Okay, if you're not listening to Pubcast, you're going to be winning. That's the James Worsen. Welcome to the Pubcast. Sit down and enjoy your point.
Okay, welcome to the Cannonball Run episode of the Pubcast. This time I took the podcast on the road and recorded an in-person episode with Allison, Michelle, and Joel. And we had a small audience that included Mike and Rob who you may know from previous episodes. And each time in from time to time was some helpful and some not-so-helpful interjections, so that's fun.
This one got a little crazy as we had some amazing tangents about hamsters, James Bond's anti-Semitism, and Ferifos' nipples. So, before it's that. Buckle up and get ready, as we break down Cannonball Run. This is the story of an average guy and a beautiful girl.
Don't tell me a name. I'll just call you a beauty. You must be a sensitive person. I bet you're a fan of Rock-the-Cueance.
I tried to be. And his best friend. I am Captain Chaos. Been a couple long.
Right. And a family doctor. Wish. Come on right here.
And how they all sit out one day in an ambulance from New York to California at 150 miles per hour. California here we come. But they aren't the only ones. Because this is the Cannonball Run.
America's illegal grand prix. And it doesn't matter how you get there. It's who gets there first. Kurt Reynolds is the defending champion on his team.
Feral Bossy. Are you one of those volleyballers? Cannonball. Don Louise.
And Jackie Love. And here comes the competition. Hurry up, you little one. You'll be happy to be in a race.
Sammy Davis Jr. You shorty. Where'd you get all that jewelry? Click, click, click, click.
Mel Telez and Jerry Bradshaw. Jackie Chan. And Roger Moore as himself. I'm Roger Moore.
Ooh. Roger Moore. Oh. Reckless.
We're in kind of a hurry, so we're just pleasant little bit. Unscrupulous. Oh, I got it. Bless her.
I'm sorry. She's in business. You have a desperate character. Quiet.
By land. He's done. By sea. By air.
They'll do anything. Ride anything. Say anything. I'm sorry to understand him.
When I quote you. I was going to 100,000 miles an hour. And stop at nothing. Normally I drive right around the speed limit.
We all make mistakes, Mr. 160. To win by Cannonball Run. Yeah, we're looking good.
Come on, Bather. Cannonball Run. The only movie to get over 200 tickets before it even opens. All right, Cannonball Run.
Let me give you the no-nonsense plot. A wide variety of eccentric competitors participate in a wild and illegal cross-country road race. However, the eccentric entrance will do anything to win the road race, including low-down dirty tricks. That's one of our worst ones ever.
Yeah. All right, before we get into how, when you saw it, where you saw it, what it meant, all that stuff, I want to give some contact to the Knucklehead who directed this thing. Oh, how neat. How neat.
He was a stuntman and snump director. And it shows. The line underneath of his description of who he is, he's the highest-paid stuntman in the world. Wow.
Or was in 1979 or whatever. So he directed Smoky and the Bandit. Right. Of course.
And the Bandit 2. The Cannonball Run. Stroke Race. Great.
The Cannonball Run 2. And then a string of TV movies in 1994. This will shock you with or without. Bandit, Colin.
Bandit, Silver Angel. About the Smoky and the Bandit. Bandit, Colin. Beauty and the Bandit.
He really rode this for all his movies. TV movies. Bandit, Colin. Bandit, Dose Country.
It's like Ernest. Camp. Wow. And here's the last one I found.
I only saw the video box that was from Europe or some language I couldn't decipher. But the part that was in English was Bandit, Colin. Bandit, Bandit. That's my favorite.
That must have been the Japanese import. That may have been a Russian knockoff. I don't know what was going on. Oh my god.
That's so good. Make this show. Does that come from Benjamin? I mean, this is a deep well of material, apparently.
This guy. Wow. That's a lot of people. He's got new guys.
He would have actually best friends. Walked away into being the director of a bunch of cars. And like all the gratuitous stunts in this show. The landing, the plane to get more beer.
