Cannonball Run II
Cannonball Run II
PG | 29 June 1984 (USA)
Cannonball Run II Trailers

When a wealthy sheikh puts up $1 million in prize money for a cross-country car race, there is one person crazy enough to hit the road hard with wheels spinning fast. Legendary driver J.J. McClure enters the competition along with his friend Victor and together they set off across the American landscape in a madcap action-adventure destined to test their wits and automobile skills.

Reviews
CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Motompa Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.
Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
Wuchak RELEASED IN 1983 and directed by Hal Needham, "Cannonball Run II" is a car chase comedy about a second Cannonball Run race from the West Coast to the East Coast. The teams include JJ & Victor (Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise), Blake and Fenderbaum (Dean Martin & Sammy Davis Jr.) with other teams involving Jackie Chan & Richard Kiel in a submersible Mitsubishi Starion and Mel Tillis & Tony Danza accompanied by an orangutan. There are at least a dozen other notable co-stars in various roles: Jamie Farr, Telly Savalas, Sid Caesar, Tim Conway, Foster Brooks, Ricardo Montalban , Charles Nelson Reilly, Don Knotts, etc.This is a fun turn-off-your-brain flick with an incredible all-star cast that's worth the price of admission. Unfortunately, the script needed a rewrite with better jokes but the producers obviously didn't want to blow the money. As it is, too much of the humor falls flat, but "Cannonball Run II" is still leagues better than comparable junk like "Smokey and the Bandit Part 3" (1983). And there's a worthwhile sequence where Dom does an amusing Brando impersonation.Moreover, the movie scores good marks on the female front with Catherine Bach jaw-dropping in form-fitting blue spandex during the first half, teamed with her Amazonian-ish partner Susan Anton (who's no slouch in the beauty department). Bach's buttocks looks like it was sculptured by God Himself. In addition, there's Marilu Henner and Shirley MacLaine, who catch a ride with JJ & Victor, masquerading as nuns before revealing their real identities. Maclaine was 48 during shooting but still had a great figure.THE FILM RUNS 1 hour, 48 minutes and was shot in Nevada (Las Vegas, Henderson), Arizona (Tucson, Bisbee) and California (Redondo Beach).GRADE: C
utgard14 Sequel to Cannonball Run is basically a retread of the first movie. An assortment of wacky characters participate in a cross-country race to win a million dollars. Burt and Dom return, as do some of the other actors from that movie. Most notably Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. Also in this is Frank Sinatra, which gives this movie the distinction of being the last time most of the Rat Pack was in the same movie. The last movie was not particularly funny but it did have a certain charm about it and there were several beautiful women in it that kept things interesting. Marilu Henner, Catherine Bach, and Susan Anton are this movie's babes. Also Shirley MacLaine, if she's your type.The humor in this is the kind that doesn't make you laugh. This is especially true with regard to Dom DeLuise, possibly my least favorite comedic actor of all time. The man has never made me laugh and I fail to get his appeal. I can only assume he got work due to cronyism. DeLuise is never more awful here than when doing his Marlon Brando impression, which is like something from a really bad Saturday Night Live sketch. Terrible stuff.I'm pretty sure seeing one Cannonball Run movie is enough for many of us and probably more than enough for most. So, if you feel like you have to see one, just watch the first. This is not a good movie but it is watchable if you like '80s cheese, which I do. I also like seeing how the different vehicles, roads, and locations looked at the time. If you're in the right frame of mind when watching, it's somewhat fun I suppose. That's not the same as saying it's funny, though.
oprlvr33 In agreement with most everyone. This film sequel is an embarrassment to the original, and a horrible budget waster, AND a Talent waster. So tons of big names were cast. So what? A huge insult to their talents. Only Telly Savalas was really convincing in his mob character. But he would deliver nothing less anyway. The entire script from A-Z is awful. Absolutely NO JOKES. I think I chuckled only once -- but it was BRIEF. I actually had to fast fwd along the way, hoping it would somehow improve. It didn't.Jamie Farr was decent enough, reprising his sheik persona. And I agree with SUNUBIT. It was obvious Burt and Don were doing this for the pay. And what crap. 'Best Little Whorehouse in Texas', which came out around the same time, was a box office hit for Burt! Perhaps Hal Needham figured Burt owed him a favor or something. And while it was dandy to see 'Daisy Duke' AKA Cathy Bach caressing alongside the iconic Susan Anton (former 70's supermodel turned actress), they too were given some pretty weak moments.Throwing the chimp in the action? What a cheap ripoff from 'Every Which Way But Loose'. I was seriously expecting an uncredited cameo of Clint Eastwood to suddenly emerge from the limo! To my recollection, during this films' original cinematic release, it was a total bomb. Any wonder.
Smile_U_SOB This film has no race and no chase. Okay there is a race but it has really nothing to do with the movie. The first film of course is all about "The Cannonball Run", which is an illegal race from coast to coast, written by Brock Yates who, along with director Hal Needham, actually drove an ambulance across America - and it's Yates who invented the Cannonball Run. In the original, Burt and Dom use the very same ambulance; now we have a sequel which isn't written by Yates, and is as bad a sequel as I've yet to witness on screen. As mentioned, the actual coast to coast race has little to do with anything this time around. Instead there's a lame subplot about mobsters trying to hijack Jamie Farr's character, an Arab with tons of oil money who this time around is funding the prize at the finish line. So basically this is a comic mobster film with a bunch of actors thrown in who are driving cars. Jack Elam, who is incredible in the first film, is thrown in as wallpaper. Burt and Dom are horrible and lazy; you can tell they were just doing the film for a paycheck. Shirley Maclaine and Marilu Henner play actresses dressed as nuns, and we have to sit through people doing double-takes as these impostor penguins curse in public. Boring. Horrible. Jackie Chan is even ruined this time around. In the first film Roger Moore plays a guy who thinks he's Roger Moore, and thus he drives a gadget filled car, ala Bond. This time around, Chan, who had some gadgets of his own in the original, has even more gadgets as he's basically replacing the Moore/Bond character from the original. And his driver is Richard Kiel, best known as Bond nemesis "Jaws". Chan's car even goes under water, just like Bond's car in "The Spy Who Loved Me" (which featured Kiel). Other contestants include an ape teamed up with Tony Danza. All I have to ask Tony is: Didn't "Going Ape" teach you not to work with primates? Jamie Farr's character is ruined because he's too involved; his sheik was far better as a cameo in the original. And Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr are totally wasted this time, disguised as cops instead of priests, and they don't even get into any trouble. Burt and Dom are dressed as soldiers; Burt is a general and Dom is a private. They pick up Jim Nabors along the way, as "Private Lyle" (guess what they're spoofing here?) and his cameo is as useless as an air conditioner in an igloo. It doesn't feel as if there is any "need" to win the race for any of the characters. You forget there is even a race at all. Man, I tell you, this is one of the worst sequels - if not the worst sequel ever, ever, ever made. Avoid it at all costs. Even as a kid I knew it was chum.