Cannonball Run, The (UK)

As a child of 10 i waited in the rain for two hours to see this movie.i of course liked the movie.as a adult i now get all the naughty jokes an innocent boy doesnt get,anyway i totally disagree about the picture quality it was far better than the poor print the Barking Odeon showed.sure the soundtrack isnt a T2 beater but remember it was a dolby stereo film.it has a great cast the wrong team wins and judging by the fact they have to clock in could mean it was a totally differant outcome look close your see what i mean.anyway it was nice to see Reynolds Moore back at the height of their popularity.now we need the dreaded number 2.

As the story goes (for some people), for those who have been trying to search for this movie for a VERY long time, by asking video retailers and rental shops "Do you have the movie, The Cannonball Run?" they usually get a smurk or a just plain old "sorry we don`t have it" answer. For some of us, this movie is not an oscar picture, however for me, it was a movie i grew up with (despite the movie is only 3 years older than me). Finally to see the Cannonball Run released on DVD was something, to see this movie on my Region 4 encoded DVD player was another. When I came across that there was a release by HBO for this movie (only region 1), I was suspecting that it would come out in Australia soon, but with more asking around, there was no intention for a release, until recently where there was rumors lurking about its release down under....possibly early or mid 2002

Anyway, I still decided to research, and I LUCKLY came about this website which had a review on this movie and a Region 2 version was released, and the reason it made me buy this version was the original trailer which was included, which i had never seen in my life. Being in OZ and not having a multi-region DVD player, I decided to purchase the movie anyway, so i can watch it on my PC which has a DVD player.
After I made the purchase, I decided to do more research on the region 2 release. I foundout in the meantime that it was also encoded for region 4, and I thought to myself "You little beauty!"........but in the meantime, I had my doubts and didn`t believe it until i saw it myself, and guess what....its Region 4 compatible! So for those in the region 4 stranded areas of the globe and who are fans of this movie, you don`t have to wait any longer to actually buy the movie.

You must be asking, how in the hell is the DVD itself? Well, if you had read previous reviews from other readers, then they would have your answer, for example, the intordution with the Lamborghini and the Cop, is grainy, showing its age, and the dissapointment that it only has DUTCH subtitles and not ENGLISH subtitles (which by the way only appear when Jackie Chan and his co-driver speak, so we now know what the hell they are saying!). This movie is not anything spectacular which has 3D effects like the Matrix or DTS sound like the Gladiator or Terminator, but Video and Audio wise, it "KILLS" VHS by far, the video being more clearer and sharper and the colours more brighter than ever before. The Audio, Dolby Digital 5.1, is...well...ok i guess, I`m not an expert at judging audio and personally, for this movie, there`s no need...if you aren`t fussed about it, just turn up the volume then see what happens. The features such as the UK trailer and Original Theatrical Trailer are geat for those people who like a tease or who have never seen them before (like myself), the Animated Menu is pretty good showing short clips from the movie while waiting for you to decide wherther to watch the movie or not, theres a chapter selection (like many other movies), but there is NO interview gallery.....i do not know where some people got that from (anyway, whats the point of having one?) And like i said before, it has DUTCH subtitles and ENGLISH subtitles.

Since I already knew that this DVD version region 2 was being produced by Medusa Comms and the source was by Media Asia or....was it Golden Harvest, i had knew that the classic 20th Century Fox introduction would not appear (for those people who cant remember, a little red car and cop car racing around the 20th Century Fox mountain), might not be important, but that little intro was a classic. You might find that one in the Region 1 HBO release.

Just to conclude, if you are a fan of this movie, and enjoy it, and want to watch it again on DVD without worrying to take it back to the rental shop or worrying that the old buggered rental tape will burn into ashes inside your VCR, I recommend that you get it for old times sake.

Movie
The film consists of many people taking part in an illegal 3000-mile race. The winner is very unpredictable to the very last minute.

Picture
As this is an American produced film you would think the picture quality would be quite good, but unfortunately Medusa Pictures is the sister company to Hong Kong Legends. This means they have had access to the Hong Kong source and this means the picture is very grainy and colours look a little odd and shadow detail is poor, Reds tend to bloom slightly. Despite it has been digitally remastered.

Sound
This DVD features a newly remixed 5.1 soundtrack from the original Mono sound elements, you get some very nice separation effects when cars speed past which adds a great depth to the film

Extra's

UK Promo Trailer
Original Theatrical Trailer - Very funny

Conclusion
This film isn't an award winning Oscar but it is very entertaining and I strongly recommend it, but if you have a Multi Region DVD player then steer clear of this version as the R1 version is a lot better.