So every once in a while we like to do an episode of the show called “is this a bad movie?” The funny part is that usually when we pick movie for that series, we know it’s a movie that many consider good, but that we feel like we have a chance to convince people it’s not. This is not one of those episodes. See, we know 1981’s The Cannonball Run is a bad movie. It’s actually pretty obvious that it’s a bad movie. But somehow, it’s beloved nonetheless. At least by some people. So on today’s episode Mav and Wayne invite returning guest Stephanie Siler as well as new guests Dan Grote and Nathan Scoll to work through a film that against all odds seems to be a cinematic classic and figure out if there is any redeeming value to it and why they “just don’t make like they used to”. Or maybe they do… because somewhere along the way we’re going to try to convince you that the spiritual successor to Cannonball Run is The Phoenician Scheme. Yep, that’s what we said. How do we get there? Listen and find out and then give us your thoughts in the comments below.
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Is Cannonball Run the movie equivalent of a gimmick match from pro wrestling? I know of the movie but I don’t remember watching it. I don’t think I would k ow because it’s hard enough to l8ve my principals. Why watch misogynistic slop I’m not attached to?
If it’s a gimmick match, then I think it’s the equivalent of like a Royal Rumble match. Mix in some current big stars/main-eventers with some B-Listers/mid-carders and up-and-comers/NXT standouts and then toss in a couple old-timey legends and a big out of place celebrity cameo to make people go “Oh… they got HIM!!!”
And yeah, as we said I certainly don’t think it really works as a movie if you don’t know who the people are. The main characters don’t really define their personalities at all. You’re intended to just know what Burt, Sammy, et al are going for because you’ve seen them in other stuff. If anything, I only think it’s interesting as a “this was very of its time” artifact. And as we ended up saying, I think there are modern movie equivalents of this (the work of Wes Anderson for instance)