness, Any Which Way makes it believable, with a wham-bam-thank-you-ham third act that makes you want to do 50 pushups and sit-ups a day, just to look half as good as these veteran, iron-thewed warriors when you're their age.There's nothing deep here; crack a beer, strip down to your wife-beater and just enjoy it. Every which way you look at it, Any Which Way is a Right Turn, Clyde.

Crude, sophomoric, irreverent, silly, stupid, overly macho, etc., etc. - yet, an endearing and very enjoyable film for a lot of people. I wouldn't put myself in that category any more, calling it "endearing," but when I was a lot younger and more less discerning, I laughed a lot at this. I enjoyed this as much, if not more, than the original film, "Every Which Way But Loose." Now, it's a bit too seedy and I don't care for all the abuses of the Lord's name in vain, especially in comedy. However, this is an entertaining film. No one falls asleep watching the antics of the orangutan or Clint Eastwood and his fighting opponent or the irascible Ruth Gordon. The villain in here - Eastwoood's boxing opponent "Jack Wilson" (William Smith) was a good guy and the bare- knuckle was something to see!It's low brow stuff, but a lot of that kind of humor was big in the '70s and early '80s.