THE CANNONBALL RUN (Hal Needham, 1981) **

Rating: 4/10 (21 December 2008)

This is one of those films watched during my childhood days which, unfortunately, didn't now live up to my recollection of it; even if I knew it doesn't have a good reputation (despite the box-office success which spawned a sequel three years later), I still expected the film to be more entertaining than it proved to be!
The film is said to rip-off THE GUMBALL RALLY (1976), which I haven't watched; ironically, I had intended to check it out for this Christmas season as well but its DVD is currently unavailable at my local rental outlet. Being only a little over one and a half hours in length, the narrative doesn't have enough time to adequately accommodate its roster of stars, all of whom seem to be there for the fun of it anyway: a pity, therefore, that this sentiment isn't always transmitted to the audience! The cast is led by Burt Reynolds (a regular in ex-stuntman/director Needham's films  having been also the star of the "Smokey And The Bandit" franchise), Dom De Luise (whose character has a superhero alter-ego named Captain Chaos  one of the film's few inspired touches), Roger Moore (playing a man posing as Roger Moore and with the expected rampant nods to his James Bond image!) and Rat Packers Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. (who spend most of the time disguised as priests)!
Also on hand is Jack Elam (as an eccentric doctor who likes to inject himself with whatever he's administering to his patients!), Jackie Chan (who manages to demonstrate a bit of his martial arts prowess but his scenes are otherwise among the dullest in the film), Jamie Farr (as an Arab sheik, whose role will eventually be expanded in the sequel), Peter Fonda (as the leader of a biker gang, what else?) and, of course, a number of women including Farrah Fawcett (who naturally hitches up with Reynolds) and Adrienne Barbeau (as one of two female competitors who don't think twice about using their generous cleavage to get ahead in the race). To be honest, having been a few days since I watched both films anew, their proceedings (and jokes) now seem not only interchangeable but have begun to fade in the memory; I do recall, however, that the race is finally won by the two sexy girls (after Captain Chaos is called upon for help just as he's about to tread the finishing line)!