Anyone else love Cannon Films?

[Ar-Pharazon]

I kept picturing this when I saw the thread title but couldn't remember any Frank Cannon movies, unless they were TV movies I somehow missed.

Masters Of The Universe, King Solomon's Mines, Death Wish II & III. I'm sure I've seen a lot more than those, just a long time ago.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Were they the last real exploitation movies? At least ones that saw actual significant theatrical releases.

People throw the word around today, but only for parodies and homages.

These days we seem to have most things trying to be Oscar worthy with the exceptions being the joke stuff from The Asylum and Uwe Boll.

Maybe it's just nostalgia, but these days even our b-movies and direct to video stuff seems worse than it was 20+ years ago.

I don't think that it's nostalgia...the cheesy movies in the 80's were well made cheese. They had character and a fun vibe. The crap that Asylum and their ilk put out is just poorly made. it's bland, boring, drab and even the has been actors look like they just doing it for money and no other reason and look bored. Actors in 80's cheesefests looked like they were having the time of their lives.

A lot of Cannon movies weren't really at The Asylum level though, I mean they had a lot bigger budget, even if they weren't high budget movies. There was some true dreck out there on 80's VHS, think of that stuff you'd see when the rental stores were selling their backlog.

 

[lennier1]

They had an abysmal entertainment-to-crap ratio, but at least they gave us some Quatermain adaptions and Bloodsport.

 

[Aragorn]

I don't think that it's nostalgia...the cheesy movies in the 80's were well made cheese. They had character and a fun vibe. The crap that Asylum and their ilk put out is just poorly made. it's bland, boring, drab and even the has been actors look like they just doing it for money and no other reason and look bored. Actors in 80's cheesefests looked like they were having the time of their lives.

There are different levels of B-movie though. The Asylum is clearly at the bottom with the small budgets and pretty much bad everything. They will never have theatrical releases and have no intention to. They're about mass-producing and getting their stuff out onto retail shelves, On Demand and Redbox as fast as possible.

Then you have the straight-to-DVD action flicks starring former big screen names like Christian Slater, Val Kilmer, Cuba Gooding, Ray Liotta, Steven Seagal, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Even those can vary in quality with how much effort gets put into them (I came across a Seagal movie on TV where he couldn't even be bothered to do his own post-production dubbing). Then below that is the straight-to-DVD action flick that can't even get the above names.

And Uwe Boll is on his own level of horrible, especially when he's delusional about how great he is. He doesn't get massive budgets where his movies only make back 2% of the cost anymore, but he's still getting a decent amount of money on his films to completely squander.

In the 90s there was a flood of softcore skin flicks and martial arts movies starring martial arts experts with no on-screen charisma.

 

[Mr Pointy Ears]

lost track of how many cannon movies i seen over the years,they were all B grade movies,but they were the good ol days.

 

[JRS]

Then you have the straight-to-DVD action flicks starring former big screen names like Christian Slater, Val Kilmer, Cuba Gooding, Ray Liotta, Steven Seagal, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Even those can vary in quality with how much effort gets put into them (I came across a Seagal movie on TV where he couldn't even be bothered to do his own post-production dubbing). Then below that is the straight-to-DVD action flick that can't even get the above names.

The current/past Dolph Lundgren movies are pretty good action flicks, much better than the current Seagal ones.
Dolph is not the worst director either, IMHO

 

[Brikar99]

The current/past Dolph Lundgren movies are pretty good action flicks, much better than the current Seagal ones.
Dolph is not the worst director either, IMHO

I saw one where he was a rock drummer fighting terrorists that was almost decent.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Presumably it's just coincidence (or someone else has read this thread) but aintitcool.com is having a retrospective series of discussions of the Cannon, er, ouevre. The first one, looking at Over the Top and He-Man is below.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/57450

 

[Peak]

I learned how it was to live in the US based on Death Wish, The Warriors (not Cannon (pun intended) but still awesome, The Exterminator and similar documentaries...

They are still awesome.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAUMri0mv8M[/yt]

 

[Kirkman1987]

Presumably it's just coincidence (or someone else has read this thread) but aintitcool.com is having a retrospective series of discussions of the Cannon, er, ouevre. The first one, looking at Over the Top and He-Man is below.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/57450

Nice. I'm looking forward to Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films. Mark Hartley's Not Quite Hollywood documentary was great.

 

[FPAlpha]

Presumably it's just coincidence (or someone else has read this thread) but aintitcool.com is having a retrospective series of discussions of the Cannon, er, ouevre. The first one, looking at Over the Top and He-Man is below.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/57450

Yeah Baby.. Over the top! I just saw it a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it.

And coincidentally got strange looks from a friend when i mentioned it who's the king of bad taste movies.. 5$ bargain bin master with the likes of Space Ninja Babes vs. Killasaurus (don't know if that movie actually exists but it could be). Go figure

 

[Anwar]

Was it Cannon who made all those live-action fairytale movies back in the 80s?

 

[Kirkman1987]

Was it Cannon who made all those live-action fairytale movies back in the 80s?

yes, They had a series of fairy tale films called Cannon Movie Tales, and in addition did a few others. I haven't seen any of them, but they are listed in their filmography.

 

[Greg Cox]

.. 5$ bargain bin master with the likes of Space Ninja Babes vs. Killasaurus (don't know if that movie actually exists but it could be). Go figure

Space Ninja Babes vs. Killasaurus sounds awesome.

And I will go to my grave insisting that Lifeforce is much more entertaining than the original novel by Colin Wilson.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Lifeforce is great - fantastically silly acting from big names, V'Ger done right* great Quatermass-style apocalypse, and the stunning Matilda May starkers throughout. What's not to love?



ETA- *- well, by this I mean the alien ship looks a lot like the version of V'Ger finally revealed in the Director's Cut of TMP...

 

[Brikar99]

Lifeforce is great - fantastically silly acting from big names, V'Ger done right, great Quatermass-style apocalypse, and the stunning Matilda May starkers throughout. What's not to love?

This... sounds like a movie I need to watch.

 

[Greg Cox]

Lifeforce is great - fantastically silly acting from big names, V'Ger done right, great Quatermass-style apocalypse, and the stunning Matilda May starkers throughout. What's not to love?

This... sounds like a movie I need to watch.

Did we mention that Patrick Stewart is in the movie?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The crap that Asylum and their ilk put out is just poorly made. it's bland, boring, drab and even the has been actors look like they just doing it for money and no other reason and look bored. Actors in 80's cheesefests looked like they were having the time of their lives.

Are Asylum movies that cheap crap they keep showing on the SciFi Channel?

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

This kinda reminds me of Roger Corman. He has made a ton of cheesy movies, and the more recent ones aren't even as "good" as the earlier ones.

He's had a hand in many (or all) of the SyFy silliness of the past several years.

Dinocroc
Supergator
Death Race
Paul W. S. Anderson
Dinoshark
Dinocroc vs. Supergator
Sharktopus

 

[scotpens]

Lifeforce is great - fantastically silly acting from big names, V'Ger done right, great Quatermass-style apocalypse, and the stunning Matilda May starkers throughout. What's not to love?

This... sounds like a movie I need to watch.

Did we mention that Patrick Stewart is in the movie?

Is he naked?