1976 Directed by Charles Bail
A group of people from different backgrounds have one thing in common: when they hear the world "gumball" whispered by one of the others, they know that it's time for the Gumball Rally: a no-holds barred, secret, winner-take-all rally across the USA.
Michael Sarrazin Norman Burton Gary Busey John Durren Susan Flannery Harvey Jason Steven Keats Tim McIntire Joanne Nail J. Pat O'Malley Tricia O'Neil Lázaro Pérez Nicholas Pryor Vaughn Taylor Wally Taylor Colleen Camp Red Colbin J.J. Fowler David Hinton Ken Scott Joe Tornatore Med Flory Raúl Juliá Edward Ansara Jay K. Atwater Stephen Blood Chuck Courtney Ed Danus Lou David Show All…
Gray Johnson Charlie Picerni Alex Stevens Diane Peterson Whitey Hughes Wally Rose Bob Harris Jerry Summers Ted Duncan Wes Dawn Frank Orsatti Victor Paul Harry Madsen Mickey Gilbert John Morton Eddy Donno Kenny Endoso Roy K. Ogata Larry Dunn Ernest Robinson Richard Washington Robert Drake Olie Anderson Mike Bast
Chewing Gum Rallye, Рали "Гъмбол", Tajný závod, Die verrückteste Rallye der Welt, Locos al volante, Carrera de locos, Gumball Rally, La corsa più pazza del mondo, 더 검볼 랠리, Tajny wyścig, Uma Corrida de Loucos, Гонки «Жевательная резинка»
Canada
Toronto
USAPG
Canada
USA
I remember seeing this movie at the theater and really enjoying it...granted I was very young and was equally blown away by Gus. Gus was the Disney donkey playing football movie...just in case you have never heard of it. In this one a group of racers stage their yearly race across America. I am sure most people remember the Burt Reynolds' Cannonball Run movies which has the same exact plot....but this movie came 5 years before and is done much better. Having recently revisited both Cannonball Run movies and The Gumball Rally...I can easily say this is the best of the three movies.
The Gumball Rally gets points for appearing to actually be a race. The cars go very fast...and…
Here we have a car chase comedy that somehow manages to run for nearly two hours without delivering one exciting chase sequence or even a single solid laugh. I guess technically there aren’t any chase sequences, so to speak, since the movie is just one long race from New York to LA—it’s just driving and banter, and more driving and more banter.
Here’s a sample of the words exchanged by one couple as they’re being hounded by some raging bikers for no particular reason:
Man: “Now they’re gonna rape you and kill me!”
Woman: “Maybe they’ll kill me and rape you!”
And that, dear reader, is the closest thing to wit this script ever achieves.
Even the stunts and physical…
It's like Cannonball Run except the big ensemble cast is populated with actors you won't know. And probably a bit better, even though there is no Burt involved (although what the fuck was he doing in that ambulance??? I just couldn't get over my disappointment as a kid that Burt didn't drive a cool car in that movie).
Michael Sarrazin is a high-flying exec looking bored to tears during a business meeting, so he picks up a phone and rings some guy and just says "Gumball." And the guy looks dubious and says "Gumball?" And Sarrazin nods sagely and just goes "Gumball." Somehow that triggers about a dozen people to converge on New York with their cars, all ready to…
Michael Sarrazin channels Peter Fonda in this super '70s illegal car race movie. You also get Gary Busey playing Gary Busey and Raul Julia as the quick Italian driver.
Superior to Cannonball Run in every way but star power. In the words of Roger Ebert, "it is a slick pleasant, inoffensive entertainment."
A little seen precursor to the much better known Cannonball Run series, The Gumball Rally has essentially the same premise - a bunch of bored eccentrics who decide to race across America to win a simple gumball machine, indeed simply for the thrill & heck of it. Charles Bail's movie however doesn't approach the concept in quite the same way as Hal Needham later did, and consequently while the Cannonball Run movies were absolutely no kind of benchmark, this fairly repetitive & routine 'zany racing caper' ends up a forgettable footnote only truly memorable for the fact it inspired many real-life 'Gumballs' that still live on even today.
What The Gumball Rally could have done with, a trick that benefited the Cannonball…
I randomly got it in my head to watch that cross-country car race movie with Burt Reynolds and accidentally rented The Gumball Rally (I was really looking for The Cannonball Run, as it happens). I'd seen Gumball Rally as a child... but it turns out I remembered almost nothing about it. I suspect any memories I have are for Cannonball Run... all I had for this one were some vague possibilities of memory.
What I would have remembered was a pretty mediocre movie, as it turns out. My memory says I liked it as a child, but I must have been pretty stupid or impressionable at the time. There's nothing particularly good or funny about this flick. There are a…
Welcome to the live action version of Wacky races. Nonsensical barely a plot no understanding of the connection to all of the characters and I am still left baffled how the Lt Roscoe knew about any of this and what ranking of government he was working for but I gotta say the movie was fun. Over the top but it had it's charm plus I love the look of a 70's flick. Don't expect much but enjoy the colourful characters.
Day 8 of Junesploitation. Cars!
The Gumball Rally is an easily watchable race movie. The cast is an ensemble so the characters don’t get explored much, but it’s consistently funny despite its age. Without descending into complete goofiness like Cannonball Run does.
The cast doesn’t have a lot of familiar face, with the exception of Gary Busey. The cast still does pretty capable work and the characters have enough quirks to make up for lack of development.
It’s maybe a bit long, but it’s mostly fun so I’d gladly watch it again.
I still prefer the Cannonball Run, presumably because of nostalgic reasons, but this definitely scratches that "high-speed cross-country roadtrip" itch quite nicely.
My ideal version would probably have half of this cast and half of the Cannonball Run cast and be four hours of insane stunts and stupid gags.
It really seemed to show that this was directed by a stunt coordinator, as that really is the showpiece here. I really didn't get a feel for many of the characters, and I'd much rather this had done a little bit more to either establish or connect the characters. I really don't get much about who quite a few of them are, or how they connect to one another. The personality for far too many is just a general desire to drive fast, and I'd be hard-pressed to describe any meaningful differences between most of them. Franco Bertollini (Raul Julia) may be the character that actually feels most developed, and that isn't saying all that much as most of his…
