1982-1989: The Cannon Era

[Mean Little Ass-Kicker]

Every single fan of Charles Bronson has an opinion on the movies he made for The Cannon Group. Some say they are trash, some like them, or even love them while others view them as guilty pleasures.

I've read some interesting posts here on the forums regarding Bronson's involvment with the studio, but have seen no thread dedicated to the infamous 7 year stint he had with The Cannon Group as one of their biggest and most profitable stars.

So, where do you stand on this particular part of his long career?

Discuss!

[harmonica]

I don't like the cannon era very much...There's always a decadence feel in his movies, you always have the "how great Bronson used to be and look at him now" feeling...The main reason I don't like those movies is Bronson's look. I consider this to be quite important since the best element of Bronson's classic movies is Bronson's toughness and his face's cragginess. Looks like he didn't have that powerful screen presence anymore. Also truth is that most of his movies of that era are bad-made and very sloppy.Looks like they only relied on Bronson's name and considered this to be enough to make a movie sell, without necessarily be a good movie.They thought since they had Bronson and guns...there was no need for actual moviemaking.Some of the stories were weak too...Don't get me wrong I love b-movies, and guilty-pleasure cheap action movies, I just think with most of Bronson's cannon movies it was not the case, in terms of pleasure.I really love "Death Wish II" that was as good as his 70's movies and equally powerful to the first "Death Wish" and I also love "Murhpy's Law" and I consider it to be the "Mr. Majestyk" of 80's, a great fast, solid and breath-taking action-thriller. Assassination was a higly entertainning action flick that I really enjoyed. Besides those movies the rest was average, they were ok movies to spend a nice 1,5 hour...My favorite Bronson's movie since he signed with Cannon, is "The Evil That Men Do" which was NOT a Cannon movie, it was a Columbia-Tristar...The difference of that movie, in terms of quality, compared to the Cannon movies of the era, is so obvious...This can't be a coincidence...

[hammer]

Yea, those are some good points, but he was getting older in that era and he really wasn't that menacing anymore. When your approaching 60 you gotta take work where you can find it.

I read the book "Evil That Men Do" before I saw the movie and when I heard that Bronson was making the movie, I was excited. But I thought the movie was poorly made because the scenes were short and it jumped from scene to scene very fast.

But he is still my favorite actor.

[Mean Little Ass-Kicker]

Not a popular opinion among Bronson fans, but I actually like the Cannon years. It's probably because I love 80's action movies, 80's scores, 80's cheese and of course, Charles Bronson. Nevertheless, I think a lot of his Cannon movies offers good entertainment, and not in a so-bad-it's-good way.

Love these:

Death Wish II-IV
10 to Midnight
Murphy's Law

Good, but don't measure up to the previously mentioned:

Messenger of Death
Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects

Pretty bad:

Assassination

People claim Cannon ruined his career and some even say they ruined his legacy, I think that is pure bullshit. Shortly before joining Cannon he made Caboblanco and Borderline, two movies that flopped, are seen as some of his worst movies and even pissed off fans, wondering if Bronson even cared about the movies he made at that point. Had he given up? He listened to the fans and followed up those turkeys with Death Hunt before joining forces with Cannon on Death Wish II. The rest, as they say, is history. If anything, I think Cannon may have prolonged his career as a box office star. He may have been forced to do TV-movies a little earlier than in the early 90's if he had added more flops to his name in the early 80's. A lot of kids of the video era were introduced to Bronson through his Cannon movies, so he got a whole new audience.

A lot of people like to say that he was only in it for the paycheck in the 80's. While that may be true, he was always in it for the paycheck, which he was quite frank about, as were others around him. Yes, he liked to work with better scripts in the 70's, but at that point in his career he was the biggest star in the world and had offers thrown his way, with great scripts to choose from. After a few bombs and disappointments, less of those probably came his way in the 80's. So he did exactly what he had done previously, work for the paycheck, only this time in movies with lesser scripts that used the established, stereotypical Bronson persona.

Are the best ones he did for Cannon capable of competing with the best ones he did in the 60's and 70's? In my opinion, no. It would be hard for anything he did in the 80's to top some of the great stuff he did back then, considering he wasn't getting the offers Clint Eastwood was (whose star was also starting to fade in the 80's, though less dramatically, before making Unforgiven).

So, in short, I enjoy most of his Cannon movies and revisit them quite often. I don't view them as a dark period in Charlie's career, nor do I view them as a highlight. They are what they are, I'm thankful for them and proud to have them in my collection.

[maphillips33]

yeah, i like the cannon era(death wish 2&3, ten to midknight, evil that men do, knigike forbidden subjects), but hate murphys law, assanation, and messeger of death.

[croft69]

I'm a fairly recent convert to the Whole Bronson thing and have been picking up his films on Blu-ray. I have most of his '70s features and have thoroughly enjoyed those. His '80s films seem to be trashier and very more in the guilty pleasure territory.

Of those that I've seen:

Death Wish II (1981) is a thin, trashy and much nastier rehash of the classic original. I actually prefer the shorter US theatrical version (89 minutes) over the longer international cut (92 minutes).

Death Wish 3 (1985) is a barmy attempt to repurpose the DW series for the Rambo crowd and it's a hoot from start to finish.

Murphy' Law (1986) was great fun from start to finish.

Assassination (1987) was a missed opportunity. It has a great premise but spoils itself by not getting Bronson and Ireland together at the end, and by having the big man romance a woman half his age. They have such great chemistry together this should have been played more as a romantic thriller.

Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987): decent entry in the series, enjoyable riff on Yojimbo / Fistful of Dollars.

Messenger of Death (1988): watchable but somewhat toothless and blah.

Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects (1989) was much more tastefully handled and a good deal less gratuitous than I thought it'd be but didn't hang together very well and was a little morally dubious by letting the lead Japanese guy get off after he molested women on the train.

Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1993): Best of the sequels with a nice sense of humour and great characters.