So. It's relaxing. So like that. Well, and throughout the movie, I mean, granted three quarters of it is about this race.
So you can see why there's people in crowds. But why were there crowds just hanging out in that small town when that airplane was landing? Like if you look throughout, it's 50 people, groups of 50 people just standing around. I'm going to give this shit on the quick and cheap without hermit and like just landed in round off.
Apparently, without getting too far on the trivia, they filmed for 36 days at most. And it was super quick. Everybody averaged like two or three days of filming. And that was it.
So I think we, I would see the flavors. This movie is barely a movie. This thing is a piece of shit. Wow.
I absolutely disagree. No, I think it's great. It's barely a movie. It's a string of scenes.
It's a lot of non-semitters. Yeah. It's a lot of non-semitters. It's mixed in with some racism and sexism.
Yeah. A little bit. Yeah. 1979.
Oh yeah. A lot of anti-semitism. There's a lot of things happening there. So there's a couple things where I'm like, whoa.
I don't know. I mean, yeah, there's a lot. But I mean, there are a couple in particular. I'm like, that one fly today at all.
That's not like an all-day culture. It's an all-day culture. Yeah. Yeah.
Like a dozen characters will be just wiped out completely. Right. I took the entire movie. I was like, oh, look at the eraser.
Ibert Argood. Yeah. 1981, he reviewed it. He's, he's funny.
He said it was the worst thing ever made. And as I said to Michael earlier today, and Dina, this movie made me feel like smoking the band, it was a masterpiece. Right. As I was watching this, I said to myself, smoking a band that looks like an Oscar award-winning performer.
I think this, this came first and he learned and sort of, I think, smoking the band. No smoking the band. It came first. It was a 77.
This is an 81. This is what he's learned from smoking the band. Right in that wave. Yeah.
And there was a generation of alcohol and drugs that were clouding everyone's judgment. The king's a hell of drugs. It's all the drivers who drink it. Every scene.
Every guy got drink. 75 cases of beer in the back of that car, which I don't know how they could get over 60 miles an hour at all the weight of beer. How did that appear in the back? They landed a plane to get over here.
Every man of my uncle John and his good son, Skinny. So, when you ask him how long it took him to death from Minneapolis to Chicago, he says about two cases. Oh my God. That's a really nice event.
Oh my God. It doesn't get better than that. Well, yeah. Anyway, it was outstanding for his, for his, just the horror.
So, well, do you guys remember seeing it for the first time? None of us were old enough, except you'll, uh, to have seen it in the theater. Really? Really?
You're going to go there? So, there's a, I haven't seen this movie in easily 35 years. So, it's been forever in a day. I have a vague recollection of watching it when it was on television, not even like a videotape.
It was television. And I remember the blooper reel at the end, the credits more than I remember the movie. Yeah, probably. It was on TV.
A friend of mine, like their parents had it on VHS and we watched it, and the blooper reel was while you watched it. Right. Yeah. I was in the burnt panels in Don Dallowey's thing.
Whether it was smokin' a bandit or the end of my personal favorite out there, movies. The blooper reel is where it's at. Well, really, Don Dallowey's is blooper reel with milk bruggs. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, yeah, so 81. Uh, Jolie. And uh, I do think, and I think we can probably debate this. There was a glimmer every so often.
There was a glimmer of a little bit of a Marx Brothers, Slash Rat, Pack, Patter, that burnt rat, like he was shined through occasionally where you could see there was a little bit of a, you know. Totally. that would like randomly get thrown in. Yeah, I'd like to put in like two of that in this thing.
I don't know it. How about the credits in the beginning? It was a pair of them. And they had the cards in it.
Well apparently 20th Century Fox was at first like totally against that because it was celebrating. It was frustrating. It was frustrating. They're logo and then they're like I guess people will like it.
Somebody paid them off or something. I also thought that um I do want to say there was there was a few asides that were kind of in the Marx Brothers tradition. It was a little bit of rap pack pattern. I don't mean then Sammy.
I just mean more of Bert. And he definitely does have a charm. One thing I thought that was kind of interesting like if you think about all the stars in this movie and the way they did it, it's definitely like a you can see the influence of things like love boat with all the guest stars. Yeah.
Just fantasy island. Even like a member love American style. They had the three sort of storylines going but they always had the guest stars. Oh my god that's so I told you for a moment.
Yeah and even you know some of that rap pack met. But every single actor had the most wooden delivery in this movie. It was unbelievable. Bert Reynolds is clearly a star.
They didn't have time for a second taste. They were just 36 days man. Let's go. And you can totally see that Deloises just making up some of that stuff.
Yeah. I forgot how I mean there's such a charming element of Deloees that I kind of forgot about and I'm going to say I always picture him being heavier. Oh my god I think that's the exact same thing. I was like I was like she's really not that bad.
I mean we have just a number of that. 70's fat and 20's fat is way. Yeah. I'm 70's fat right now.
I'm 20-20. Right now. Let's just be honest with it. So as I was watching the movie I was like oh he's pretty funny.
He's pretty funny in the movie and yes I think there was a lot of improv. At the beginning when he was talking about the hamsters at his home I'm like is this what this character is going on about? I completely forgot what's going on. Zero contacts with chaos.
There's no mention of it. Don't for a second think that is it going to be happening for the next two months in our house. It's going to be happening for the next two months in our house. Another thing that kind of struck me is at one point that they did do something about the President and he did a Nixon impression.
Oh yeah. Yeah. I thought about it. No and I thought about it.
In my lifetime that was a thing up until probably 1990. People still would do. I am not at crack. And now we've had since 1990 every president has been so insane that we no longer even it's lost its impact.
There was one Halloween mask that would never get thrown out of my house for years. The Nixon mask was always available everywhere. You can find it constantly. That was such a deep part of the culture.
People would reference it all the time. The obsession in the mid to late 70s and obviously in the early 80s for country and western culture. Oh yeah that was a trend. All the hats and buckles and cowboy boots in New Jersey.
There was some guy that had overalls on that looked like the seersucker pattern. There was a whole country element to that. Yeah. Yeah.
There was an urban cowboy thing happening at the time I think. So I will add to that though. The early 80s, ladies garments of the shiny unitards that were worn were ridiculous. That's coming back.
Oh my god. It was insane. So ridiculous. The boobs slide around.
There were a lot. There were a lot. But every part of this movie we need a whole section of this conversation dedicated to the sexism and racism. Oh.
And every is. It was fun. It was just fun. It was just a clean fun.
Oh my god. What are the music that they say to these women in the office? Oh yeah. And how about even every time Jackie Chan would come on the screen they'd have the music.
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
He's like. I don't want to stand on your part but he is Chinese. His character is Japanese for some reason. And he's very upset.
He is speaking Japanese in the army. Not Japanese. Not Japanese. It doesn't matter.
They're just not Asian. They're just native. They're just Japanese. Japanese.
Dirty knees. Look at these. That's not what they're saying. I mean everybody had been distracted by Farrah Fawcett in that one scene where she heard.
Oh my god. They had to have some like aesthetic nipple. There's no way. Children.
Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh no no. I noticed.
I was in the fake though. Of course I noticed. It was like another character in that scene. Like it was so ridiculous what was happening there.
That's why her poster was so funny in the 70s. And then of course the priest was a flasher. Because that was always another narrative that was going on. That was a big deal.
The flasher in the night. Did you guys catch me? Sean Killikami of Scanlan Banner. God guns and guns.
Keep us safe from the hippie nuts. I definitely saw that. Just put the name Ted Cruz in there. What's the difference?
I don't know if you care about Lonnwer. Oh. Sorry. So Ron tomatoes.
What do you think the Ron tomato score was for Canoball Run? Audience first and then the critics. Okay. Audience.
What would the audience give this master piece of cinema? I'm going to say 65. I'm going to say 68. Yeah.
