Quartile rating: 5/10 · 1 rating
When a wealthy sheikh puts up $1 million in prize money for a cross-country car race, there is one person crazy enough to hit the road hard with wheels spinning fast. Legendary driver J.J. McClure enters the competition along with his friend Victor and together they set off across the American landscape in a madcap action-adventure destined to test their wits and automobile skills.
Cannonball Run II is a largely unnecessary and diminishing sequel that recycles nearly everything from the original—same cast, same gags, same episodic road-race structure—without adding fresh invention. The plot is thinner and more meandering than its predecessor, stringing together cameo appearances and slapstick sketches with minimal narrative cohesion. The acting from the ensemble (Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, etc.) is loose and self-indulgent, coasting on star wattage rather than genuine comic performance. Cinematography is functional at best, typical of mid-80s studio comedy filmmaking with no distinctive visual ambition. Novelty scores very low because the film is essentially a carbon copy of the first Cannonball Run, offering little that is new or distinctive—arguably one of the more formulaic sequels of the era. The ending resolves the race perfunctorily and is largely forgettable.