8: NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION (1983)
Starcast: Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Randy Quaid, Anthony Michael Hall, Christie Brinkley
Stars: 1979 Ford LTD Country Squire (Family Truckster), Ferrari 308 GTSi
In it, the Great American road trip has been transformed in the most recent two decades by in car entertainment. If you don’t have a rear DVD player equipped with a 3-line behemoth, your children make due with IStuff, or with the latest techno doohickey out of wherever. As it is, back in the 1980s, the road trip was still alive and stank as well. Nobody could parody this 6th circle of hellfire like the Lampoons and Chevy Chase. His not really trusty 1979 Ford LTD Family Truckster was the set, and the open street was the plot.
7: CANNONBALL RUN (1981)
Star cast: Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Farah Fawcett, Dom Deluise, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr.
Stars: 1978 Dodge Sportsman Ambulance, 1980 Lamborghini Countach LP400, 1980 Ford Mustang Cobra, 1976 Chevrolet Chevelle Laguna, 1964 Aston Martin DB5, 1964 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III, 1977 Ferrari 308 GTS, 1974 Dino 246 GTS, 1979 Mazda RX-7
Any film directed by Hal Needham, featuring Burt Reynolds and Roger Moore and written by Brock Yates would always be a car classic.
Loaded with cameos by celebrities, sweet cars and the curved metal tricks that made Needham and his stand-in Reynolds well known; this cross-country race is rib-tickling gold.
