- Aspect Ratio: 1:78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- Subtitles: English SDH, French, Latin Spanish
- Region: A (B? C?)
- Rating: R
- Run Time: 95 Mins.
- Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray)
- Studio: HBO
- Blu-ray Release Date: November 8th, 2011
- List Price: $14.99
[amazon-product]B005ERX1Z0[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase The Cannonball Run on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:2/5]
The Film
[Rating:1.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:2/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(Screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Film
[Rating:1.5/5]
Based on a true story, The Cannonball Run stars Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Dom Deluise and more in a slapstick comedy that plainly isn’t funny nor enjoyable. The basic plot goes something like this. The Cannonball Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash stretches from Connecticut to California. It’s a cross-country, all-stops-out, anything goes, thoroughly illegal race. Each group of contestants drives up to the starting line, punches their time and goes off on there way. Seems like a merry old time no? Well, only thing is along the way beer is drunk, chases occur and essentially mayhem ensues. Too bad humor never happens.
It’s not necessarily that I don’t like 80s comedy as I consider Planes, Trains and Automobiles to be one of the 80s better comedic efforts. It’s more that I don’t like stupid, boring comedy. Initially I had high hopes for this one, especially after looking at the cast. Reynolds, typically funny, is bland. Moore, a classic in The Spy Who Loved Me, is dull. Fawcett, one of the most beautiful women ever, is certainly miscast here. I could go on and on with nearly every cast member. It became clear after reading what else Director Hal Needham had done. Smokey and the Bandit, a truly funny film, and then this?!?!? Laughable almost, just not in the good way.
Video Quality
[Rating:3/5]
The Cannonball Run arrives with an AVC MPEG-4 encoded transfer that tries to do all it can to make this awful film look somewhat decent. The film’s color palette features mostly brighter colors, your blues and reds, all of which look solid at first initial glance; however, upon further viewings, one can easily notice a nasty side to them. By nasty I’m more referring to how the colors PHYSICALLY look, detail-wise. Our biggest enemy in DNR has been applied here. Nothing overly bad à la Predator, but still quite frustrating. Detail is sporadic as some sequences do showcase fine detail, but others look dull, flat and bland. Print damage is evident as well. Occasional blips and black dots do appear. Contrast levels aren’t that accurate resulting in odd looking flesh tones. All in all, a decent transfer at best.
Audio Quality
[Rating:2/5]
We always say it’s nice to see a lossless track on every release. But I’m not really too sure if The Cannonball Run really needed one. The main problem here is that there just isn’t all that much going on. I know it’s a 1980’s film and I shouldn’t expect that much right? Well, I will admit that what is presented here is good enough I suppose. Dialogue is well reproduced via the center channel. LFE does occasionally creep its head up thanks to varying engine response. Atmosphere is mostly dead minus a few comical rear sound effects that are just thrown in there. I do suppose fans of the film will like what is presented here. Perhaps because of my lack of enjoyment, I just wasn’t that impressed with this.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1/5]
The supplements are quite thin:
- Audio Commentary with Director Hal Needham and Producer Albert S. Ruddy
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:2/5]
I just couldn’t get into The Cannonball Run as I found it boring and the comedy dull. The video/audio is decent at best while the features are limited. I’d say best skip this one unless you’re a big fan.
Additional Screen Captures
–
[amazon-product]B005ERX1Z0[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase The Cannonball Run on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:2/5]
The Film
[Rating:1.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:2/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1/5]
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