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Semi-Tough

Semi-Tough (1977)

  • 80% of critics liked it
    (5 reviews)

  • 31% of users liked it
    (1,193 ratings)

Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson star as two pro-football pals who both fall for the team-owner's very rich daughter. Kind of goofy, kind of funny, and somewhat endearing--those are the qualities that surface in this light-hearted comedy built upon an extremely predictable scenario. ~ Rovi

R, 1 hr. 47 min.
Directed By
Michael Ritchie
Genres
Comedy
In Theaters
Nov 18, 1977 Wide
On DVD
May 8, 2001
MGM

Critic Reviews

  • Variety Staff, Variety

    Semi-Tough begins as a bawdy and lively romantic comedy about slap happy pro football players, then slows down to a too-inside putdown of contemporary self-help programs.

  • Vincent Canby, New York Times

    Semi-Tough pokes fun in rambling fashion, but it is vulgar in intelligent ways and almost always amusing in its perceptions of befuddled people who are perfectly healthy but often convinced they're not.

  • Geoff Andrew, Time Out

    A delightful, gentle satire on the American ideal of winning, which also takes broad but often hilarious swipes at fashionable health fads.

  • , TV Guide's Movie Guide

    Set against the backdrop of professional football, Semi-Tough is both a three-cornered romantic comedy and a scathing satire of self-help movements.

  • , Film4

    Burt Reynolds does what he's best at in a lightweight rom-com with some good one-liners, but it's the parodies of the self-improvement culture that really make the film watchable.

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Featured Audience Ratings

  • Burger S


    This film pokes fun at the self-help, empowerment movements of the 1970's more than anything else. I never saw what the big deal with Jill Clayburgh was. This film rates somewhere above Gator but below The Longest Yard.

Cast

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