www.madmaxmovies.com

Here's a little synopsis I found:


Four burglars in Athens led by Jean-Paul Belmondo pull of an emerald heist in an almost too-elaborate sequence involving a punch-card computer and automatic key duplicator. After splitting up, they are pursued by local cop Omar Sharif, who wants to make the collar and get the jewels.


Aside from the charismatic characters and neat set design, I'd have to say this was near the state of the art for action films for it's time, and still stands up well today.


The highlight is the brilliant car chase, which throughout looks as if it were shot in real traffic. The two cars are those dinky European boxes, probably with bald tires, so they go skidding and flying around every turn, similar to the chase in For Your Eyes Only, and in fact both films had car stunt coordinator Remy Julienne, who also coordinate all the Bond car chases from For Your Eyes Only to Goldeneye, as well as being a stunt driver for the Italian Job.


As for the rest of the action, I don't think I'm stretching too much to say there's some shades of Jacky Chan in this picture. Belmondo hangs from a double decker bus, slides down a cliff in front of a rockslide, and a poolside brawl even has Chan's trademark wide-shot chair sliding and hopping. I would think they were ripping Chan off if this didn't come a good decade before Chan used the same moves.

Torinoscj has a point. The Gumball Rally was pure comedy. I remember the late Raul Julia tearing the rear-view mirror off his car and saying " What's behind me is NOT before me".....Smokey and the Bandit maybee, but JUST the first one.


The best James Bond auto stunt was the Semi-Tractor Trailer they put up on 9 wheels and drove it. Remy's BEST ever.


" I am the chosen one, The mighty hand of vengeance sent down to strike the unroadworthy"........

The Cannonball Run film was NOT based on The Gumball Rally film. The Gumball Rally was based on the real Cannonball Runs (aka The Cannonball Baker Sea To Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Run) which were organised by Brock Yates from Car & Driver in the 1970s. Brock Yates was friends with Hal Needham the director behind Smokey And The Bandit and the final Cannonball Run and they got together and organised the final event (there were only a dozen runs) as insperation for the movie.

First, I just wanted to know if Pete can change the default for email notify to No. It's easy to forget to select it.


I wanted to post here and ask if anyone remembers another movie with a Cannonball/Gumball plotline. It had a darker tone to it. There are 2 scenes I remember:


1. There is a hitman trying to kill one of the drivers. He jacks up his car and takes off the tire to make it look like a breakdown. He gets under the car with a rifle. He then shoots his intended victim. The ensuing wreck plows into the hitman's car, with him stil underneath, and explodes.


2. There is a chase between 2 cars, one of them a green Javellin with a black roof. It takes place at a higway construction site. Someone from the other car jams something into the Javellin, keeping the accelerator down. The Javellin goes up an elevated on-ramp kind of thing, and fles off the end of it.

Hey What happened 2 duel now that was quite a good movie if u want a car chase?

The stunt driving of the truck in Duel is amazing, should be in there.

what about the transporter? a few good car scenes in there. and i would agree w/ mac afee on dirty mary crazy larry..which is also in the opening credits to the fall guy (remember that 1?) when the car hits the train w/ them in it?


ez-e

oh yea definately RONIN because the early gun/money swap when the shoot the guys up and hop in the volvo and get away......yes boys and girls those stunts were done by FORMULA 1 drivers. FACT.





ez-e

I have 2 admit that the ronin car chase was probably the best not only because it was very well done but where the car chase was filmed