title: CANNONBALLyear: 1976
cast: David Carradine, Belinda Balaski, Robert Carradine, Bill McKinney, Sylvester Stallone, Martin Scorsese, Dick Miller
director: Paul Bartel
rating: ****
Not as beloved as Roger Corman's "Deathrace 2000", the car-race film also starring David Carradine and directed by Paul Bartel, but is, in its own way, better. No funny-violent sideplot here, just a straight-out cross-country race based on the real life (and very illegal) Cannonball Run; yes, the same one Burt Reynolds and Hal Needham would take on a few years later... but this is more raw, rough and ragged. Each group has their own quirks and motivations, allowing the viewer to care about the outcome and feel part of the action, which is pretty much non-stop. Sylvester Stallone, who played Carradine's arch-enemy in "Deathrace 2000", makes a cameo as a mobster (along with Martin Scorsese).
Now this is a classic. Cannonball Run was just plain silly. This was the movie I loved. I remember when Cannonball Run came out I kept telling my friends they needed to have seen Cannonball. I don't think I've seen this movie since it was in theaters all those years ago. CANNONBALL along with TWO-MINUTE WARNING were two movies from the mid-70's that I remember loving at the time. I haven't seen either one since.
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