EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

Ms. Johnson (Jacqueline Cole, director Grayden Clark’s wife) has perhaps the smallest cheer squad ever at Benedict High School. Just four girls — Debbie (Alisa Powell, The Toolbox Murders), Sharon (Sherry Marks), Patti (Kerry Sherman, Eyes of Fire) and Chris (Hillary Horan, Young Doctors In Love) — who are more interested in playing touch football and getting scored on by the football team than doing their routines.

After their car breaks down on the way to their big game, Billy the janitor and bus driver (Jack Kruschen, The Apartment) rescues them. And by rescue, I mean sacrificing them on an altar to Satan. They’re saved again by a hobo (John Carradine), the sheriff (John Ireland) and his wife (Yvonne De Carlo) and you know what I always say: never trust Old Hollywood. Or a lawnman with a name like Sheriff B.L. Bubb.

Shot in ten days with no permits, Satan’s Cheerleaders is mindless fun with an entire town devoted to the Lord of the Flies and a cheerleader with a secret of her own. Sure, it could be better, but this is the kind of movie that was meant to either get drunk to or get laid during at the drive-in. As such, it did its job.

You can watch this on Tubi.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

Note: While this didn’t come out when 21st Century announced it — there’s an ad that has it listed in their films — it’s still worth inclusion as I cover their movies.

New York Ninja was filmed in New York City in 1984. Don’t worry if you didn’t see it at your mom and pop video store, because its original distribution company 21st Century Distribution Corporation — before Menahem Golan was given the name — went bankrupt. Years later, the footage was acquired by Vinegar Syndrome, except they had no final script, audio or idea of what the movie was about. Thanks to new director — “re-director” — Kurtis M. Spieler, the movie came together, including new dialogue from an amazing cast.

Each film reel — six to eight hours in length — was put together to match what Spieler thought the film was meant to convey at the time. All he had was a shooting script that even mentioned a character named Detective Dolemite, who may have been planned to be played by Rudy Ray Moore. We may never know.

The cast is a literal who’s who of genre cinema:

Don “The Dragon” Wilson is the voice of John Liu, who is also the New York Ninja, and who is also the original director, writer and star of this film. He made three other vanity kung fu movies — Dragon Blood, Ninja In the Claws of the CIA and Zen Kwan Strikes Paris — that are all worth tracking down and watching.

Michael Berryman is the Plutonium Killer, which is where the majority of this movie’s effects budget went.

Linnea Quigley is Randi Rydell, John’s co-worker and love interest.

The cops on the case, Detective Jimmy Williams and Detective Janet Flores, are voiced by Body and Soul star Leon Isaac Kennedy and martial arts legend Cynthia Rothrock. And yes, that is Ginger Lynn’s voice as John’s wife!

The film starts with John finding out that his wife is pregnant. As he runs to work as part of a news crew, she sees another woman getting abducted. In moments, she’s dead and he’s decided to become a white ninja on rollerskates, keeping New York City safe.

If you thought the gangs in Italian post-apocalyptic movies were wild, well, the ones in New York Ninja challenge even Mexican cinema like La Venganza de Los Punks for how colorful the gang members can get. The Plutonium Killer also likes to expose himself to radiation before assaulting women, which is something I’ve never seen as a plot element before.

There are also people cashing in — kind of like the merchandise sales out of nowhere in Yeti Giant of the 20th Century — with people selling I Love The New York Ninja shirts. And there’s also a gang of precocious ninja kids who show up and save our hero every now and then.

I always wondered if another movie could make me feel as much joy as Miami Connection. This is it.

You can get the 35mm trailer from Vinegar Syndrome, as well as the movie itself on VHS and a comic book.

If you saw The Assistant, you know that Dr. Raven Fields (Erica Mena) hired an assistant named Annie Dotson (Parker McKenna Posey) who ended up nearly taking away everything she held dear. But hey — did Annie get killed at the end of that movie? Well, when Dr. Raven delivered Annie as a baby, it turns out that her sister Heather actually survived, as a nurse stole her body and brought it back to life. She’s been raised without ever knowing she had a sister.

Now, Heather — who is now known as Raven (also Parker McKenna Posey) — is coming after the killer of her sister, Tiyana (Erica Hubbard), who has twins of her own with Mark. Seeing as how they need a nanny, our antagonist decides to become a childcare expert and I guess she’s an assistant, because that’s what this movie is called.

This is the kind of movie where adopted kids yell at biological children while only caring about shopping with their adopted father’s Amex card. The last movie is also referred to as “The Assistant Massacre” and we get to see a flashback of Raven being saved before her mother tries to explain how she stole her from the hospital. Oh man, she even says, “Your mom was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. She was schizophrenic. She was also bipolar.” Mom gives Raven a file with all the info as I wonder, how did they ever get a social security number for this dead baby?

Now, just like the last movie, Raven wishes she had Annie for a twin sister. So Raven stops taking her pills and starts seeing her twin sister as a ghost. And of course, she puts together a plot where she puts Tiyana at odds with everyone, from her husband to his ex-girlfriend and now best friend Savanna, all to get the babies and have the life she’s always wanted. Now Raven is the nerdy Donna, here to make everyone’s life easier but, of course, also here to have spectacular fistfights through the mansion. Seriously, these are the best fisticuffs that director Chris Stokes has captured and really make the end of this movie off the charts.

This is also the most meta movie he’s made so far, as Mark works as a film executive for Tubi.  Raven responds by saying, “What? I love Tubi. I cannot get enough of those Stepmothers.”

