Cannonball . Austin Chronicle . 07-13-98

Cannonball

DIRECTED BY: Paul Bartel

REVIEWED: 07-13-98

Roger Corman's Death Race 2000 brought on a rash of ripoffs, and this Bicentennial-year entry is one of the first and best. David Carradine is the leader of the pack in an illegal cross-country auto race; Veronica Hamel (Hill Street Blues) is his unwilling girlfriend along for the ride. Bill McKinney plays Carradine's psychologically damaged sidekick driving a similarly obnoxious orange Trans Am to confuse the opposition. Carradine's arch-rival (Carl Gottlieb) drives a badass black Plymouth GTX , gets serenaded endlessly by country-music twangin' passenger Gerrit Graham and plays dirty pool. There are babes, car crashes, wrecked car/non-wrecked car continuity errors, a German driver who blows up real good, and Corman reg Dick Miller, but what you want to watch for are the truly amazing cameos. Sharp-eyed viewers will spot director Corman, Martin Scorsese, Sylvester Stallone, Joe Dante, and Paul Bartel in bit parts while Mary Woronov takes an incredibly long time to maneuver her van through a multi-car pileup. Sure, it's a ripoff. Sure it's brainless. Cannonball is still a definitive drive-in car chase flick that's gonna make you want to tromp the gas pedal and burn rubber on the way home.

--Jerry Renshaw

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