The Cannonball Run (1981)
Directed by Hal Needham
A cross-country road race is based on an actual event, the Cannonball Baker Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, organized by Brock Yates to protest the 55 mph speed limit then in effect in the U.S. The Cannonball was named for Erwin G. "Cannonball" Baker, who in the roaring 20's rode his motorcycle across the country. Many of the characters are based on ruses developed by real Cannonball racers over the several years that the event was run.
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What critics compared The Cannonball Run to
There’s a throwback vibe for sure, mainly to the celebrity-packed films of yesteryear like It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Cannonball Run and the superior 1974 Orient Express adaptation (with Lauren Bacall, Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman and more).
These films were often glitzy showcases of a multitude of mostly B-and-C-list movie stars, actors known primarily for TV, or in other realms of sports/showbiz (as in The Cannonball Run , with everyone from Burt Reynolds and Roger Moore to Sammy Davis Jr., Jamie Farr and Terry Bradshaw), or former big-time actors whose careers had already begun to congeal (think It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World , with Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Caeser, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, and Jonathon Winters).
It also inevitably begs comparison to everything from Days of Thunder to Talladega Nights to, um, Stroker Ace to, uh, The Love Bug and, sure why not, Cars and The Cannonball Run and Death Race 2000 .
Decades ago, we saw James Caan in “Red Line 7000” (1965), James Garner in “Grand Prix” (1966), Paul Newman in “Winning” (1969), Steve McQueen in “Le Mans” (1971) and Burt Reynolds in “The Cannonball Run” (1981).
A homage to such cross-country race/chase movies as Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and The Cannonball Run (1981), Need for Speed can also trace its roots to any Hollywood Golden Age movie about a bunch of spunky kids getting together and beating the big guys at their own game.
A lofty goal, but its idiotic combination of revenge-seeking racer meets goofy comedy makes “Need for Speed” feel more like a cross between “The Fugitive” and “The Cannonball Run.”
At a certain point, the joke is that Bullet Train is The Cannonball Run on a bullet train.
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And in the movie’s climax, they battle against pretty much every other character from the movie (each of them dressed as a different 1980s icon, because they’re all at an impromptu 1980s-themed party at Lenny’s home) in the goofiest extensive rumble since the detour fight in The Cannonball Run.
Seen as a whole, it comes worryingly close to the feature-length equivalent of Burt Reynolds slapping Dom DeLuise during the end credits to The Cannonball Run.
For anyone who denied that “Titus Andronicus” could ever be mashed up with “The Cannonball Run,” here is your answer, and we are only too happy to follow Nux as he cries, “What a lovely day!,” and accelerates into a whirlwind of fire.
There are the old standards, such as "Bullitt," "The French Connection," "Duel," and, to a lesser extent, films such as "The Cannonball Run," "The Blues Brothers," "Smokey and the Bandit" and others of that particular ilk.
There are so many famous faces on display that there are times when the whole thing feels like a cross between “The Cannonball Run” and the red carpet at the Independent Spirit Awards and the ones that wind up standing out are the ones with the most distinct personalities—people like Murray, Del Toro, Seydoux, McDomand and Wright.