The way this ends, this needs one more movie. The only bad thing about that moment of mentioning that Tubi exists in this universe is that we now feel further away from Stokes bringing his cinematic universe for an Avengers: Endgame on Tubi crossover.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Chris Stokes changes up his normal relationship drama in this, a film where Robbin (Serayah) has succeeded in getting out of her old neighborhood, going to a good school and moving on up to the kind of job she can be proud of at a bank. Yet when she’s accused of stealing money, she learns that the people who had her back when she was young — and who she left behind — were more trustworthy than the businesspeople she worked for.

She assembles a team that includes the pregnant Camilla (Leli Hernandez), Trina (Gavin Turek), Q (Jadah Blue) and Shawna (Erica Pinkett), who took over as the leader of the gang after Robbin went legit. They all have their own problems, too. Shawna is about to be evicted and if she gets busted one more time, even their friend on the police force Kelli (Robinne Lee) won’t be able to keep her out of prison.

For as smart as Robbin is supposed to be, she plans a maskless and gloveless heist, which seems to be a recipe for going back to jail. That said, she doesn’t, so maybe she really is as smart as this movie claims that she is.

This is very much like a less depressing — and well-made — Set It Off. But hey, Stokes will be back next month with something new and I will — as always — give him another chance.

You can watch this on Tubi.

The funniest part of this video is watching Melvin Townsend III act like a maniac to fellow passengers while drunk on a JetBlue trip from San Francisco to Florida. He followed this by harassing Mike Tyson, who responded as he should, by repeatedly punching the man in the face. Look — if you’re on a JetBlue flight and want to act like a loser, don’t do it when one of the most dangerous fighters ever is within striking distance.

This special would have been better if several people with boxing abilities were let loose to repeatedly smack, punch and smack the TMZ crew as they loudly speak and laugh. It would have added some meta content to the whole thing instead of watching iPhone videos of rap celebrities slap boxing in the streets.

I call BS on this whole thing, because where is the best celebrity beatdown ever, when Bjork realizes that reporter Julie Kaufman has followed her to Bangkok and responds to “Welcome to Bangkok!” by delivering the kind of critical beat down that you would never expect from her singing voice.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Famous people are no longer suing Celebrity Skin or upset about sex tapes leaking. Now, thanks to OnlyFans, they’re doing it themselves. But is this a good thing for them or bad? Is the money worth it?

Of course and yes.

This TMZ documentary features some folks you may know — Sopranos star Drea de Matteo, Danity Kane singer Aubrey O’Day and Bella Thorne — with other you may not, like former UFC fighter Paige VanZant, creator of INSANITY Shaun T, Wizards of Waverly Place actor Dan Benson, Ultimate Queer Love reality star Lexi Goldberg, model Carlotta Champagne, former national champion amateur wrestler Georgio Poullas, tall woman Marie Temara, “Cash me outside” Bhad Bhabie and model Belle Delphine.

You’ll discover their reasons for doing this, the good and bad, and why they keep doing it. It’s refreshing that this doc is so sex positive and doesn’t shame anyone involved.

You can watch this on Tubi.

What makes a man? Is it physical strength? Success? Money? This VICE special tries to get to the bottom of that, from seminars that are meant to help men harness their true nature to infamous cases where masculinity goes too far.

One of them is Andrew Tate, former professional kickboxer and social media personality. The king of toxic masculinity has nearly 10 million followers on Twitter and is well-known for his misogynistic views. He’s made his money with webcam models and online courses. Things fell to pieces at the end of 2022, as Tate and his brother were arrested in Romania as part of an investigation that started with rape, human trafficking and sexually exploiting women and has expanded to charges of trafficking minors, sex with a minor, money laundering and attempting to influence witnesses.

This is a strange trip into the manosphere, a place of alpha masculinity, misogyny and anti-feminism. From incels and Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW) to pick-up artists (PUA) and fathers’ rights groups, these groups are all about pushing back against what they see as feminists and their hatred of men.

According to journalist Caitlin Dewey, you can reduce the complexities of the manosphere to these two simple truths: They believe that “the corruption of modern society by feminism, in violation of inherent sex differences between men and women and the ability of men to save society or achieve sexual prowess by adopting a hyper-masculine role and forcing women to submit to them.”

This is, at times, a rough watch. To me, there is no strength in this type of mindset. Watch it and make up your mind yourself.

You can watch this on Tubi.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

If you want to see what Donald Pleasence movies I’ve seen, here’s the Letterboxd list. I love him because he was a working actor. Like John Carradine, he was there when you needed him. And at times, he’d show just how good he was. But he’s a workmanlike — in a good way — presence in so many movies.

Directed by Lee Madden (The Night God Screamed, the Alan Smithee who made Ghost Fever) and written by Hugh Smith (second unit director of Abby, writer of The Glove), Night Creature has Pleasence as Axel MacGregor, a writer and big game hunter who has unleashed a deadly black panther and doomed everyone around him which is a real problem as his daughters Leslie (Nancy Kwan, Wonder Women) and Georgia (Jennifer Rhodes) have just come to town along with Ross (Ross Hagen, who also produced this movie), a guide who seems pretty sleazy.

All this movie should be about is Pleasence hunting this animal that has already hurt him and he’s brought it to his turf for one last battle. You have the great thespian monologuing and trying to imitate the big beast and man, his eyes bugging out and him snarling and that’s the best.

At times, I’m given to just yelling out Pleasence line reads, like “The evil is gone” and “I shot him six times.” I celebrate him eating at a salad bar in 90s giallo. I’ve read that he drank through this entire movie and I in no way want to judge him for that. My memories of the actor are always wonderful and he lives again every time someone watches one of his films, whether he’s playing a President, the devil or a preacher who turns into a warthog.

This was released by Dimension Pictures and rereleased by 21st Century.