Cannonball Run II (1984)

The Cannonball Run 2 (1984): Dir: Hal Needham / Cast: Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Shirley MacLaine, Marilu Henner, Telly Savalas: A complete lack of imagination and script. The first Cannonball Run was low key trash but its undeserved success opened the door for this mess. The Sheik puts up money for another cannonball run and it attracts many talented actors who look less than talented here. It goes from bad to worse as a bunch of idiots race across country and narrowly avoid the law. Director Hal Needham previously collaborated with Burt Reynolds on the funnier and much more exciting Smokey and the Bandit but here he displays as little talent as possible. Burt Reynolds plays a hotshot jackass race car driver. Dom DeLuise plays his moron sidekick who has the uncanny ability to become a superhero at will. Too bad that he couldn't make himself disappear into a better film. Shirley MacLaine and Marilu Henner tarnish their resumes as a couple of nuns who hitch a ride with Reynolds and DeLuise. Telly Savalas has the misfortune of playing a pathetic villain whose henchmen put people head first through walls. They are just the beginning of countless names who allowed themselves to be talked into this garbage. So who wins the cannonball? Try placing this film on the ground and back over it with your car. You would be a bigger winner than anyone in the film. Score: 0 / 10

This sequel is not all that bad but it is almost the same film as the first but with different comical lines for the cast. So I like the movie but it's just not as good as the original film.The Cannonball Run II has it's own story so it's not exactly like the first movie. But you do have the same theme: an all-star cast, an illegal cross-country race, Burt Reynolds, car chases and wrecks and some cheesy fun comedy - in that way it is like the very first film.Needless to say, if you liked the first film or the Smokey and the Bandit series then you might like The Cannonball Run II.5/10

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.

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.