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CANNONBALL RUN
II
AKA:
Cannon Ball Run 2
Year:
1984 Reviewer: Phil
Mills
When
he fails to win the original 'Cannonball Run', The Sheik
decides to finance a whole new race in which the winner will
receive a prize fund of $1,000,000. He sends invites to
all the previous competitors and all the gang seem to be
present but there is one small problem; Fenderbaum (Sammy
Davis Jnr) owes money to a mob organisation and when they
discover The Sheik is an outlet for money they decide to
kidnap him. It's up to our collection of motorists to
forfeit their places in the race and help out an old friend
(and also the source of the prize money) before heading onto
the finish line to see who will be victorious.
After
the success of 'The
Cannonball Run' a sequel was planned with most of the cast
members making a welcome return. Amongst their number
was the Chinese techno wizz with a talent for Kung Fu who is
now more instantly recognizable to the west as a certain
Jackie Chan. Whether it is attributed to contractual
obligations or a genuine enjoyment of his experiences on the
first film, Chan the man returned to reprise his role which
contains slightly more screen time than his "blink and
you will miss it" cameo in the original film.
This
time around Chan's character is paired with ex-James Bond
villain Richard Kiel (better known as Jaws) who acts as
his translator throughout due to his limited grasp of the
English language. Most of their antics are restricted to
the cars impressive gadgetry or stereotypical Oriental jokes
but Chan does get to partake in two of the film's major fight
scenes. The first of these comes when the team stop off
for gas and run into a gang of hazardous Hell's Angels
(again!). Thankfully the director has learnt from his
mistakes and opts to include sound effects that serve to
enhance a scene that would most likely be considered average
in a Hong Kong flick but is light years ahead of anything else
produced in Hollywood at this time. Jackie's input is
also obvious due to the inclusion of his trademark fast and
intricately put together movements but unfortunately it
doesn't appear he chose the camera angles as they often
restrict our view of the action and downplay some of the more
impressive combinations. For the second brawl in the
film all of the characters get involved with comedic results
so Chan is confined to the background and has to make do with
a brief appearance alongside leading man Burt Reynolds.
The
movie as a whole definitely suffers from a case of "Home
Alone syndrome", by which I mean it is practically
identical to the first film with newly substituted gags.
To be fair though, what can you really change about a film in
which the main aspect is a car race from Connecticut to
California as it is always fundamentally about the race but a
change of pace would have been preferable. However, it
retains it's likable qualities of enjoyable star partnerships,
fast cars and pretty girls that help to keep it on the right
track, meaning fans of the first should certainly seek out the
sequel.
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