--- title: "The Cannonball Run" year: 1981 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-cannonball-run" fi1m_id: "the-cannonball-run" imdb_id: "tt0082136" tmdb_id: 11286 wikidata_id: "Q759359" fi1m_score: 50 critics_reviews: 3 published: "2026-10-04T17:21:22.551728+00:00" updated: "2026-10-04T17:22:13.520626+00:00" region: "AR" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Cannonball Run (1981) Directed by Hal Needham · 1h 35m · Action, Comedy, Family ## Identity The Cannonball Run - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-cannonball-run - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** the-cannonball-run - **IMDb ID:** tt0082136 - **TMDB ID:** 11286 - **Wikidata ID:** Q759359 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082136/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/11286, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q759359 **Fi1m score: 50** · Critics: 3 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* Burt Reynolds invites everyone he knows to drive across America, and the camera mostly films the lunch breaks > Hal Needham puts Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise in an ambulance and lets the rest of the cast turn up as themselves. Reynolds and DeLuise are good company; the race around them barely exists, and the stunts are thinner than the guest list. ## Synopsis A crowd of drivers gathers at night to punch a time card and set off on the Cannonball, a race across the United States. J.J. McClure (Burt Reynolds) and his mechanic Victor (Dom DeLuise) enter in an ambulance, reasoning that nobody pulls one over; they hire a doctor (Jack Elam) who drinks, and pick up a patient, Pamela (Farrah Fawcett), who has not agreed to come. Elsewhere on the grid, Seymour (Roger Moore) drives as if convinced he is a film star, Jamie Blake (Dean Martin) and Fenderbaum (Sammy Davis Jr.) bicker their way to the start line, Marcie (Adrienne Barbeau) and a sheik (Jamie Farr) bring machines of their own, and a Japanese team (Jackie Chan) brings a Subaru. The first to reach the far coast wins, and the police of several states would like a word. ## Review Hal Needham made *Smokey and the Bandit* (1977), and the thing that film knew how to do was keep a car going fast at something. *The Cannonball Run* is built on a guest list instead. Brock Yates’s script takes a cross-country road race and fills the grid with people who were famous in 1981: Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Farrah Fawcett. Then it points the cameras at them and more or less waits. Whether the race is still happening in any given scene is a question the film does not always trouble to answer. The ambulance is the best idea in it and the only one that gets developed. J.J. McClure (Reynolds) and his mechanic Victor (Dom DeLuise) reason that nobody pulls over an ambulance, so they get hold of one, hire a doctor (Jack Elam) who is drunk before the engine turns over, and acquire a patient, Pamela (Fawcett), who did not volunteer. Reynolds does the thing he did better than anyone: he lets the other person be funny and smiles at the result. DeLuise is the other person. His Victor is a soft, anxious man who, under pressure, turns into somebody louder and braver, and we laughed, properly, every time it happened, because DeLuise plays both men as if neither knows about the other. It is a small routine, the film leans on it hard, and it holds. Roger Moore turns up as Seymour, a rich man’s son who believes he is Roger Moore, and drives accordingly. It is one joke, but Moore plays it with such grave politeness that it keeps paying out for twenty minutes. Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. spend the race bickering as if they had been caught between sets. Jamie Farr’s sheik, Adrienne Barbeau’s Marcie, Terry Bradshaw, Jackie Chan in a Subaru: each gets an introduction, a costume and a car, and then the film goes back to the ambulance. Chan is given almost nothing to do with his hands, which even in 1981 was a waste. The trouble is the race. Between them Yates and Needham produce perhaps three sequences in which a car does anything a car should not. Michael C. Butler shoots the roads flat and wide in midday light, so that a car at 120 and a car at 40 look much the same, and Donn Cambern and William D. Gordean cut between the entrants with no sense of who is where. We never once knew who was winning. Al Capps’s score, country guitar and brass, does the job of telling us things are exciting, and they mostly are not. The pile-ups, when they come, are brief and far apart. Then there is Pamela. Fawcett is kidnapped in the first act, strapped to a