The Ultimate Cannon Countdown
I honestly do not believe there would be a Bulletproof Action if there was never a Cannon Films. Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus changed the movie game and created a generation of action junkies in the process.
Today marks Bulletproof Action’s fourth anniversary and to celebrate this momentous occasion I had the idea of getting everybody together to compile The Ultimate Cannon Countdown… a top ten list of Cannon’s best of the best in the action genre.
I challenged the entire Bulletproof Action staff to come up with their personal Cannon Top Ten lists. Then I reached out to some of our friends like the host of The Clones Cast and Cinema Bushido podcasts, Matthew Whitaker… Timon Singh from the Bristol Bad Film Club and the author of the book Born To Be Bad (available now on Amazon)… Filmmaker Dominik Starck, director of The Hitman Agency (also now available on Amazon)… Professional wrestler/martial artist Aaron Williams making his return to Bulletproof Action… and last but not least, longtime reader of the site Mike Jenkins.
I took all the individual lists, compiled the results did some cross referencing with IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes to get some more outside opinions on Cannon’s finest, threw in some comments from the panel and that became The Ultimate Cannon Countdown.
Lists like these are always open for debate but to eliminate some of the debate before we get started I’d like to point out that I limited the list to Cannon Films that were produced by Cannon, or more specifically Golan and Globus. That meant two movies that actually scored highly among the panel, Highlander (which I never considered an actual Cannon film) and Kickboxer (a movie I always considered a Cannon film) were taken out of the competition because they were movies that were released by Cannon in various parts of the world, but not actually produced by Cannon.
But enough of my preamble, it is time to start The Ultimate Cannon Countdown…
Ryan Campbell: Missing in Action represented a defining moment in the career of Chuck Norris. Before Missing in Action he was primarily a martial artist and was in films showcasing those skills. Missing in Action let him branch out into a more “action star” role with room for martial arts but also guns, explosions and other hallmarks that would go on the define his career even beyond Cannon and inspire many other stars in the future.
Chris The Brain: No other action star benefited more from his association with Cannon more than Chuck Norris. They literally changed the trajectory of his career and it all started with this classic!
Matthew Whitaker: Invasion U.S.A. is Red Dawn for people on crack. Richard Lynch is perfect. Some of the best one-liners of all time. It is like drinking a mad-dog, it goes down just fine, but you feel like shit later on.
Chad Cruise: To hell with the rest of the non-US world and their attempts to invade us. Chuck Norris single-handedly kicks more ass in Invasion U.S.A. than a thousand Channing Tatums.
Matt Spector: Cannon had me at Chuck Norris hanging on the side of a truck driving inside of a mall.
Dominik Starck: This is without a doubt one of the best movies of Golan-Globus because- it’s a generally great film. Good performances, solid story, strong images.
Chad Cruise: A film that doesn’t quite fit in with the Cannon way, in my opinion. A screenplay by Akira Kurosawa and fantastic performances by Jon Voight and Eric Roberts, Runaway Train is, dare I say, too good to be Cannon material.
Timon Singh: On paper, this is probably Cannon’s best film. Written by Akira Kurosawa, directed by renowned Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky and excellent performances from Eric Roberts and Jon Voight.
Chris The Brain: To me there is no film that is more of a Cannon film than The Delta Force. Chuck Norris is the star. You’ve got Cannon’s go to wingman Steve James. And the movie was directed by Menahem Golan himself!
Matt Spector: I don’t care that The Delta Force seems like two different moves and that it is basically jingoistic propaganda because Chuck Norris kicks some serious ass.
Timon Singh: Over the top and a conservative’s wet dream? Totally, but you have to give The Delta Force respect for 5 reasons – 1. It’s Lee Marvin’s last film 2. It stars the awesome Steve James from the American Ninja films 3. Alan Silvestri’s awesome main theme. 2. Chuck Norris rides a motorcycle that fires missiles. 1. Shelley Winters is in it! Shelley Winters and Chuck Norris! The dream pairing you never knew you wanted.
Matt Spector: American Ninja 2 has the perfect formula for making the sequel better than the original, keep Michael Dudikoff and Steve James and throw in more fun than the original.
