YMMV / The Cannonball Run

• Awesome Music: Sing it with me now... CANNONBALL!
• Best Known for the Fanservice: Ask people about Farrah Fawcett and Adrienne Barbeau's involvement in the film, and chances are that the one thing (if not the sole thing) that gets remembered is their cleavage exposing exploits. At no point in the film was Farrah Fawcett wearing a bra — not surprising, given '70s fashion liked the braless look.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Captain Chaos and topped off with a Captain USA moment that results in JJ breaking the fourth wall and hugging Victor.
• Critical Dissonance: The film was hated by critics, but was one of the highest grossing films of 1981.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • In the first film, Foyt claims that the Cannonball is their "Three Mile Island and Love Canal combined". Three Mile Island refers to a nuclear accident that resulted in a partial meltdown. No one was killed or injured and very little radiation was released. However, five years later, we had Chernobyl, which was the worst nuclear plant disaster ever.
  • In the second film, Mack (Joe Theismann) is fighting a group of mobsters when he gets tackled by several at once. The following year, Theismann was the victim of a similar tackle that broke his leg. The injury was so severe, he had to retire from football.
  • In Speed Zone, Charlie (John Candy) tells Tiffany he's taking part in the Cannonball because winning the race is something you tell your grandchildren. John Candy died in 1994 when his oldest child was fourteen, meaning he wouldn't be able to tell his grandchildren anything (as of 2022, his grandchildren have yet to be born)
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In the first film, the Japanese team picks up a police speed trap on their radar detector. One of them refers to the officer as a "Kojak with a Kodak". In the sequel, Big Bad Hymie is played by Kojak himself, Telly Savalas.
• Les Yay: Marcie and Jill
• Moral Event Horizon: Several of the bikers leap over the horizon by dragging Marcie and Jill into a building during the middle of the big brawl, seemingly intending to rape them before Victor intervenes.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • The pretty female highway patrol cop who cheerfully lets Marcie and Jill know how screwed they are after they've spent the movie successfully seducing male cops into overlooking their speeding violations.
  • No-nonsense Rabid Cop Sheriff Sean "Kill a commie" O'Scanlon is quite notable in his one scene when J.J. tricks him into pulling over the fake priests.
• Retroactive Recognition: This was Jackie Chan's second attempt to break through to American stardom after the disastrous flop The Big Brawl. This film was more successful but he still didn't catch on (likely overshadowed by the numerous other stars) and had to wait until Rumble in the Bronx.
• So Okay, It's Average: II is overall considered to be just okay and average in comparison to the first film, to the point there's a joke in The Good Place, where it is stated to be the most average, forgettable film to ever exist. The IMDb score is at 4.8, so it's pretty damn close.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • In the first film, the use of undercranking in some driving scenes is noticeable, making the action seem cartoony.
  • In II, the wires holding up Hymie after Arnold tosses him are really obvious.
  • At the end of Speed Zone, it's pretty obvious which shots of the Van Sloans land skiing down the pier use dummies and which use actual humans.
• Spiritual Successor: The first movie has the same star and same director as Smokey and the Bandit.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The Leimotif for Seymour Goldfarb Jr., the eccentric millionaire who thinks he's Roger Moore (the joke being that he is actually played by Moore), is pretty obviously one for the James Bond theme. On the DVD Commentary, Hal Needham says they were one note away from getting sued.
• Values Dissonance:
  • The blooper reel includes Burt Reynolds' habit of slapping people in the face when he's joshing around. Dom De Luise, his Heterosexual Life-Partner in real life, laughs when he gets slapped, which looks a little like an abusive relationship to modern eyes.
  • Seymour and the rednecks casually drinking and driving probably wouldn't be included in a contemporary film.
  • J.J.'s skepticism about a black Catholic priest being authentic feels unconsciously racist in modern times.

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