It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

RELEASED IN 1983 and directed by Hal Needham, "Cannonball Run II" is a car chase comedy about a second Cannonball Run race from the West Coast to the East Coast. The teams include JJ & Victor (Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise), Blake and Fenderbaum (Dean Martin & Sammy Davis Jr.) with other teams involving Jackie Chan & Richard Kiel in a submersible Mitsubishi Starion and Mel Tillis & Tony Danza accompanied by an orangutan. There are at least a dozen other notable co-stars in various roles: Jamie Farr, Telly Savalas, Sid Caesar, Tim Conway, Foster Brooks, Ricardo Montalban , Charles Nelson Reilly, Don Knotts, etc.This is a fun turn-off-your-brain flick with an incredible all-star cast that's worth the price of admission. Unfortunately, the script needed a rewrite with better jokes but the producers obviously didn't want to blow the money. As it is, too much of the humor falls flat, but "Cannonball Run II" is still leagues better than comparable junk like "Smokey and the Bandit Part 3" (1983). And there's a worthwhile sequence where Dom does an amusing Brando impersonation.Moreover, the movie scores good marks on the female front with Catherine Bach jaw-dropping in form-fitting blue spandex during the first half, teamed with her Amazonian-ish partner Susan Anton (who's no slouch in the beauty department). Bach's buttocks looks like it was sculptured by God Himself. In addition, there's Marilu Henner and Shirley MacLaine, who catch a ride with JJ & Victor, masquerading as nuns before revealing their real identities. Maclaine was 48 during shooting but still had a great figure.THE FILM RUNS 1 hour, 48 minutes and was shot in Nevada (Las Vegas, Henderson), Arizona (Tucson, Bisbee) and California (Redondo Beach).GRADE: C

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.

Truly one of the greatest American films of the 20th Century. Superior comedic timing, wit, intelligence, chemistry-- a poignant social commentary on the conspicuous consumption of the mid-1980s. Hilarity only surpassed by its taut direction, superior pacing and production value, the likes of which had been unseen since Battleship Potemkin or 2001.The editing on this masterpiece (by William Gordean, famous for his genre-defining work on Tank Girl-- yes, that William Gordean) exceeds brilliance. How did they get it to look like Frank Sinatra was really in those scenes? How? How? Magic, my friend. Hollywood Magic. To think that in 1984 this film was overlooked by the Academy for the likes of trivial, petulant "movies" like The Killing Fields and Amadeus is the greatest tragedy in cinematic history. Shame on you, Oscar. Shame. On. You.

Having shamed his family by failing to run the original Cannonball Run, The Sheik is sent back to America by his father to restage the race with $1,000,000 of the King's money. Spreading the word brings out most of the previous competitors as well as some new racers as well as some new trouble –Don Canneloni's son (Don Don) is failing in his new business venture and the Don has sent some men to sort out his debtors, namely one Morris Fenderbaum. When the Don's men catch up with Fenderbaun they learn of the Cannonball Run and decide that they will make some money by kidnapping the Sheik during the race.A quiet night in with a few glasses of wine meant that somehow Cannonball 2 became a viable proposition but sadly, regardless of the influence of libation, this was a pretty poor film that didn't have much in the way of entertainment value. If you are the sort of person that thinks Smokey & The Bandit 3 is the height of cinematic art then you'll probably love CR2 but for the majority of us, this is just a collection of noisy scenes, hung together with the most basic of plots and a load of stars having fun; or at least I hope they were having fun because I certainly didn't. The basic plot is used to produce a few fights, some fast cars, a little bit of cleavage and a whole load of not much else.The comedy is of the most basic sort and the cast do seem to be having fun with all their mates but this does not make their performances any good. Reynolds just sleeps through it in the way he always does, while anyone hoping that Dom DeLuise will be good for laughs deserve everything they get in life. Martin and Davis Jr seem happy for the paycheck but really you get the feeling that they are crying inside. Likewise Savalas and MacLaine are much better than this, while Rocco, Silva etc all deserve a damn good kicking for this mockery of their most famous roles. Elam, Danza, Farr, Chan and Kiel all fill the screen but at least Montalban and McClure are good value (although that may be less to do with their ability and more to do with Star Trek 2 and the Simpsons spoof respectively).Overall a very, very basic comedy that does very little worth seeking out. The stars all appear to be enjoying themselves and it is really just as well that somebody is because the majority of viewers won't be. In its defence though, if you're watching this film then what did you expect – although that doesn't really excuse any of this nonsense.