Cannonball (1976)
Studio: Blue Underground
Theatrical Release: July 6, 1976
DVD Release: September 28, 2004
Director : Paul Bartel
PG
Review by James Klein
While most people will think of the 1981 all-star comedy The Cannonball Run, Cannonball is an action/comedy/thriller which also has an all-star cast (well, all-star to me as in most of the actors and cameos were done by numerous big name stars of the 70's) but has absolutely nothing to do with The Cannonball Run aside from the fact the two films are about a car race.
Cannonball stars David Carradine as Coy "Cannonball" Buckman, a down on his luck former race car driver who now drives in illegal cross country car races for a small fortune. While his girlfriend Linda is against it, Coy refuses to back down and is destined to be the winner even though an old rival named Cade (Bill McKinny, best known for raping Ned Betty's butt in Deliverance) has vowed not just to win the race but to ultimately kill Coy.
Cannonball was an ambitious picture by the up and coming director Paul Bartel (just coming off the success of Death Race 2000) who did not want to even do this picture as he wanted to start working on comedies. While Roger Corman convinced Bartel to take on the film, its obvious that Bartel was getting bored with the "race car" genre as Cannonball, while very fun, is a mish-mash of action and comedy, unsure as to where it wants to be. While there are numerous funny sequences such as an up and coming country singer (Gerritt Graham, who always cracks me up in any film he's in) and his mother tagging along with the evil Cade, there are some brutal car crashes and explosions that you know no body could walk away from. While the violent car crashes worked for a film like The Blues Brothers, Cannonball is all too realistic and at times bloody, which just has the viewer scratching their head, wondering if they should be laughing or not.
I liked Cannonball just for its sheer nostalgia and love for actual car chases and crashes which has now turned obsolete thanks to CGI. I like stunts, sue me. I also like seeing some of my favorite actors, writers and directors all acting together in a movie. Any film with Mary Woronov, Robert Carradine, Belinda Balaski, Carl Gottlieb, James Keach, Dick Miller, Joe Dante, Alan Arkush, Sylvester Stallone, Martin Scorsese, Don Simpson, Roger Corman and even Bartel himself can't be all that bad. Hell if anything it makes for a fun experience to see how many famous faces one can point out. My favorite sequences is seeing Bartel with his two henchmen (Scorsese and Stallone) sitting at a coffee table eating KFC.
Blue Underground's eight year old DVD is starting to show a bit of wear as the picture looks rather grainy during night sequences. However, this somewhat obscure film is lucky to even be available to us fans. But one can hope for an upgrade blu ray in the near future. The short documentary on the film has interviews with Corman, Carradine and Woronov as they discuss the making of the film and Bartel's non enthusiastic attitude while making the movie. Along with trailers and TV spots (the trailers show the film being PG but the DVD cover says it is R) Cannonball is a decent movie to own in any DVD collection.
[Rating: 3.5]
Theatrical Release: July 6, 1976
DVD Release: September 28, 2004
Director : Paul Bartel
PG
Review by James Klein
While most people will think of the 1981 all-star comedy The Cannonball Run, Cannonball is an action/comedy/thriller which also has an all-star cast (well, all-star to me as in most of the actors and cameos were done by numerous big name stars of the 70's) but has absolutely nothing to do with The Cannonball Run aside from the fact the two films are about a car race.
Cannonball stars David Carradine as Coy "Cannonball" Buckman, a down on his luck former race car driver who now drives in illegal cross country car races for a small fortune. While his girlfriend Linda is against it, Coy refuses to back down and is destined to be the winner even though an old rival named Cade (Bill McKinny, best known for raping Ned Betty's butt in Deliverance) has vowed not just to win the race but to ultimately kill Coy.
Cannonball was an ambitious picture by the up and coming director Paul Bartel (just coming off the success of Death Race 2000) who did not want to even do this picture as he wanted to start working on comedies. While Roger Corman convinced Bartel to take on the film, its obvious that Bartel was getting bored with the "race car" genre as Cannonball, while very fun, is a mish-mash of action and comedy, unsure as to where it wants to be. While there are numerous funny sequences such as an up and coming country singer (Gerritt Graham, who always cracks me up in any film he's in) and his mother tagging along with the evil Cade, there are some brutal car crashes and explosions that you know no body could walk away from. While the violent car crashes worked for a film like The Blues Brothers, Cannonball is all too realistic and at times bloody, which just has the viewer scratching their head, wondering if they should be laughing or not.
I liked Cannonball just for its sheer nostalgia and love for actual car chases and crashes which has now turned obsolete thanks to CGI. I like stunts, sue me. I also like seeing some of my favorite actors, writers and directors all acting together in a movie. Any film with Mary Woronov, Robert Carradine, Belinda Balaski, Carl Gottlieb, James Keach, Dick Miller, Joe Dante, Alan Arkush, Sylvester Stallone, Martin Scorsese, Don Simpson, Roger Corman and even Bartel himself can't be all that bad. Hell if anything it makes for a fun experience to see how many famous faces one can point out. My favorite sequences is seeing Bartel with his two henchmen (Scorsese and Stallone) sitting at a coffee table eating KFC.
Blue Underground's eight year old DVD is starting to show a bit of wear as the picture looks rather grainy during night sequences. However, this somewhat obscure film is lucky to even be available to us fans. But one can hope for an upgrade blu ray in the near future. The short documentary on the film has interviews with Corman, Carradine and Woronov as they discuss the making of the film and Bartel's non enthusiastic attitude while making the movie. Along with trailers and TV spots (the trailers show the film being PG but the DVD cover says it is R) Cannonball is a decent movie to own in any DVD collection.
[Rating: 3.5]
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