Mitchell

source: Mitchell

Trailer—Mitchell

Mitchell

Joe Don Baker's biggest mistake in his career was to not do those succeeding Walking Tall films. If the choice was for him to make films like Mitchell than he should have stuck with Buford Pusser. Mitchell is a Dirty Harry like cop without Clint Eastwood's sense of style. Either in the way he takes down the bad guys or in his wardrobe. Baker wears some of the worst sports jackets I've ever seen on anyone in film. He really needed a visit from the Fab Five. Mitchell is taken off a homicide that John Saxon committed because Saxon has too much juice in the department. He's put on surveillance of Martin Balsam and open surveillance at that. The object being to rattle drug kingpin Balsam who's having his own problems. It gets dumber and dumberer after that as Mitchell combines the cases. And the ending is a total ripoff from Key Largo. Joe Don Baker never did become the really big star that Walking Tall was to be the springboard for and films like Mitchell are the reason why.

Mitchell is one of those movies that just didn't stand up to the test of time. (then again, it wasn't great to begin with.) Joe Don Baker probably drank so much as Mitchell to ease the pain of being in this movie. That and having to make out while Hoyt Axton (sounding like a very drunk Mac Davis) sang a song. Other lowlights include the treatment of the old lady Mitchell hired when he picked up the suitcase; the use of the little kid who came to Mitchell when he was in his car; The death of Benton; and the list goes on. Avoid this one unless you're seeing the MST3K version. That is somewhat more easier on the stomach.

The 70s cinematography, clothes, cars, Linda Evans, and scenery helped make this just under good. Even, The Hunter (1980) was just a little bit better.

Awful. Gloriously, fabulously awful. My-my-my-my goodness this was a piece of work... If the hideousness of this movie had been intentional, I doubt it would be so amazingly funny. I laughed so hard I almost passed out. What I wouldn't give for "Mitchell 2: the Geritol Years."

Unlike Hunter Felt, I don't think Baker, Balsam (an Oscar winner for "A Thousand Clowns"), Evans, and Saxon are a second-rate cast. But this movie was so bad it got thoroughly and hilariously skewered by "Mystery Science Theater 3000", which was the version I watched. (Example: "Hey, Alan Gibbs played the Mustang Hood!" "Yeah? Who played the headlights?") If you never saw a car fix itself in the middle of a chase scene, you might want to watch this late one night after getting really drunk.

Unintentionally funny, directionless, poorly scripted and poorly acted movie. The title character, portrayed by Joe Don Baker, is simply odious, and he's supposed to be the "hero." The attempt to turn Joe Don into an international sex symbol seems to have failed here. MITCHELL goes downhill from there, and never stops its deep, agonizing, downward spiral, even as the ending credits roll. Despite the presence of a Hoyt Axton song or two, nothing works...including MITCHELL, the protagonist himself. MST3K does give it the treatment, and makes it a memorable motion picture event, though. Hands down, definitely opt for this version. Recommend the straight, non-Mystery Science Theater 3000, version to someone you loathe. NOT RECOMMENDED

You know that a movie is really bad when the best scene in it is when a woman is wearing a dress that shows her entire back torso. That's the case with "Mitchell", a fourth-rate cop flick with Joe Don Baker as the title character going after drug dealers. It isn't even so bad that it's good; it's so bad that it makes you feel like your brain just turned into mashed potatoes (in fact, that statement is insulting to mashed potatoes). Fortunately, hope is not lost: "MST3K" showed this hunk of junk and Joel, Servo and Crow had lots to say about it. As it was, that was Joel's final episode, as he was replaced by Mike. Mike did an equally good job helping the 'bots mock crummy movies.