MOVIEmeter
Top 5000
Up 76 this week

The Cannonball Run (1981)

 -  Action | Comedy  -  19 June 1981 (USA)
5.9
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 5.9/10 from 18,589 users  
Reviews: 102 user | 35 critic

A wide variety of eccentric competitors participate in a wild and illegal cross-country car race.

Director:

Writer:

0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 374 titles created 17 Apr 2011
 
a list of 10000 titles created 3 months ago
 
a list of 3627 titles created 1 month ago
 
a list of 2658 titles created 04 Jun 2012
 
a list of 843 titles created 9 months ago
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: The Cannonball Run (1981)

The Cannonball Run (1981) on IMDb 5.9/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of The Cannonball Run.
1 win & 1 nomination. See more awards »
Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Action | Comedy
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 4.5/10 X  

The original characters from the first Cannonball movie race across the country once more in various cars and trucks.

Director: Hal Needham
Stars: Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Dean Martin
Action | Comedy
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6/10 X  

Philo Beddoe is an easy-going trucker and a great fist-fighter. With two friends - Orville, who promotes prize-fights for him, and Clyde, the orangutan he won on a bet - he roams the San ... See full summary »

Director: James Fargo
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis
Action | Comedy
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5.8/10 X  

Philo takes part in a bare knuckle fight - as he does - to make some more money than he can earn from his car repair business. He decides to retire from fighting, but when the Mafia come ... See full summary »

Director: Buddy Van Horn
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis
Hooper (1978)
Action | Comedy
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6/10 X  

Aging stuntman Sonney Hooper is still on top as one of the best stuntmen in the business. But up and coming Ski is starting to do bigger and better stunts. Hooper has the experience to ... See full summary »

Director: Hal Needham
Stars: Burt Reynolds, Jan-Michael Vincent, Sally Field
City Heat (1984)
Action | Comedy | Crime
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5.3/10 X  

A slick private eye and tough police lieutenant--once partners, now bitter enemies--reluctantly team up to investigate a murder.

Director: Richard Benjamin
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Jane Alexander
Action | Comedy
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X  

A young martial artist is caught between respecting his pacifist father's wishes or stopping a group of disrespectful foreigners from stealing precious artifacts.

Director: Chia-Liang Liu
Stars: Jackie Chan, Lung Ti, Anita Mui
Action | Comedy
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.1/10 X  

A comic allegory about a traveling Bushman who encounters modern civilization and its stranger aspects, including a clumsy scientist and a band of revolutionaries.

Director: Jamie Uys
Stars: Marius Weyers, Sandra Prinsloo, N!xau
The Big Brawl (1980)
Action | Comedy
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5.6/10 X  

A young Asian American martial artist is forced to participate in a brutal formal street-fight competition.

Director: Robert Clouse
Stars: Jackie Chan, José Ferrer, Kristine DeBell
Air America (1990)
Action | Comedy
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5.5/10 X  

A young pilot finds himself recruited into a covert and corrupt CIA airlift organization operating in Vietnam War Era Laos.

Director: Roger Spottiswoode
Stars: Mel Gibson, Robert Downey Jr., Nancy Travis
Project A (1983)
Action | Comedy
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

Fighting against pirates in "old Hong Kong". Chinese costume drama with plenty of over-the-top tongue in cheek action and music.

Director: Jackie Chan
Stars: Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, Biao Yuen
Spy Hard (1996)
Comedy | Action
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5/10 X  

General Rancor is threatening to destroy the world with a missile he is hiding at his secret base. But to complete his goal, he needs a special computer chip, invented by the scientist Prof... See full summary »

Director: Rick Friedberg
Stars: Leslie Nielsen, Nicollette Sheridan, Charles Durning
Action | Comedy
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.1/10 X  

After failing his fellow students in a Lion Dance competition, Dragon (Jackie Chan) is sent away from his school in disgrace, on the condition that he must find his errant brother. Much ... See full summary »

Director: Jackie Chan
Stars: Jackie Chan, Biao Yuen, Pai Wei
Edit

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
...
J. J. McClure
...
Seymour
...
Pamela
...
...
...
Fenderbaum
...
...
Marcie
...
...
Subaru Driver #1
...
Brad
...
...
Chief Biker
...
A. F. Foyt
Michael Hui ...
Subaru Driver #2
Edit

Storyline

A wild, illegal, and popular cross-country car race is organized, and the eccentric entrants will do anything to win, including low-down, dirty tricks. Written by Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Plot Keywords:

race | car | cross country | car race | racer | See more »

Taglines:

You'll root for them all...but you'll never guess who wins.

