Overgrown buddy movie on wheels.

Rating: 8/10 (15 March 1999)

Here was another fuel-injected fun vehicle for Burt Reynolds, amongst a handful of action comedy flicks that proved ever popular in the early eighties. It has all the elements that make a good pop-corn action movie; mad-cap characters, wise-cracking side-kicks, a handful of suped-up cars, some T & A, and a stunt at every opportune moment. It also features a well chosen, mixed bunch of respected Hollywood stars of that time, a few sports personalities and some personal friends of the director, making the film appear like an overgrown (and at times a little self-indulgent) buddy movie on wheels.
The chemistry amongst the cast is the film's obvious strong point. Reynolds and DeLuise play a perfect double act while the late Sammy Davis Jnr. and the positively paralytic Dean Martin (who appears almost completely drunk throughout the entire movie,) provide ample rivalry for Reynolds and co. to bounce off. Roger Moore hams things up as the rich playboy who actually thinks he is....Roger Moore!?! Adrienne Barbeau and Tara Buckman supply sexual sizzle as the sly babe competitors, while Jack Elam's unbalanced proctologist is irresistibly funny and fits seamlessly into the cartoon comedy.
Stunt wise the film has it's fair share, but none are particularly eye popping, and most gratuitously run of the mill. Even viewers accustomed with Jackie Chan's phenomenal fight scenes in other films will be a little let down by the performance here. Surprisingly for a race movie there is actually very little racing going on, and the scenes featured are usually just a few brief ones with the protagonists often getting the better of the local 'smokey's.' For car chases you'd be better off catching 'Mad Max,' 'Bullit,' or even 'The Blues Brothers.'
The end of the day The Cannonball Run is more about the personalities taking part than the race itself and despite cruising along without anything vaguely resembling a script the film manages to score on both points, right up to the end titles and accompanying out-takes, which surprisingly contain some of the best gags of the movie.