The Cannonball Run
Jackie Chan made one of his first U.S. movie appearances. Inspired by director Hal Needham's notion of including bloopers during the closing credits, Chan began a tradition of doing the same in most of his movies, from this point onward.,Even though the beginning of the race makes a blatant point of explaining that racers are scored by time, not order of arrival at the finish line, the ending seems to suggest the contrary. Since time is the main factor, any racer who started after the Lamborghini team should still have been able to check-in and beat them. Instead, everyone fights over being the first one to clock in, and the instant she checks in, everyone else simply gives up.,Doctor Nikolas Van Helsing: I'm Nikolas Van Helsing, professor of proctology and other related tendencies. A graduate of the University of Rangoon and assorted night classes at the Knoxville, Tennessee School of Faith Healing.
J.J. McClure: You may be a little overqualified for this job.,An animated car drives around the 20th Century Fox logo, hiding out in the zero. It is chased by a police car, which crashes into one of the searchlights. The sequence ends with Burt Reynold's trademark laugh.,For some reason, the video version dubs over some of the language heard in the big screen and pay channel versions. For example, when Bert Convy asks Peter Fonda what he wants, Fonda answers "Your ass" in the original, but is heard to say "You're asking me?" on the video version.,Featured in Sneak Previews: Stripes/Eyes of a Stranger/The Cannonball Run/Superman II (1981),Cannonball
Written by Ray Stevens (as R. Stevens)
Performed by Ray Stevens,This isn't a bad movie, it's entertaining enough and has lots of funny scenes and dialog. But what it lacks is ACTION. The irony is, this movie was written by none other than Brock Yates, the guy who organized the REAL Cannonball coast to coast races back in the 70's, yet a rival (and much lower budget) film called "Gumball Rally" somehow managed to offer up far more thrills. In that film, you had a number of really fast, exotic sports cars being driven full bore on everything from Interstate highways to LA's concrete riverbeds, whereas in "Cannonball" what we get mostly are the film's numerous stars mugging for the camera, each trying to be funnier than the next. The problem, of course, is this leaves little time for the actual racing. So, the bottom line is this - if you're looking for a decent comedy with a bunch of 70's Hollywood stars, this film is quite good. But if you want to see a REAL race movie, one where the cars are the real stars, check out "Gumball Rally" instead.

6/10,