Rating: 2/5
Cult Movie Challenge 2024 | 9/52 | Shaw Brothers
CW // Blood, Violence, Racism, Misogyny, Homophobia
Coy Buckman, AKA Cannonball, is a racing driver whose life fell apart when he killed a woman by drunk driving. To get his career back on track, he decides to race in the yearly illegal car race, The Trans-America Grand Prix. The race goes from Santa Monica Pier to New York City.
In addition to the 100K, Modern Motors offers a racing contract to either Buckman or his rival, Cade Redman — whichever one wins gets the contract.
The problem is that Buckman is on parole. And he’s fucking his parole officer, Linda. So, when she tries to stop him from racing, Linda accompanies him. Also, the district attorney is aware of the race and puts one of his own in it to take cars down.
A documentary team will be following along to capture all the hijinks.
Inspired by the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash and, I guess, Wacky Racers, this movie has an oddball cast of Roger Corman regulars, as well as cast members from Bartel’s previous movie Death Race 2000.
To name a few:
- Robert Carradine (aka Lizzy McGuire’s dad)
- Dick Miller (who plays Bennie!!)
- Mary Woronov (if she isn’t in a Bartel movie, I’d be worried)
- Joe Dante
- Martin Scorsese and Sylvester Stallone as mafiosos
The script is full of one-liners, such as, “That guy’s so mean, I bet he has to jack off in the morning to get his heart started” or describing beer as, “best damn vitamins there is — better than spinach, better than fur burgers, better than pasta.” You know, comedy!
The movie has a pile of producers, including The Shaw Brothers, better known for their martial arts productions. David Carradine pulls out a couple of moves from Kung Fu, but that’s the extent of martial arts in the movie.
David Carradine gives his standard “constipated and possibly senile” performance.
The movie has almost no internal consistency, especially where drivers are in the race, so it’s hard to be too invested beyond whatever interaction happens in each scene. Cannonball stops and wrecks more often than anyone on screen, so his winning is absurd.
This movie kind of sucks, but it has some solid car stunts and explosions, so I can’t hate it.