Cannonball Run | | Cast : | Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett | | Director : | Hal Needham | | Studio : | Warner Home Video | | Format : | Color | | Released Date : | June 19, 1981 | | DVD Released Date : | June 05, 2001 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 14, 2005 | | Summary | Cannonball Run | Content
 | this is one of my husbands favorite movies, I found it very funny |
| Rating | | | Date | July 02, 2005 | | Summary | Yes its Widescreen | Content
| It says 16x9 format on the dvd package and it is in its theatrical widescreen format. Widescreen lovers enjoy. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 14, 2005 | | Summary | Wiseguy commentary more than usual commentaries | Content
| The director qand producer are both giving out the commentary and at times they deliberately joke off (specially the producer) for example the producer claims a little boy seen in one shot is actually him as a kid! The producer was in fact over 30 years old when he made this film! I found the commentating duo referring to Jackie Chan as pretty a little fairy fine. Maybe they were trying to be way too politically correct about human racial races (not car races). The commentators laugh a lot too. As for the film itself. It is not that dated and everybody performs well (though Reynolds is not as involved here as in Smoky and The Bandit he does good all the same).Farrah Fawcett is undeniably one of the most beautiful and interesting females the world over as she shows here. Excellent outtakes too in the closing credits too. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 19, 2005 | | Summary | You'll Have A Ball | Content
| During the 70's and up through the mid 80's, Burt Reynolds was the biggest box office star in the U.S. Considering how most of his film work is dismissed by most now, Deliverance notwithstanding, that was quite a feat. Truth be told, while I will aggree that most of his straght action roles were a bit overdone and the romatic comedy Best Friends missed the mark, the man did have two films that are classics. The first Smokey And The Bandit and the original Connonball Run may be mindless drivel to some, but for me they are a heck of a lot of leave your brain at the door fun.
In Cannonball Run's case, it's a film that owes quite a bit of its style to Stanley Krammer's It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World from 1963. A cross-country car race provides the plot for this action madcap comedy with an all-star cast. Each of the racers have their own motives for wanting the huge cash prize that awaits at the finish line. Reynolds, joined by Jackie Chan, (before he hit it big here in the U.S.) Roger Moore (spoofing Bond of course, Farrah Fawcett (post Angels), Rat Packers Dean Martin & Sammy Davis Jr. (as holy men), fmous country star Mel Tillis and future Fox Sports football "analyst" and former Steeler Terry Bradshaw among others for some fun. Director Hal Needham (who did Smokey as well) lets it all hang out. The best laughs come from Dom DeLuise though as a would be superhero. Writer Brock Yates's script doesn't really care about making too much sense and that's probly a good thing.
I was kind of hoping for more extras on the DVD...The audio commentary features Needham and producer Al Ruddy's recolections to be sure and that's fine. But I wanted to see a few deleted scences and maybe a retrospective. Instead, the only other bonus material is a few static cast & crew bios.
Cannonball Run is a mindless throwback that's silly and fun. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 02, 2005 | | Summary | A blast from the past | Content
| This is one of those wacky 70's movies with an all-star cast that became almost a staple of the time. With Burt Reynolds, Dom Deluise, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin, and Jack Elam in the starring roles, it served up some very funny comedy that I was surprised to find still holds up today. There are so many stars from previous years and decades in the movie that it's almost like they're getting together for one last silver screen reunion before retiring to rest on their laurels. The fact that the movie is one big farce and they probably didn't take it that seriously, either, probably helped, since it looks like everyone is having an uproariously good time while doing it. Some of the antics date the movie a bit, but still, it's all in good fun, and apparently the movie is based on real races that were popular at the time, although highly illegal.
I was pleased to see Elam get considerable screen time here. He was a real trooper who served tirelessly in supporting roles all his life and was always a class act even when he was a disreptuable bad guy (which he was most of the time). I remember Jack Elam most from the opening scene at the train station in Once Upon a Time in the West, but here he gets probably his funniest role as a wayward proctologist who's always brandishing his middle finger, causing the other actors to back away in fear, which was always good for a laugh. In the Once Upon a Time scene, I read that they smeared watermellon juice on his face to get the flies buzzing around his head to do that scene. His famous wall-eyed visage only made the doctor role funnier. Deluise, "the fat man who make everyone feel good," also gets one of his funniest parts. All in all, still a fun movie sporting many of the most famous shining lights of previous Hollywood decades. |
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