Review of The Gumball Rally (1976) by Jacob E — 17 Jan 2011

This is one of those movies you find on accident and before you know what hit you (in this case, hit you at 180 miles per hour), you're watching a bizarrely hilarious film from the 70's that should be awful.

Basically, it was Cannonball Run before Cannonball Run and it has Raul Julia (more on him later). For those of you who don't know what this means, here's the basic plot. A group of people from across the country (one of them is from Italy) partake in a race every year called The Gumball Rally, an illegal race that sees how fast people can race from New York City to L.

A. The results are usually hilarious, with a few gags that fall flat, but the best part of the show is Raul Julia. Raul plays an Italian Grand Prix racer with a Ferrari and a love of all women. He's a very funny and narcissistic character that steals every scene he is in, and ultimately almost steals the whole show.

Another star worth noting is a very young Gary Busey, and yes, he's just as crazy in this movie as he is now. As expected, the car chases and inevitable wacky stunts that occur are very fun to watch and extremely funny with an almost cartoony edge to them.

If you're bored one weekend and need to kill some time, this isn't a bad way to do it. Not the best comedy of the 1970's, but definitely not the worst.