Joel. 75. Ooh. It's very responsive.
The audience gave it a fresh score of 61. Oh. Oh 60. It's rotten.
Just by the game it's deep. What would be critics give it? Oh. Ahh.
37. Sorry. It's 32. Wow.
Critics score of 30%. Wow. It's rotten. It's really yeah.
It's not great. It said barely a movie. Canoball Run? Finish the third at the box office.
Can I go here really? Okay. Please tell me. Ready?
You have the list. Alright. Oh I have the list. Number one.
First place with 108 million. Superman. Oh two. Oh two.
Oh my god. Not even Superman. Superman. Superman two.
Wow. Number one. In 81. Wow.
Number two. Oh. One with Superman. 80?
Yeah. 79. Yeah 79. Yeah 79.
Number two with 85 million. Stripes. Oh. That's a movie that holds up.
Number three. Canoball Run. Number four. Three Rise Only.
Three Rise Only. Number five. The Four Seasons. Oh.
I don't know that one. Number six. It's caliber. Four Seasons was really, was all about the caliber nut.
Wow. Yeah. Number seven. History of the world part one.
Oh. Oh. Well now Brake's action. You bust and lose.
Oh my god. That was a good movie. Number nine. Which one I have, Joel's a great muffer caper.
Oh, greatest movie ever. Yes. Greatest movie. So number nine got 31 million.
Wow. Down from 108 for number one. Charles Grodin in that movie is fantastic. Absolutely.
Number 10. Endless Love. So Canoball Run? Three.
Wow. I wish we would have watched the end. That's a movie I'd like to go back and watch again. Well I've never seen it.
I can't find it on streaming. I can't find it. Let's go see if Tina's mom still hasn't been made up. Maybe Tim or does.
You might have Tina's made of X in his mom's house. Alright. On to trivia. We talked about some of this.
This movie was originally playing as an action movie starring Steve McQueen. Oh my god. After Steve McQueen's death the lead went to for Reynolds turning into a comedy. I wonder.
Was Reynolds really going to be going to strength of comedy? Like I don't know that I recall that being a bad point. Not really. Well it's not going to be a band I think.
Yeah. But yeah I read about Steve McQueen. It's interesting how I mean it was a serious car racing movie until he died. They were like crap.
What a good news about the real Canoball Run and the writer and director and both competed in it the whole thing. And then they just went to slap stick comedy and they're like let's get it. And pay him what? Five million dollars?
Really? Five? Well he had already done the playgirl thing by then. So he was that part of the culture at that point.
He had that sexy tank top on. Yeah. And the stash. So that was just in general I didn't realize until we were preparing for this to watch this movie that that was a real race.
I had no idea. Oh yeah. It's no pop up now and then we do it. I would like to mention also sorry to interrupt it.
How did you guys watch the movie? Did you find it on streaming? I bought DVD. I had to.
We made it. It doesn't exist on stream. I bought this. I too.
I saw it on DVD but it came straight out of Joel Riley's collection. DVD. Wow Joel. You've been holding this library for all these years.
You have an original pressing of this. Yeah. Tell me why don't you invest in the DVD? Geez.
What year was that? What even had DVDs that? How much? Yeah.
He found it in the bargain bin for three dollars. Okay. The ambulance used in the movie is the actual ambulance. The ambulance that Hal Needham, Amscreen writer of Rock Eights, souped up and raced in the cannibal room.
Oh yeah. I guess he saved a few bucks. And they apparently like auctioned it off or something like that for charity and it's a bunch of money. All the cars in here you can tell are borrowed in cash members car.
I can't remember which one it was. The Ferrari or the Lamborghini was the director. This movie is based on a series of real races started by Brock Eights who was the screenwriter. He was editor of Current Driver Magazine.
Did you read anything? I didn't find anything about this. The ridiculousness of like crashing through walls and jumping cars into a swimming pool. When those knuckles had crashed into the hotel lobby for no reason, what is that?