Genres:

Action | Comedy

Certificate:

PG | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Country:

|

Language:

| | |

Release Date:

19 June 1981 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

The Cannonball Trophy  »

Box Office

Gross:

$59,900,000 (USA)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Color:

(Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

The license plate number of the 1964 silver birch Aston Martin DB5 driven by Roger Moore in the film was 6633PP. The car was made famous by the Sean Connery James Bond movies Goldfinger and then Thunderball with later models appearing in subsequent Bond pictures. However, Roger Moore who played James Bond seven times never drove an Aston Martin in a Bond film and this is his only on-screen appearance with the most famous of all James Bond cars. See more »

Goofs

Captain Chaos, during the fight with the bikers. He says his trademark "Dum, duh, duh, dum" with his mouth closed. See more »

Quotes

Bradford Compton: Bradford Compton, perhaps you've heard of me, I'm on Wall Street.
Chief Biker: We don't ride on Wall Street.
Biker: [cutting off Compton's necktie] Yeah, we don't ride on Wall Street!
See more »

Crazy Credits

An animated car drives around the 20th Century Fox logo, hiding out in the zero. It is chased by a police car, which crashes into one of the searchlights. The sequence ends with Burt Reynold's trademark laugh. See more »

Connections

Referenced in Mischief 3000 (2002) See more »

Soundtracks

"Just for the Hell of It"
Written by Ray Stevens (as R. Stevens)
Performed by Ray Stevens
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Reviews

 
Car chase mayhem which provides a few laughs and lots of mindless stunts and crashes.
12 January 2005 | by (Todmorden, England) – See all my reviews

It's hard to believe it, but when this film was released back in 1981 Burt Reynolds was the world's no.1 box office movie star. In this totally mindless chase comedy, Reynolds is supported by a cast of high profile actors in extended guest roles, all of whom play entrants in a wacky coast-to-coast (illegal) car race. The film has little plot to speak of, just a series of stunts, crashes and broad comedy moments. Much of the time it misses its targets, but from time to time there are genuinely funny vignettes and laugh-out-loud one-liners. No-one could ever seriously place this film on their list of all-time classics, but it's not as bad as critics like Maltin have claimed.

Mechanic J.J. McClure (Burt Reynolds) and his schizophrenic buddy Victor (Dom Deluise - who occasionally loses it and transforms into his deluded alter-ego Captain Chaos) enter a car race from New Jersey to California. Fellow entrants include a suave Englishman who thinks he's James Bond (Roger Moore); two con-men disguised as priests (Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr); a womanising sheik (Jamie Farr); a Subaru-driving Japanese stunt-man (Jackie Chan); and a couple of busty bimbos in a Lamborghini (Adrienne Barbeau and Tara Buckman).

Scenes that work (e.g scenes that ARE funny) include J.J and Victor landing an aeroplane in a busy street to purchase more beer; the Japanese racers almost crashing because their driver is busy watching porn movies on the in-built TV; the Lamborghini babes repeatedly dodging speeding charges by flashing their (considerable) cleavage at the prosecuting cops; and any of the hilarious out-takes shown over the closing credits. Jack Elam also has some amusing scenes as a very unreliable doctor with a penchant for injecting anaesthetics into people's asses! In other parts, the film is less successful, with rather a lot of lazy performances and scenes that don't tickle the funny bone because they are too immature or just too stupid. The Cannonball Run is loud, broad fun, very easy to watch and even easier to forget!


18 of 28 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
Desperately Needs A Remake facebookblows009
Hottest chick in the movie? CoffeeRules
Where is the Cannonball Pub? stanwoodcraig
Cannonball Run Remake?!?! teegeyoung
Surprised this is so low jiminwatford
did anyone else notice this?? **Spolier** will-237
Discuss The Cannonball Run (1981) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?