Wacky Racing With Captain Chaos

In the 1970's director Hal Needham and megastar Burt Reynolds were pretty much responsible for the creation of a popular genre...which they dominated all to themselves; the stunt movie. From Hooper to Smokey & The Bandit, the pair dominated the action comedy scene of the late 70's and early 80's. Best of the bunch, for me, was The Cannonball Run; a wacky races inspired, illegal road race across the US land mass, from coast to coast.

With pretty much no plot to speak of, the film is a series of gags and outrageous vehicular stunts as a diverse combination of speed freaks compete to be the fastest, in a race with no rules. The masterstroke here was to team Reynolds up with an all star cast including Dom Deluise (clearly having way too much fun with Reynolds), Farrah Fawcett, Roger Moore (sending himself up as vain and egotistical), Dean Martin (hilarious as a horny drunk, disguised as a priest) and Sammy Davis Jnr, Adrienne Barbeau, Peter Fonda and Jackie Chan (showing that slapstick needs not subtitles to succeed). Jack Elam steals the show as Dr Van Helsing, a medical man of hideous appearance and questionable professionalism.

The gags have a pretty high success rate and the film wisely keeps a larger than life, cartoonish quality, which amplifies the giggles. The outtakes, over the end credits, are perhaps the films funniest moments, showing what a good time the cast had making it. Fortunately that sense of fun is all up on screen.