Yeah. I don't know. I was just wondering like did something happen where in some wacky race that somebody had accidents and crashed into the front of the hotel or something like that because it's just so unnecessary. I think that's why I think I just wanted to do some stunts.
Did you catch the actual original name of the cannibal race? I did. I don't know if I wrote it down here. It's like 10 words long ago.
It's the cannibal baker C to shining C memorial trophy dash. Roll off of that. Does that spell a word? Like if you take the first letter of each word?
I don't know. It's happening there. I don't know what that is. It was just a very odd name.
This was one of Jackie Chan's first appearances in the US movie. I think it's the first. I think it's the first. I think it's the first.
I think it's the first. I think it's the first thing that's supposed to be like the Japanese Johnny Carson. They're speaking who knows what's John E's or Japanese based on what you said earlier. And all I can hear is like they speak to the woman that you get the indication that she's in the actress and then you hear Godzilla movie.
Yeah. Oh my God. What other movie would there be? So this was Jackie Chan's first movie and Jackie at the end of his movies includes bloopers and outtakes in every movie he does because of what people.
Oh really? Oh that's what it was interesting. That's cool. We talked about him being pissed about.
This movie is such an influence on the careers of major movie stars. Yeah. But Reynolds became the highest paid actor in cinema history up to that point with a payday of $5 million. I mean you think about $5 million and 81 is a chunk of change.
That's a lot of money. $5 million a month basically. I mean I'm sure he did other movies back. I'm sure he's not.
We're tired of promoting the movie that make it in the movie. I'm sure his name is what got it made. All of it. Yeah.
Okay Victor, Don Del Veeves, Telegi J. Hermanos. That is a good thing they have a doctor on board in case someone gets small fever. This is a reference to smoking the man at two.
Yes I saw that. Where Don played a doctor that Burke picked up and he was treating a patient for small fever. Yeah. Also Victor did mention that the shrink that he's been involved with was smoking bananas.
I think that's hilarious. That shrink is smoking bananas. And then he was committed. Right.
That's what he was made on a different planet. Absolutely. I was very involved. Throughout the race every now and then you can see a black transam that appears.
And that's obviously a homage to this movie. He makes it comment on that doesn't he? I'm getting to that. This is what we're talking about.
He says like, oh we could get a black transam now. We all picked up on that. Oh yeah. Don Del Veeves' character Victor Prinzim was named after Vic Prinzy, a friend and former college football teammate of Verminal, Dafford State.
Verminal was a half back at FSU. You always forget about that. I know. I always forget injured.
I know he was at Vord State but I always forget what he was sitting on. I always want to say quarterback because of the longest yard. That's a great movie. Also a former football player.
It'll be really. The only thing I found with casting issues was Don Rickles. Don Rickles was originally cast as Fender Bomb before Sammy Davis Jr. I found no other casting information.
I found one that was Jacqueline Smith was supposed to be Ferris' character. But there's no... No final confirmation of why she backed out but she was approached. She said yes I'm interested and then it just fell apart.
Then they found out they could get Ferris and they said bye Jackie. Yeah right. She's a bigger star right? So one of the things I looked up I could not get an answer.
Ferris' poster came out in the intervening months and they said, either we need the rust colored. Don't you go get that brought? So one of the pieces of trivia I was hoping was out there. I searched specifically for this question and there was no answer for it.
How many slaps are there in this movie? Everybody is getting slapped. Yeah. See it's slapped half a dozen times.
Don Del Veeves. Everybody is getting slapped. Yes. Everybody gets a slap at some point.
The other thing and Brendan Hill, you had to have noticed it. Dr. Van Helsing's middle finger is the longest digit I've ever seen by. The finding hell is the point.
He points with that finger and it is ginormous. It is the longest finger I've ever seen in my life. It's approximately ten inches. That guy.
No. Sorry. I started to do that. Yeah they were dead carrying me back and back.
