BootDigest
Such a frustrating disappointment
Ceticultsot
Beautiful, moving film.
Bob
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
SnoopyStyle
Sheik Abdul ben Falafel (Jamie Farr) needs to win the Cannonball race for the family name and puts up the money. He recruits Dr Nikolas Van Helsing (Jack Elam) in his car. There are the beautiful Jill Rivers (Susan Anton) and Marcie Thatcher (Catherine Bach) in their Lamborghini. JJ McClure (Burt Reynolds) and Victor (Dom DeLuise) pretend to be in the military while Betty (Marilu Henner) and Veronica (Shirley MacLaine) join them pretending to be nuns. There are Jackie Chan and Richard Kiel in the Mitsubishi supercar. Mel Tillis and Tony Danza is driving with an orangutan. Blake (Dean Martin) and Fenderbaum (Sammy Davis Jr.) are back looking to score in different ways.Most of the gang are back. The formula is more of the same. Is that wrong? Not automatically. The original has the fun of discovery and being new. This one is less than even a lesser sequel. The story tries to be too complicated which only detracts from the simple pleasures of watching an orangutan giving the finger. The racing is barely shown. It's a silly franchise and this is stupider than expected. Dom and Burt continue to be an outtake machine but even the post-credit aren't as funny. There is a joy in the original that seems to be missing here. It's more of the same but so much less.
Michael_Elliott
Cannonball Run II (1984) 1/2 (out of 4) Incredibly lazy and rather pointless sequel has J.J. McClure (Burt Reynolds) and various others back and competing in another race from the West coast to the East coast.Somehow, THE CANNONBALL RUN turned out to be a huge hit so a sequel was put into production and it's amazingly just as dull as the first film. Also rather amazing is the fact that they managed to get even more famous faces to appear in this thing including Frank Sinatra who would appear in a theatrical movie for the last time. That's right, the great Sinatra ending his theatrical career on CANNONBALL RUN II. How does that happen? Was he bored? Did he need the money? Doing it as a favor?CANNONBALL RUN II is pretty much the same movie as the first, although we do get a few new actors to appear here including Telly Savalas as a gangster, Shirley MacLaine as a nun, Richard Kiel as Jackie Chan's assistant and there's also Sid Caesar, Catherine Bach, Tim Conway, Don Knotts, Tony Danza, Ricardo Montalban, Jim Nabors, Charles Nelson Reilly, Henry Silva, Doug McClure, Abe Vigoda and I've already mentioned Sinatra. Reynolds basically sleepwalks through the film and every once in a while smacks Dom DeLuise. Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. easily steal the film and thankfully they're given a bigger part than the previous movie.As I said, this is a pretty horrible movie as was the first one but with so many stars it's hard not to recommend this to film buffs. As awful as the movie is and as unfunny as it is, there's still something mildly (and painfully) amusing getting to see so many famous faces in one picture. It's really too bad that the filmmakers didn't try making a better movie though.
ultraman007
Truly one of the greatest American films of the 20th Century. Superior comedic timing, wit, intelligence, chemistry-- a poignant social commentary on the conspicuous consumption of the mid-1980s. Hilarity only surpassed by its taut direction, superior pacing and production value, the likes of which had been unseen since Battleship Potemkin or 2001.The editing on this masterpiece (by William Gordean, famous for his genre-defining work on Tank Girl-- yes, that William Gordean) exceeds brilliance. How did they get it to look like Frank Sinatra was really in those scenes? How? How? Magic, my friend. Hollywood Magic. To think that in 1984 this film was overlooked by the Academy for the likes of trivial, petulant "movies" like The Killing Fields and Amadeus is the greatest tragedy in cinematic history. Shame on you, Oscar. Shame. On. You.
bobbarr@aol.com
The guy who wrote the review, "Danza Vs Orangutan" got it completely right, except I think the question isn't whether or not the Orangutan is a better actor than Danza, it's whether the Orangutan in the more highly evolved. Again, Danza Loses.This is a crummy, stinking horrible film that is great after the second six pack on a Friday night. I rated it "5" because it's technically a "0," but it is as big a laugh as a real "10" film made by sapient beings. If you claim to be a bad movie buff but you haven't stepped in this pile of excrement yet, you haven't been trying.My suggestion: see it. Sure, the wince factor is high here, but the movie will certainly make you feel a LOT better about yourself...you know you're smarter and cooler than anyone associated with this gobbler.
