Review of Cannonball Run II (1984) by Stuart K — 27 Apr 2014

Directed by the late, great Hal Needham (Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Hooper (1978), The Cannonball Run (1981) and Stroker Ace (1983)), this would be the final film Reynolds would make with Needham, even though they'd said they wouldn't make any more films like this a few years before, but it was more the lure of money that brought them together, and the original Rat Pack too.

It begins when Sheik Abdul ben Falafel (Jamie Farr) is ordered by his father (Ricardo Montalban) to go back to America to win the Cannonball Run race again, having lost the first time. JJ (Burt Reynolds) and Victor (Dom DeLuise) are back to compete in this race, and so are Blake (Dean Martin) and Fenderbaum (Sammy Davis Jr.

), who are both in trouble with Las Vegas mobster Don Don Canneloni (Charles Nelson Reilly), who in turn is in trouble with mob enforcer Hymie Kaplan (Telly Savalas). The race from California to Connecticut begins, and JJ and Victor pick up musical nuns Betty (Marilu Henner) and Veronica (Shirley MacLaine) along the way.

This one is even more insane than the first film, with an orangutan driving at one point, a lot of silly cartoonish humour, (even Burt looks like he wants to get it over with), but it is a lot of fun, and with a lot of cameos including Jackie Chan, Richard Kiel, Don Knotts, Tim Conway, Jim Nabors and Frank Sinatra!!