Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

dsmith-25000 Made 5 years before Burt Reynolds' "The Cannonball Run" but this is a more enjoyable anti-55 MPH national speed limit race movie.

Lee Eisenberg Usually, the 1970s have been known as the nadir of culture. But in movies like "The Gumball Rally", the Me Decade looks mighty fine. As to the subject of whether or not this movie was particularly characteristic of that era, I don't know specifically (although 1976 also saw the release of "The Big Bus", another wacky vehicle-related flick).Anyway, this movie portrays an illegal, secretive cross-country car race involving folks from just about every walk of life, and the prize is a gum-ball machine; meanwhile, a grouchy cop wants to arrest every participant. The nominal star is Michael Sarrazin ("They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"), as current champion Michael Bannon. Probably the only other recognizable faces in it are Gary Busey and Raul Julia. But of course, the real stars are the cars themselves, all as souped-up as was possible at the time.Of course, it wouldn't be a car race comedy without some crashes. And believe you me, there are some funny ones here! Moreover, every group has some tricks up their sleeves; it really makes one nostalgic for the days when everyone felt the need to ditch the rules, especially with what happens to the cop.All in all, it's a movie that you're sure to love. A real comedy classic. And to think that just the year before, Michael Sarrazin had starred in "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud", which in my opinion deserved more than almost any other movie to get shown on "Mystery Science Theater 3000". So watch this movie, and watch "The Big Bus" with it. You're sure to get a kick out of both.

stevenfallonnyc As a huge fan of car chase movies, I am very surprised how many think this film is so good. It's not so bad, but nowhere near as good as I think many make it out to be.Of course, The Gumball Rally is an illegal cross-country race where the drivers compete for a gumball machine, and the glory. So they are really just racing for the helluva it, which is an interesting plot point, but takes away serious motivation, like the $100,000 offered to the winner in Cannonball, also from 1976.And Cannonball is a vastly superior film than "Gumball." Gumball does have a few things going for it, like Michael Sarrazin who is decent, and Gary Busey who is absolutely hilarious as one of the rednecks in the Camero. And of course, Raul Julia is fantastic as the sex-crazed driver who drives with Sarrazin's buddy. The girls in the Porshe are pretty. The cars are nice but truthfully there's not much action here at all, and really the story is very uninteresting. This can't touch "Cannonball" in any way, shape or form. But with "Cannonball" just recently released on DVD, I will pick up "Gumball" if it ever gets a DVD release, only because of any potential extras and it would be great to see it in widescreen and with a cleaned-up print. But really, if you are going to buy just one of the cross-country race movies, totally stay away from the "Cannonball Run" films, maybe rent "Gumball," and definitely buy "Cannonball."

directoroffantasies Chuck Bail, a stunt performer on Steve McQueen's "Have Gun, Will Travel", contributed some memorable bits of dialogue to this script. I've lost count of the number of times I and others have repeated Raul Julia's judgment on the rear view mirror, "What's behind me is not important". Inevitably, any spectacularly ugly car we come across "looks like a jukebox". And on and on.Julia, whose participation in this film was not generally cited in obituaries, and Gary Busey were performers whose careers took off afterward.The remainder of the cast consists of moderately well known players, some still to be seen on soaps and occasionally in prime time guest shots. Normann Burton as a New York cop on the verge of a nervous breakdown and Harvey Jason as a bizarro motorcyclist stand out.As is usually the case in movies about automobile racing, lots of expert stuntwork is on display here. Scenes of pure speed, though, do not get in the way of funnymen being funny.