General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Stick (1985 film)

Stick is a 1985 American crime thriller directed by Burt Reynolds, who also stars as Ernest "Stick" Stickley, an ex-convict in Miami who seeks revenge after his friend is murdered during a drug-money delivery. The film is based on Elmore Leonard's 1983 novel Stick, was produced by Universal Pictures, and opened in the United States on April 26, 1985.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Director / star	Burt Reynolds, in both roles¹
Source	Novel Stick by Elmore Leonard (Arbor House, 1983); screenplay by Leonard and Joseph C. Stinson¹^•³
Release	April 26, 1985 (Los Angeles and New York openings); R rating; 109 minutes¹
Principal cast	Burt Reynolds, Candice Bergen, George Segal, Charles Durning, José Pérez, Dar Robinson⁴
Box office	$8,489,518 domestic on a $3,358,299 opening weekend (Box Office Mojo); The Numbers lists $6,964,734²^•⁵
Critical reception	38% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (8 reviews); Metascore 31 on Metacritic, "generally unfavorable"⁶^•⁷
Rights cost	Universal paid $350,000 for the film rights to Leonard's then-forthcoming novel, per the February 8, 1983 Hollywood Reporter¹

Spoilers

Plot

After serving seven years in prison for armed robbery, Ernest "Stick" Stickley returns by freight train to his hometown of Miami, Florida, intending to find work before seeing his fifteen-year-old daughter, Katie.¹ His friend Rainy takes him along on a job picking up a suitcase of money from the drug dealer Chucky, who has promised $5,000 for delivery to a man named Nestor. During the handover, Rainy is shot and killed by Chucky's henchman Moke, and Stick escapes by driving Rainy's van into a cornfield and setting it ablaze.¹

Stick lies low, taking a job as a chauffeur for the millionaire stockbroker Barry Braham, and grows close to Kyle, Braham's financial consultant (played by Candice Bergen).⁶ When Chucky's men come after him, he fights back, and the film becomes, in Universal's synopsis, the story of an ex-con drawn into "a high-class criminal circle" of a nervous drug kingpin, a shady film producer, and a stock market whiz.⁸

Production

Universal bought the rights to Leonard's novel before publication, and Leonard was hired to adapt his own book.¹ In July 1983 the studio announced that Reynolds would both star in and direct the picture, with production beginning on October 3, 1983 in southern Florida.¹

On-set injuries. The shoot was marked by two accidents. During a gunfight sequence, Reynolds was shot in the eye and rushed by helicopter to a Miami hospital, with a full recovery expected.⁹ The next month, a Tulip camera crane fell on three crew members during filming in Fort Lauderdale; video technician Michael LeFebvre was left in critical condition with internal injuries and massive head trauma.⁹

Casting changes. Country singer Tammy Wynette was reported to be making her feature film debut as Reynolds' wife, and trade papers noted her filming scenes in December 1983, but her character was cut from the story entirely.⁹ The role of Katie was also recast: Reynolds reportedly wanted to replace actress Shana Rodman, Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton was offered the part and declined, and Tricia Leigh Fisher was eventually cast.⁹

Delays and reshoots. The film was originally scheduled for release on August 17, 1984, but the date was postponed after Reynolds was unable to complete post-production because of a serious inner ear infection.⁹ The Rotten Tomatoes entry adds that Universal demanded additional action scenes, at a further cost of $3 million, and that the film's humor was cut down to make it more commercially viable.⁶ After poor responses from test audiences, reshoots were ordered and screenwriter Joseph C. Stinson was hired to rewrite scenes, including changing the ending to be more "upbeat"; Leonard was reportedly disappointed that much of his original story had been changed in the final cut.⁹ The Washington Post critic Paul Attanasio dated the delay to almost a year, writing that "movies aren't wines -- they don't improve in the cellar."¹⁰

Cast

The film pairs Reynolds with Candice Bergen as Kyle, George Segal as Barry Braham, and Charles Durning as the drug dealer Chucky.⁴ José Pérez plays Rainy, Castulo Guerra plays Nestor, and the henchman Moke is played by Dar Robinson, the stuntman known for Sharkey's Machine, described in the Kino Lorber release notes as a "psychotic albino."⁴ Alex Rocco plays Firestone, David Reynoso plays Luis, and Tricia Leigh Fisher plays Katie.⁷

Reception and box office

Stick opened wide on April 26, 1985 in 1,173 theaters and ranked first for the weekend with $3,358,299.⁵ Business fell sharply thereafter, down 54 percent in the second weekend and 69 percent in the third, and the film ended its run with a domestic gross that the two main trackers record differently: Box Office Mojo lists $8,489,518, while The Numbers lists $6,964,734.²^•⁵ The Numbers also calculates an inflation-adjusted domestic figure of $22,189,044.⁵

Critics were largely negative. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 38% Tomatometer from 8 reviews, with an equally divided 38% Popcornmeter from more than 250 audience ratings.⁶ Metacritic assigns a Metascore of 31, "generally unfavorable," based on 10 critic reviews, of which 6 were negative, 3 mixed, and 1 positive.⁷

Contemporary reviews. Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film had been "rendered jokey, flaccid and, the worst crime of all, deadly slow," despite Leonard having been the original screenwriter.¹¹ Attanasio's Washington Post review argued that Reynolds "never figures out whether he's making a thriller or a spoof," and that the actor was "way too polished for the character Leonard wrote."¹⁰ Time found Reynolds' performance "so muted it is sometimes hard to hear his lines" and called the direction torpid.¹² Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader took a different view of the same quality, describing a film "haunted by an unstated, largely undramatized sense of melancholy."⁷ The Associated Press was the most favorable of the reviews Metacritic collected, calling it "a satisfactory, if fairly standard, action entertainment."⁷ A later Rotten Tomatoes editorial comment took the opposite tack, calling the film "unfairly maligned" and "a very good underworld thriller with Burt Reynolds at his absolute coolest."⁶

Home video and later release

The film has remained in circulation on home formats: Universal Pictures offers it for digital purchase or rental, and Kino Lorber has issued a Special Edition Blu-ray with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio.⁸^•⁴ Rotten Tomatoes lists a streaming release date of September 11, 2015.⁶

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026