I know. Exactly. There was a lot. It was the whole thing with her getting kidnapped in that band is only it can only take place in 81.
It could not take place now. I have my note here that says, brawless wonder in the cannonball plug but you are not related to that. You have to go to the kick napper and factor into the ambulance. And then I left my finger.
You have to go to the police. Oh you gave me laughing. Oh. You gave me a roofie.
You might woke up with no pants on. I don't know what that is. I don't know what that is. What happened to my scruity?
I don't know what that is. What happened to my skirt? Joel we are going to film a remake of it. Aw you guys.
I just left trees. That was a death. I mean they may get hurt or sound so ignorant. I guess that was the thing.
Oh my word. You could have just made her a hitchhiker. It would have been fine. I don't know why the whole sidetrack of the trees and the guy with the button.
So she could wear glasses and play against him. Those two glasses were. She was a decade specific. They were trying to be like the transition.
I wish I had them. They were gorgeous. I'm like I need those in my life. I need that.
You can have them be your transition lenses or progressive lenses. I'm not embracing my age at this point. I don't have anything else if we want to dive into recastory. I would like to just make a comment with Roger Moore.
He makes a comment. Mom you're too Jewish. That was weird too. I get so many odd statements.
You're like where did that come from? I was also distracted by the astrotur around the pool. That whole setup was weird. It was like in a desert.
I didn't understand. He was Jewish but he was playing that he wasn't. They lived in Valer and he was costing her a fortune. What was going on?
Sammy went, we know Dean and Sammy both dressed up as priests. That was their cover. Should have met the best. Right.
He pulls out his car and dibs and the background music is how many healers. I was like, oh God. I did. I did.
He never heard of On the Nose yet. Dean Martin looked like he was hammered or stoned during the whole film. They're in that betting hall and they first show him for the first time. I'm like, I guys met up for three days.
I read one. I heard this one. Apparently I have not read it but there's a great biography about Dean Martin Calpino. I think.
All those times on stage with the drinking he was not drinking. He probably was stoned. He did not look his chipper best. He looked like a little guy.
I read it in coffee. He's like 65 or something. That's the other thing. I'm looking at these guys and they're all, you thought they were 100 when you were watching as a kid.
I don't know if he's probably 45. He's probably 30 years in that movie or so. I don't know. We'll have to look it up.
Yeah. It's bizarre. Sammy Davis Jr. had 25% of his body weight of gold in that movie.
I said to Brendan while we were watching, I'm like, is that a watch necklace? I couldn't quite tell what was happening but I'm like, if it was a watch, how would he tell him it is? It could be it but definitely a lot of bling. Yeah.
That was kind of funny. The Hava Nagila playing, Mom, you're too Jewish. What else did Johnny Carson show with the Godzilla movie on it? What else did he have?
What was the, so-and-so the Greek? Jimmy the Greek? Yeah. But he was currently after this movie.
He was outed as a wild racist and was talking about CBS. Yeah. But he was totally embedded in the popular culture by that. Yeah.
And he was betting on the Sunday football game. Yeah. Yeah. He was a staple.
And he would see, but I like though that they used him kind of in that role though. Yes. I mean, there was something about all of the characters that they picked. They're really sort of playing themselves.
Yes. They were all like, it was, they were all friends. They were all friends. They all knew each other from the circles they ran in with Dean, whoever in Las Vegas and Bert Reynolds with the Hollywood connection and then the stunt guy and then they're of course involved in gambling so they know Jimmy the Greek and they're just a bunch of, it's like Ocean's 11.
Yeah. Yeah. And they were good. And that was a good story.
It was a story. Was there, so was, I never watched the original Ocean's 11. Was any Davis Jr. in that?
I don't know. He might have been. Dean was. Right.
And Sinatra of course. Right. So probably, I don't know. Didn't they do everything together?
I mean, that's what I feel like. The whole crew was together. All right. Are we recasting here?
Yeah. I'll wait for Joldie. Are you paused? I'll just cut it off.