Made 5 years before Burt Reynolds' "The Cannonball Run" but this is a more enjoyable anti-55 MPH national speed limit race movie.

When you see this you'll immediately notice the similarities to Smokey and the Bandit and Cannonball Run.With Smokey and the Bandit you'll recognize the plot line about the can't catch anyone police detective. He tries and tries but just can't get the dastardly illegal speedsters.This was obviously a first attempt and recreating, on film, the Cannonball Run road race of the early 70's. Imo, this film is a lot funner than the original Cannonball Run film of the early 80's. There are no stars and a lot fast and really cool cars. A lot of the situations in this have 0 plausibility but I think that wasn't a major focus when this was made. The cars are the stars of this film..and there are some seriously cool ones to say the least.There's no doubt that this film influenced the two 2 above mentioned films in this review so if you want a little fun in your day and fast cars are what gets you going', try Gumball Rally and hang on to your seats...It's gonna be a fast ride.

Talk about a sub-genre being popular in the 70s, and through into the early 80s. "The Gumball Rally" is a boundlessly, cheerful and comically illicit cross-country road race from New York to Long Beach, Los Angeles. What's waiting for the winner at the finish line… pride… and a tiny gumball machine. The fruitful characters, are thoughtfully picked to participate in the race. The secret word is… Gumball. They are quite stock-like, but in this case it's the mettle and happy-go-lucky awe that makes them all rather bearable, and actually enjoyable to watch. Dialogues are arrantly sharp, and amusing in the character's exchanges. Mainly for me, it was that of the Norman Burton's hell-bent police detective, who's doing anything possible to bring to a halt the race. Burton's straight performance is rather humorous, and truly makes for some pleasurable sequences. The presentable cast; Michael Sarrazin, Tim McIntire, Raul Julia, Susan Fannery, Joanne Nail, Harvey Jason and Gary Busey are all good-willed, living it up in their parts. Since it's a one-trick pony premise, director Chuck Bail delivers on the flavorous, episodic goods (outrageously chaotic vehicle stunts and getting those engines purring) in a nippy fashion that never loses momentum, or in what it wants to be. There are sight gags aplenty. Sure some might be misfires, but the bang-up visual feast makes up for it. The cinematography is smoothly done, and the playful music score pines into the upbeat groove of the film. It wasn't as good, as I first remembered it to be (mainly the slow beginning to set-up the whole situation), but this gimmicky, light-headed farce lazily passes the time.

This immensely lively and entertaining 70's tongue-in-cheek cross country road race romp stars Michael Sarrazin as the rich businessman who sponsors an illegal event from New York to Long Beach, California which attracts a colorfully flaky assortment of hardcore nutty car race enthusiasts. Among the race's kooky participants are the always great Tim McIntire as Sarrazin's bitter, yet amiable rival, an especially hilarious Raul Julia as a hysterically lecherous womanizing Italian driver (the lovely Colleen Camp pops up as a sweet young honey Julia happily jumps in the sack with), Nicholas Pryer as Sarrazin's anxious college professor co-pilot, Susan Fannery and Joanne Nail as a pair of sassy'n'sexy good-time gals, Gary Busey in his usual wild redneck yahoo role, Harvey Jason as a maniacal motorcyclist, and Vaughn Taylor and J. Pat O'Malloy as a couple of lovably laid-back doddering old guys. Norman Burton gives an uproariously broad performance as the ramrod killjoy police detective determined to stop the race. Director Chuck Bail keeps the pace zipping along at a speedy rate, staging the copious vehicular carnage with a genuinely rousing rip-snorting panache, stoking the sidesplitting silly humor to a cartoonishly high-pitched degree and eliciting engagingly spirited performances from a uniformly solid cast. The opening third is a tad drawn-out, but once the race itself gets underway the film kicks into third gear, pops the clutch, and puts the pedal to the metal by really delivering the expected tire-screeching, rubber-burning, automobile-wrecking goods with infectiously carefree and giddy go-for-it abandon. Both Richard Glouner's vibrant cinematography and Dominic Frontiere's delightfully sprightly score greatly enhance the overall irresistibly goofy and good-natured merriment. To sum up, "The Gumball Rally" makes for a sound source of exuberantly wacky and light-hearted fun.