The Cannonball Run

16 hours ago3 min read

It's not what you do, it's how you do it...

Burt Reynolds as J.J. McClure and Dom DeLuise as Victor Prinzim disguised as paramedics ahead of the race - from The Cannonball Run

Reminder for reviews: I'm only really going to talk about what stood out to me, so anything I don't bring up is most likely just fine.

If an issue isn't bad enough to detract from the experience, then that's a good thing - just like something not standing out as being noteworthy doesn't necessarily make it a bad thing.

It's perfectly fine for a thing to serve its purpose and nothing more.

MOVIES

- The Cannonball Run plot summary: A wide variety of eccentric competitors participate in a wild and illegal cross-country road race. However, the eccentric entrants will do anything to win the road race, including low-down, dirty tricks. (IMDb)

- I bet no-one could've predicted that it'd be The Cannonball Run to follow on from Alien: Romulus and Civil War!

- And to get started, this isn't a good movie in any way, shape or form so don't go in expecting anything of any real quality.

- That said, it is a lot of fun to watch, even if most of that fun is highly problematic, making this movie one hell of a guilty pleasure.

- Even then, a lot of the problematic stuff is actually somewhat more nuanced than you'd expect.

- Take the character of the Sheik (played by Jamie Farr), who is a highly stereotypical wealthy Arab, thinking money can get him out of anything and inviting attractive women to join his harem.

- Despite these issues, he's still fun to watch thanks to just over-the-top the performance is, with the character obviously not meant to be taken seriously.

- The Sheik also declares at one point that he wants to win the Cannonball race for the glory of Islam and the movie is happy to leave it there.

- Could you imagine the reaction from certain quarters if an Arabic character said that in a remake made today? They'd need bodyguards for the rest of their life.

- There's also the sexualisation of the attractive women in the cast, with Farrah Fawcett receiving the short end of the stick.

- Her character is verging on pure 'bimbo' territory and seems to only exist to give Burt Reynolds' J.J. McClure someone to lust after in her revealing outfit.

- At least for Adrienne Barbeau and Tara Buckman in their cleavage-bearing catsuits, their sexuality is a deliberate tactic to deal with any horny policemen who might stop them.

- Not that that lets The Cannonball Run off the hook, but at least there's some purpose to getting the women to show skin so often.

- There's no such excuse for Sammy Davis Jr. being labelled as a 'chocolate monk' at one point though...

- Also, a spoiler alert for the ending: despite the male-dominated cast, it's the cat-suited ladies in the Lamborghini that win in the end, which I think would further confuse anyone attacking the film for its sexism.

- I really do think that if this movie was released today, it would be attacked from the both the left and right while repeating the commercial success it had on release despite being savaged by critics.

- Even if you can overlook the problematic stuff, there's not really much of a story here and ends up being far more about the shenanigans the cast get up to en route.

- That's why I was fairly happy to spoil the race result, because it barely matters in the end and flat-out ignores the set-up that the race is about who completes it in the fastest time, not who finishes first!

- Fortunately, it's not a very long film, and not taking itself seriously at all really helps to mask the weaker moments.

- I don't know if I can really recommend The Cannonball Run as there's a lot of stuff that wouldn't make it into a release these days and the story doesn't work, but I still enjoyed it. [5/10]

GAMES

- I have finally started Little Misfortune and was immediately reminded why I'd kept putting it off: because it's unbearably sad.

- I haven't seen a playthrough, but was aware of the subject matter and the twist at the end, and even knowing that doesn't make it any less heart-breaking an experience.

- I'm also not far from the end of Mass Effect 3 now and should be done with it soon.

- I haven't played Baldur's Gate 3 in a while now, but I'm more in a sci-fi mood right now rather than fantasy, so will just wait for the pendulum to swing back in its favour.