The Cannonball Will Fall To The Forces Of Islam !

Rating: 5/10 (7 May 2006)

The Cannonball Run is an east to west coast across America illegal road race, and racing-driver J.J. McClure and his sidekick Victor are out to win in an ambulance. Can they beat the motley group of reprobates competing, and will killjoy Senator Hoyt spoil their fun ?
Needham and Reynolds made six big-budget race-car movies in the seventies and eighties, all of which are dumb but fun, and I think this one (which came between Smokey And The Bandit II and Stroker Ace) is probably the best. It starts off with a dynamite title sequence featuring a Lamborghini Diablo, has some nice songs and stunts, is filled with enough screwy characters and shamelessly mugging stars to keep you amused, and almost never tries to be anything but a big joke. I like the way these pictures, in a politically-correct and environmentally-conscious age, are gloriously offensive, as out of date as Fawcett's huge sunglasses. The chief attractions are the cars (a Ferrari, an Aston Martin, a futuristic Subaru, a Rolls Royce and several others) and the large cast; DeLuise is terrific, Chan does some groovy stuff, and don't miss the scene where an unbilled Valerie Perrine out-cleavages honeys Barbeau and Buckman. Personally, I prefer Paul Bartel's earlier, wackier Cannonball, but this is still good-natured fun with a bunch of drunken good ol' boys driving recklessly. Oddly, despite being all-American nonsense, this movie was financed by the Hong Kong-based Golden Harvest film company. Written by Brock Yates, the architect of a real version of the race in the early seventies, who has a small role as the race organiser.