The Cannon Cruisers

Hey everybody, we're the Cannon Cruisers and this is our Bonus Feature. This week, we checked out yet another Joe Dante film. That's right, folks, we watched the 1998 film, "Small Soldiers."

Big Action! Big Trouble! Big Movie! Small Soldiers! The few, the proud, and the small!

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, JD and Randy could not meet and record together in 2020. During this time, JD recorded a series of 26 GAIDEN episodes that were not previously released on our podcast feed but only appeared on the JD-maintained Cannon Cruisers Blog.

Suburban Commando (1991)

Phantasm (1979)

On this week's Bonus Feature, JD and Randy watch Phil Tippett's 2022 stop-motion animated film Mad God.

A film 30 years in the making.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, JD and Randy could not meet and record together in 2020. During this time, JD recorded a series of 26 GAIDEN episodes that were not previously released on our podcast feed but only appeared on the JD-maintained Cannon Cruisers Blog.

The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988)

Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993)

Hey Cannon Cruisers fans! Randy here! Remember when JD and I wrapped up our ridiculously long Cannon season and then spent five episodes ranking the entire catalogue? Well... apparently we missed one. This week, we return to the Cannon Catalogue for Dancers (1987), a ballet drama directed by Herbert Ross, starring Mikhail Baryshnikov and introducing Julie Kent as Lisa. The film follows a production of the ballet, Giselle, where the personal drama behind the scenes is meant to reflect what is happening onstage.

Most of our discussion comes back to the film's structure and whether the backstage story actually works on screen. We also discuss the ballet sequences themselves and where Dancers fits among Cannon's late-1980s prestige productions. Coming just a year after Otello (1986), it's another interesting example of Cannon taking a swing at something far outside the action movies they're usually remembered for.

Content Warning: This episode includes discussion of a relationship between a 17-year-old ballet student and her older mentor, along with references to possible death or murder.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, JD and Randy could not meet and record together in 2020. During this time, JD recorded a series of 26 GAIDEN episodes that were not previously released on our podcast feed but only appeared on the JD-maintained Cannon Cruisers Blog.

Here are episodes 3 and 4:

Night of the Creeps (1984)

I Come in Peace (1990)

Hey everybody, we're back with an exciting film this week. A movie with a fun title to scream at random, the 1990 horror film:

SHAKMA (1990)

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, JD and Randy could not meet and record together in 2020. During this time, JD recorded a series of 26 GAIDEN episodes that were not previously released on our podcast feed but only appeared on the JD-maintained Cannon Cruisers Blog.

Here are the first two episodes:

T-Force (1994)

Creepozoids (1987)

Hey Everybody, Randy here, and I just wanted pop into your feed to give you an update.

The Go-Go Boys & Electric Boogaloo (2014) - Cannon Films Documentaries

Hey Cannon Cruisers fans! Randy here! This week, JD and I do something a little different and pair two documentaries about Cannon Films: The Go-Go Boys: The Inside Story of Cannon Films (2014) and Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014). The Go-Go Boys follows Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus more closely, while Electric Boogaloo takes a broader outsider look at the studio they built.JD and I compare what each documentary chooses to emphasize and why they work better as counterpoints than duplicates. We talk about how Golan and Globus shaped Cannon's peculiar identity, then get into what happened when the company began chasing much bigger ambitions. The documentaries also send us back through plenty of movies we've already covered, filling in behind-the-scenes stories that put some of Cannon's stranger decisions into perspective.

Content Warning: This episode contains strong language.