Schizoid (1980)
Feb 13, 2024Psycho Film
An early release from Cannon Films, a psycho film featuring a very weird Klaus Kinski as a sinister psychologist
Menahem Golan
New Year’s Evil (1981)
Dec 4, 2000Slasher Film
Slasher film made by Cannon Films that uses its title holiday date with some ingenuity - the killer kills someone on the hour of midnight across each of the US time zones - but is otherwise routine
Death Wish II (1981)
Sep 4, 2003Vigilante Film
The first of several sequels to the hit Charles Bronson vigilante film, the first under Cannon Films. While the first film had some interesting things to say, this mostly repeats the original while taking some turns to the nastily exploitative
X-Ray (1982)
Dec 21, 2016Hospital Slasher Film
An early Cannon Films offering among the 80s slasher fad premised around a hospital setting and seeing the phenomenally well-stacked former Playmate Barbi Benton undressed. Most of the paper thin plot seems to have been made up on set and the direction is ridiculously overwrought
House of the Long Shadows (1983)
Apr 12, 2003Old Dark House Thriller
Cannon Films make an Old Dark House film that brings together an aging Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Vincent Price and John Carradine. This denoted the end of the Anglo-horror era but is not nearly as worthy as you feel it should have been
Hercules (1983)
Oct 19, 2002Greek Mythological Hero
An incredibly bad Hercules film from Cannon Films made in Italy by Luigi Cozzi. This was the immediate aftermath of Star Wars so we get a bizarre attempt to rework Greek mythology as science-fiction
Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1984)
Nov 1, 2002Sword and Sorcery
Cannon Films make an adaptation of the Mediaeval legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Routine 1980s fantasy cinema with Sean Connery looking embarrassed as the Green Knight
King Solomon’s Mines (1985)
Jun 8, 2003Adventure Film
Cannon Films' remake of the H. Rider Haggard adventure novel was made to exploit the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark but that does not excuse what an awful film it is where everything is played up for excruciating camp humour
Invasion U.S.A. (1985)
Jun 21, 2006Action/Communist Invasion of the USA
A ridiculous action film from Cannon Films written by and starring Chuck Norris in which he singlehandedly arms himself and defeats a Communist invasion of the USA
Lifeforce (1985)
May 25, 2003Soul-Sucking Alien Vampires
Tobe Hooper's space vampires film wildly divides audiences and was a flop for Cannon Films. You have to applaud its ambitious conceptual grasp even if it bites off more wild ideas than it is ever capable of coherently presenting
The Seven Magnificent Gladiators (1985)
May 5, 2003Italian Muscleman Adventure
Cannon Films produced remake of The Seven Samurai as an Italian gladiator film starring Lou Ferrigno
Invaders from Mars (1986)
Jun 9, 2003Alien Body Snatchers
Tobe Hooper's remake of the 1950s alien invaders classic for Cannon Films has much better effects and more technical proficient than the original but misses any of its paranoid, alienated mood
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
Oct 9, 2006Backwoods Brutality
The first sequel to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre where Tobe Hooper returns and pushes the series into an outrageously black sense of humour
Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1986)
Feb 12, 2005Lost City Adventure
This is a sequel to Cannon Films' excruciating camp version of King Solomon's Mines. Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone are back. This is a marginal improvement but far from a good film
Avenging Force (1986)
Aug 20, 2005Action/Human Hunting for Sport
Action film from Cannon Films with Michael Dudikoff forced to undergo a Most Dangerous Game scenario and be hunted through the bayous by white supremacists
America 3000 (1986)
Oct 8, 2005Gonzo Post-Holocaust Film
Head-scratching oddity from Cannon Films, a gonzo post-holocaust film set in a satiric women-ruled world with a culture based on half-remembered fragments of the present
Cobra (1986)
Apr 26, 2001Action/Cop vs Serial Killer Army
From Cannon Films, a Sylvester Stallone action vehicle with a near-fascistic view of law enforcement that proves to be an absurd comic-book of a film that is preposterously entertaining
Puss in Boots (1987)
Aug 26, 2000Fairy-Tale
Another of the cheaply made fairytale adaptations from Cannon Films with the bizarre casting of Christopher Walken as Puss in Boots
Red Riding Hood (1987)
Jul 17, 2009Fairy-Tale
One of the cheap fairytale adaptations that Cannon Films made during the 1980s
Rumpelstiltskin (1987)
Mar 21, 2010Fairy-Tale
Another of Cannon Films cheaply made fairytales with Amy Irving starring in an adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin
Masters of the Universe (1987)
May 12, 2004Intergalactic Sword-and-Sorcery
Live-action film based on the Mattel toy line and popular animated tv series. Given a Cannon Films budget, it emerges as a cheesily absurd Flash Gordon/Conan the Barbarian knockoff
Sleeping Beauty (1987)
Aug 5, 2014Fairytale
One of the cheap fairytale adaptations made by Cannon Films in the 1980s. A dreary impoverished run through by the numbers with Morgan Fairchild as the Wicked Stepmother and Tahnee Welch in the title role
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
Dec 16, 2000Comic-Book Superhero
The last of the Christopher Reeve Superman films after the series was taken over by Cannon Films. Usually regarded as the series low point due to the cheapness of the effects, this to its credits abandons the comedy focus of the preceding two films and has some not uninteresting aspects
Beauty and the Beast (1987)
Jan 26, 2000Fairy-Tale
One of the cheap fairytale adaptations produced by Cannon Films. John Savage and Rebecca De Mornay star in the titles. One of the Cannon fairytales that emerges slightly better than the others
Snow White (1987)
Dec 6, 2002Fairy-Tale
One of the better of Cannon Films cheap fairytale adaptations featuring a grandly over the top Diana Rigg as the Wicked Stepmother
The Emperor’s New Clothes (1987)
Mar 22, 2010Fairy-Tale
One of the shabby fairytales produced by Cannon Films. Here the clear and simple moral sting of the Hans Christian Andersen original disappears under buffoonish comedy
The Frog Prince (1987)
Apr 21, 1999Fairy-Tale
This is another in the series of the cheap fairytales made by Cannon Films with Aileen Quinn from Annie as an obnoxious princess who befriends a taking frog
Hansel and Gretel (1987)
Dec 24, 2002Fairy-Tale
One of a series of cheaply produced fairytale adaptations made by Cannon Films. This adapts the Brothers Grimm fairytale with tatty banality
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1988)
Oct 21, 2007Underground Adventures
Ostensibly as a teen version of the Jules Verne novel made by Cannon Films. However, this started under one director and finished under another with totally incomprehensible results
Alien from L.A. (1988)
Mar 26, 2007Gonzo Adventures Underground
Head-scratching Albert Pyun oddity made for Cannon Films with Kathy Ireland searching for Atlantis underground. This emerges as a weird mix of Valley Girl comedy and Journey to the Center of the Earth
Hero and the Terror (1988)
Feb 17, 2003Cop vs Psycho
One of Chuck Norris's action films made for Cannon Films during his 1980s heyday. This is a rather forgettable police procedural where Chuck is cast as a detective hunting an escaped serial killer
Doin’ Time on Planet Earth (1988)
Mar 15, 1999Possibly Alien Teenager
A peculiarity from Cannon Films that was a flop, a comedy in which a weird teenager believes he is an alien and suddenly attracts the attention of a bunch of UFO cultists
Cyborg (1989)
Aug 2, 1999Post-Holocaust Kickboxing
The first of Albert Pyun's kickboxing killer cyborg films featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme who was largely unknown at the time. Pyun creates wall-to-wall action but there is almost nothing else to the film
Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Dec 3, 2000Zombies
George Romero produces a remake of his groundbreaking zombie film. This adheres closely to the original but manages to modernise it in interesting ways
Captain America (1990)
Aug 7, 2002Comic-Book Superhero
Cheap and fairly terrible adaptation of the Marvel Comics superhero from low-budget director Albert Pyun. The superheroics look impoverished and Matt Salinger makes a dopey-looking Steve Rogers