stretcher, sedated by the doctor and courted by Reynolds, and the film plays all of it as charming. Barbeau and her co-driver are in the film to unzip their overalls at policemen. We are not going to pretend we did not laugh at some of this, but we felt grubby afterwards, and the sense that the women are there as scenery is harder to wave through than the thin stunt work. Against Needham’s own standard it comes up short. *Smokey and the Bandit* had one car, one truck and one sheriff, and it never stopped moving. This has a dozen cars and barely moves at all; the most energetic thing in it is DeLuise. The reviews so far have complained about the shortage of pile-ups, and we count the same way. The effort went into the casting, and the casting is where it stayed. Most critics have been cooler on it than we are, and we understand why: it is lazy, it knows it is lazy, and it expects to be forgiven. We half forgave it. For 95 minutes it is good company, provided you can watch a lot of famous people enjoy themselves and not mind that you were not asked along. Watch it with a drink and low expectations; it will meet the second. *Fi1m score 50, published 4 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is The Cannonball Run worth watching?** *The Cannonball Run* is worth watching only for those who want 95 minutes of famous people enjoying themselves, and we scored it 50. Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise are good company in their ambulance, but the race around them barely happens, the stunts are thin and the women are treated as scenery. Watch it with a drink and low expectations. **How long is The Cannonball Run, and what is it rated?** *The Cannonball Run* runs 1h 35m. It is an action and comedy film. **Where can I watch The Cannonball Run in Argentina?** *The Cannonball Run* is not on any streaming or rental service in Argentina at the moment. It is available in 19 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. ### Reviews we read (3) - **Empire**, Ian Nathan (60/100, inferred): Nathan finds the film inconsequential but entertaining, thanks to its relaxed, self-aware silliness. He praises Burt Reynolds’s warmth and Dom DeLuise’s comic performance, while faulting the dated sexism and limited stunts. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/cannonball-run-review/) - **Radio Times**, Robert Sellers (2/5): The critic finds the film disappointing despite its commercial success. They single out the weak jokes and too few pile-ups, while criticizing the cameo cast’s performances. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-0m1m90/the-cannonball-run/) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (30/100, inferred): The review is negative, finding the film’s cross-country race largely incidental to its star turns. It criticizes the showbiz jokes and says the overall effect is like watching the cast take a vacation. [Read](https://variety.com/1980/film/reviews/the-cannonball-run-1200424860/) ## Details - **Director:** Hal Needham - **Director:** Hal Needham - **Screenplay:** Brock Yates - **Cinematography:** Michael C. Butler - **Editor:** Donn Cambern, William D. Gordean - **Music:** Al Capps - **Producer:** Albert S. Ruddy - **Cast:** Burt Reynolds as J.J. McClure; Roger Moore as Seymour; Farrah Fawcett as Pamela; Dom DeLuise as Victor; Dean Martin as Jamie Blake; Sammy Davis Jr. as Fenderbaum; Jack Elam as Doctor; Adrienne Barbeau as Marcie - **Runtime:** 1h 35m - **First release (the US):** 19 June 1981 - **Genres:** Action, Comedy, Family - **Budget:** $18 million - **Box office:** $72 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45RKZDSsdvY ## Where to watch in Argentina Not streaming, renting or buying in Argentina at the last check. Also available in: AT, AU, BE, CH, DE, DK, FI, FR, GB, HK, ID, IT, MY, NO, NZ, PH, SE, SG, VN. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress 1982: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress (nominated) ## If you liked this - *Smokey and the Bandit* (1977): Needham and Reynolds with one car, one truck and an actual chase; the better film. - *It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World* (1963): The star-stuffed cross-country scramble with the gags properly built and the cars properly wrecked. - *The Gumball Rally* (1976): The same sort of outlaw road race, a smaller cast, and considerably more interest in the driving. - *Police Story* (1985): Jackie Chan finally allowed to use his hands, his feet and a shopping centre. - *Taxi* (1998): A French car comedy that remembers to put the jokes inside the driving. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-cannonball-run