Timon Singh: American Ninja 2: The Confrontation is better than the original film! Why? Because Michael Dudikoff and Steve James spend the film chilling in the Caribbean trying to find a warlord called The Lion that is kidnapping marines and brainwashing them into zombie ninjas! That’s why!
Chris DePetrillo: This might be blasphemy for some, but American Ninja 2 is my favorite of the series. Whether it was on cable TV or local channels on a Saturday afternoon, I feel like this movie was always on when I was growing up. Not that it mattered as I had it on tape (because of course I did), but I think the constant viewings endeared it more to me than the others, even the first.
Chris DePetrillo: Sylvester Stallone in his action movie prime vs. a cult of serial killers. What more needs to be said? If you don’t love Cobra, we probably can’t ever be friends.
Chad Cruise: Thank God Stallone wasn’t in Beverly Hills Cop. Cobra gives us a law enforcement officer with edges hard enough to cut pizza with. Break out the aviators and start gnawing on a matchstick, Cobra is 80’s action at its best!
Chris The Brain: Cobra deserves to be on the list if for no other reason than the awesome tagline… “Crime is the disease. Meet the Cure.”
Chad Cruise: You can’t convince me that this movie isn’t amazing. Sly Stallone and company bring real emotion to a movie featuring arm wrestling and the soundtrack is so good you’ll pull a muscle from all the head bobbing.
Chris The Brain: I don’t know if I can honestly call Over the Top a good quality movie, but I also know I can’t turn away whenever I come across it on TV. It is the most heart warming Cannon action film of all-time.
Dominik Starck: Sylvester Stallone takes on the arm wrestling sport since there’s nothing left to do in boxing- at that time. Even though it’s a paper-thin plot we have a hint of a father-son-relationship that isn’t as annoying as the one in Rocky V and overall there’s a good rhythm to it.
Matt Spector: Besides being entertaining as all get out, no film better represents the in your face over the top action of Cannon Films than Death Wish 3, starring the top dog in their stable Charles Bronson.
Chris DePetrillo: The first two Death Wish movies were played fairly straight, with Bronson’s Paul Kersey morphing from mild mannered architect driven to the edge by the assault on his family. It had a remarkable amount of character development as we saw him become the vigilante we know and love. Death Wish 3 threw that all out of the window in favor of having Kersey firing away at what amounts to a gang of glorified cartoon characters, but it was glorious!
Matthew Whitaker: I had no idea of the glory of the third part of this beautiful franchise until Chris The Brain brought it on to Cinema Bushido. Terrific action. Great explosions. Best movie in which a girl is knocked out in a car and she rolls down a hill, blows up and dies.
Timon Singh: One of the films, along with Superman IV: Quest for Peace, that would ultimately bankrupt the studio, Masters of the Universe is Cannon’s attempt to play with the big boys. Was it a mistake to set a He-Man film in the suburbs of LA? Sure. Does Frank Langella give one of his greatest performances by dialing it all the way up to 11? Totally.
Chad Cruise: Dolph Lundgren looks like he was bred in a lab to play the real life He-Man and I could watch Frank Langella play Skeletor all day long.
Dominik Starck: When I think about the best Cannon films it’s this one for sure. I love everything about this movie and even my personal nostalgia aside it’s well made and you easily can ignore the lack of a bigger budget. Good action, good pacing, Dolph Lundgren looks as much as He-Man as humanly possible and Frank Langella is the most delicious villain ever. His scene chewing Skeletor beats Darth Vader. Here, I said it first. And if there’s still any doubt left just listen to the powerful score by Bill Conti and even the fact that there’s a cheesy happy end I can’t help but get chills every time we come to say ‘Good journey.’
Chad Cruise: Jean Claude Van Damme debuts with more splits than a cheerleading competition and fights Bolo Yeung while blind. What more do you want from a movie?
Matthew Whitaker: Who knew it would take Bolo Yeung decades to make his greatest film? It kicked off a slew of copycats, but Bloodsport cannot be beat! Shout out to my dad, Forest.
Timon Singh: It gave the world JCVD. It stars Bolo Yeung. And Stan Bush’s “Fight To Survive” is a much better power anthem than Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”. That’s right! I said it! …Kumite! Kumite! Kumite! Kumite!
