Cannonball (1976)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1976
Running Time	90:19 (Case: 92)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Paul Bartel
Studio Distributor	New World Pictures Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	David Carradine Bill McKinney Veronica Hamel Gerrit Graham Robert Carradine Belinda Balaski Judy Canova Carl Gottlieb Mary Woronov Aron Kincaid Archie Hahn David Arkin John Herzfeld
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	David A. Axelrod

    But as the race approaches, Coy is haunted by the memory of a previous race when his female driving partner was killed. Despite these concerns, Coy has a race to run and a new female sidekick for the ride. When the new sidekick turns out to be a cop, Coy is really in a bundle, but she agrees to go along for the ride anyway. Meanwhile, Coy's brother Benny has made a huge wager on Coy to win the race. The bet is with some very shady underworld characters, but as Coy is the man to beat, it seems like a sure thing.

    So here the story begins. A crazy collection of characters in a huge array of vehicles; girls in vans, guys in borrowed cars, young couples in hot rods, married men in 4WDs and many more, all of them on the road towards a chance of victory. But there can only be one winner, and there are those who'll stop at nothing to make sure that Coy doesn't finish the race.

    After the success of the futuristic car race film Death Race 2000, director Paul Bartel felt the need to go back to the original premise of a Trans-Continental car race / chase and make it a bit more realistic. Two things would remain consistent between the 2 films: the race itself and the film's lead, actor David Carradine. Released just one year after Death Race 2000, this film unfortunately misses out on a lot of the over the top humour of the first film. The basic idea is the same, committed legendary racer and his female sidekick (this time it's the lovely Veronica Hamel) on a race to win at all costs. Strange that the director chose to make almost the same film twice, when to me it appears that he got it right the first time. Sure, Death Race 2000 is no masterpiece of modern cinema, but you aren't meant to look at it like that. It's a campy piece of 'so bad it's good' fun, so when you watch the film, context should be utmost in your mind. It's unfortunate that this film isn't in the same league. Many will have fond memories of this film, which you might have first seen in the early days of home video. I remember seeing this many years ago, but for the most part I'd forgotten the film. Seeing it again after all these years, I can see why. This film isn't all that good, and if it's crazy 70s car race action that you are looking for, then perhaps Death Race 2000 might be a better pick.

Video

    This film is presented full frame. The back cover states that the disc is a 4x3 Pan & Scan transfer, but this film was originally filmed in full frame 35 mm. I got the impression that we were presented with an original full frame open matte version of the film, not Pan & Scan. I'd have to see a widescreen version of this film to determine whether what we have here is full frame or Pan & Scan. Blue Underground in Region 1 is releasing this film soon in 1.66:1, and this could be the intended aspect ratio, although this can't be confirmed.

    The level of sharpness here is quite poor, and there are a host of things wrong with the transfer. Focus is out a fair bit, and this can be seen at 12:11. Shadow detail is quite poor and almost non-existent at times. Prime examples of this can be seen at 03:02, 50:44 and 56:39. Low level noise is also an issue at times, including 5:45 and 51:13.

    Colour's depiction looks to have been intended to be natural, but we have such a poor transfer here that what was originally intended has fallen away. The image is quite faded and washed out. This is most pronounced at 44:39, where we have a mixture of washed out image, bad shadow detail and different film stock all contributing to a poor image.

    There are a huge number of problems with this disc. Not even 5 seconds pass from the start of the film when we are subjected to analogue tape tracking errors. These are found at 00:03 (yes, that early) and 08:02. Cross colouration is a problem on the gas station attendant's hat at 36:52. Colour bleed is an issue throughout the programme, but have a look on David Carradine's neck at 01:51 for an example. Chroma noise is a problem with reds, for example on the red car at 02:29. Cross country bandit edge enhancement continues to evade the law and races across this disc. Have a look at the light pole and tree at 04:05 for an example. Film grain is constant and inconsistent due to the different film stocks used. Pixelization and grain are an issue here, and this can be seen on Veronica Hamel's face at 6:00. Cigarette burns are also visible throughout the film (19:37,37:39, 57:41 and 76:33).

    There are no subtitles on offer on this disc.

    This disc is formatted single layer and as such, a layer change is not an issue.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one audio option on offer, that being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mix running at 224 Kb/s.

    The dialogue quality here is listenable, but it is about as good as the video transfer...poor. I didn't have any real problems making out the spoken word here, but ADR was obvious from time to time, such as at 10:45. Sync was also an issue at times with an example of the audio being out at 19:08.

    Music for this film comes from David A. Axelrod. Mr. Axelrod's score contributions look to span a whole 2 films, this one and the 1969 film Le Voleur de Crimes (Crime Thief). It has a very 70s porn film sound (don't ask how I know that, just take my word for it) that suits the film, meaning that it has dated just as badly as the film has.

    Your surround sound processor will be able to derive some rear atmospherics from the stereo audio mix on offer, but don't expect too much. Even dts Neo:6 was limited in what it could do. There is no LFE to speak of here.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

• Play
• Scene Selections (static image and Chapter number, no titles)

    The menus are presented full frame with no audio.

• Kicks And Crashes: Interviews With Stars David Carradine and Mary Woronov and the Legendary Roger Corman
• Theatrical Trailer
• TV Spots
• Poster and Stills Gallery
• 1.66:1 aspect ratio
• English Dolby Digital 5.1, 2.0 surround and Mono audio options

    Analogue tape tracking errors, colour bleed, chroma noise, poor shadow detail, edge enhancement, low level noise; all this in the first 5 minutes of the film. When you see a list like this you know it's going to be bad. This is a terrible transfer that looks to have been made from an old VHS master. Wherever it's from, it ain't pretty.

    Audio is rudimentary.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall