{"id":1323,"date":"2024-07-25T14:15:09","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T14:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=1323"},"modified":"2024-10-14T12:56:34","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T16:56:34","slug":"speed-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/07\/25\/speed-zone\/","title":{"rendered":"Speed Zone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Speed Zone <\/strong>(1989)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion Pictures\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, mild violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jim Drake\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael Short\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Wheatley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Francois Protat and Robert Saad\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 21, 1989 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Candy, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, Donna Dixon, Matt Frewer, Tim Matheson, Mimi Kuzyk, Melody Anderson, Shari Belafonte, Brian George, Art Hindle, The Smothers Brothers (Dick and Tommy), Peter Boyle, Don Lake, John Schneider, Lee Van Cleef, Harvey Atkin, Michael Spinks, Brooke Shields, Alyssa Milano, Louis Del Grande, Richard Petty, Carl Lewis, Jamie Farr.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $3M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *<\/p>\n

\u00a0Yes, Speed Zone<\/strong> is the third (and final) installment in the Cannonball Run series. Why they didn\u2019t just call it Cannonball Run III? I\u2019ll never know. It probably would have made more than $3 million under that title despite the fact it\u2019s a lousy picture.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Perhaps the producers dropped the Cannonball label after learning director Hal Needham and star Burt Reynolds would not be returning for this outing. The only returning cast member from the previous two escapades is Jamie Farr (as the obscenely wealthy Sheik) who looks like he\u2019d rather be back filming episodes of AfterMASH. In all fairness, the others are no-brainers as well, but at least they\u2019re entertaining. This lemon of a comedy can\u2019t even manage that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Speed Zone<\/strong> drops the ball in another crucial area which ultimately proves to be the three-quel\u2019s entire undoing. Both Cannonball Run movies feature all-star casts that include cool celebrities like Jimmy \u201cThe Greek\u201d Snyder, Bert Convy, Peter Fonda, Charles Nelson Reilly and three members of the Rat Pack (Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra). Speed Zone<\/strong> has Matt Frewer, Mimi Kuzyk, Brooke Shields, John Schneider and three SCTV cast members (John Candy, Eugene Levy and Joe Flaherty). Aside from Lee Van Cleef (in his final film role) and the Smothers Brothers, the cast roster is most unimpressive. The producers couldn\u2019t even get athletes like NFL players Terry Bradshaw, Joe Theismann or Joe Klecko to appear. They had to settle for boxer Michael Spinks, runner Carl Lewis and racing star Richard Petty.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s time for the infamous Cannonball Run, the illegal cross-country race that seems to attract crazies from all walks of life with its $1 million prize. This time, they\u2019re racing from Washington D.C. to Santa Monica. Unfortunately, there\u2019s a bit of a complication this time around. The overzealous Police Chief Spiro T. Edsel (Boyle, Young Frankenstein) arrests all the drivers the night before the big race. Now, the sponsors are desperately scrambling to find replacement drivers for their cars. Given that time is a major factor, they have to settle for whoever they can get.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Needless to say, they find some real yo-yos to fill the driver\u2019s seats. Wannabe big shot Gus Gold (Levy, the American Pie movies) bullies parking lot attendant Charlie (Candy, Who\u2019s Harry Crumb?) into driving his BMW and taking along his ditzy girlfriend Tiffany (Dixon, Bosom Buddies). Compulsive gambler Alec (Frewer, Max Headroom) talks hit man Vic (Flaherty, Freaks and Geeks) into taking part in the race and splitting the prize money as a way of paying off his debt to the hired killer\u2019s boss. MIT graduates Lee (Anderson, Flash Gordon) and Margaret (Belafonte, If You Could See What I Hear) take charge of a Ferrari Daytona Spyder after the driver (Atkin, Meatballs) gets arrested in the raid. A cop named Flash (Hindle, Porky\u2019s) forces Italian car owner Valentino (George, The Big Bang Theory) to drive his Lamborghini. Millionaires Nelson and Randolph Van Sloan (Dick and Tom Smothers) plan to cheat their way to victory by secretly catching a plane to Las Vegas. A couple of TV news reporters, Jack (Matheson, Animal House) and Heather (Kuzyk, Hill Street Blues) start out following the race in their news van and end up as active participants. Chief Edsel, along with sidekick Whitman (Lake, Police Academy), continues his aggressive pursuit of the drivers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I made the wise choice of waiting to see Speed Zone<\/strong> until it came out on video. In a perfect world, it would NOT have received a theatrical release. It\u2019s a terrible picture. It\u2019s a low octane comedy that runs out of gas before it reaches the finish line. It barely makes it past the starting gate. It sorely lacks the presence of Hal Needham and company. The stunts fall as flat as the gags. Jim Drake (Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol) is clearly the wrong choice of director. It\u2019s especially disappointing for me because I really like the fourth Police Academy movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As for the cast, John Candy is NO substitute for Burt Reynolds. Dom DeLuise maybe, but definitely not Reynolds. The cast list illustrates what I call \u201cThe Atkin-Chaykin Principle\u201d which states that if either Harvey Atkin or Maury Chaykin appears in a movie, then it\u2019s a Canadian production. This movie was mostly filmed in Montreal (with the exception of a few scenes in Washington D.C. and Tucson) and features many Canadian-born celebrities- Candy, Levy, Flaherty, Lake, Anderson, Kuzyk and Hindle, to name but a few.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Consequently, Speed Zone<\/strong> doesn\u2019t play like a Cannonball Run movie because it lacks the Southern flavor of its predecessors. Without Reynolds and company, it also lacks the good-natured playfulness of the first two movies. I didn\u2019t feel the same chemistry between the actors here that I did with the gang in the originals. It felt more like they were simply tolerating one another. There aren\u2019t even any outtakes in the closing credits this time around. There\u2019s none of the zany humor that made Needham\u2019s movies so memorable. For me, it\u2019s just not a Cannonball Run movie without Captain Chaos.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Speed Zone<\/strong> doesn\u2019t even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as its two predecessors. It DOES deserve to be abandoned to rust in the proverbial movie junkyard. It\u2019s a real clunker.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speed Zone (1989)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion Pictures\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, mild violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jim Drake\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael Short\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David Wheatley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Francois Protat and Robert Saad\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 21, 1989 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: John Candy, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, Donna Dixon, Matt Frewer, Tim Matheson, Mimi Kuzyk, Melody Anderson, Shari Belafonte, Brian George, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-this-sucks-so-bad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Speed-Zone-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1323"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2950,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions\/2950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}