Troublemaker Michael Moore's only nondocumentary film to date, I first watched Canadian Bacon Comedy Central during the channel's glory days and wasn't aware Moore actually had a part in it until a decade or so later. I don't really like his...politics, but I still thought the film was endearing, and decided to give it a rewatch, especially given recent tensions between America and Canada with President Donald Trump eyeing it as the 51st American State and the whole tariff war with Governor, I mean, Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. Does it still hold up?
In Niagara Falls, New York, laid-off employees of Hacker Dynamics are pissed at the weapons manufacturing plant's recent closure, with local sheriff Bud Boomer, portrayed by the late lamented John Candy (the film having released over a year after his death) and his deputy/girlfriend Honey, preventing former employee Roy Boy from offing himself. Executive RJ Hacker is equally angry with the unnamed US President for his business' shutdown, with said president wanting to focus more on domestic affairs than war with gems like, "It's time to turn off that war machine and turn on our children."
After a press conference where Boomer saves the president from an attempt on his life, he expresses his unhappiness about not having a war to drive up his approval rating, with an attempted negotiation with the Russian President to start a new cold war (which has actually been going on for a while, more so with the whole Ukraine debacle), yielding nothing, along with an attempt to fight international terrorism being deemed absurd (and it was, when it actually did occur). Following a riot triggered at a Canadian hockey match when Boomer complains about the country's beer, the president gets some ideas.
The American news is then littered with anti-Canada propaganda, with the lamestream media having always been as such when it comes to expressing the political agendas of its executives and employees. Boomer and Honey form a militia with others, sneaking into Canada to raise trouble, with Honey quickly being left behind and getting arrested by the Mounties for littering. Meanwhile, Hacker, still pissed at the president, seeks revenge by using his software program, Hacker Hellstorm, to activate missile silos across the country aimed for Moscow, offering to cancel it for $1 trillion.
The president attempts to plead with the Canadian Prime Minister to stop the launch, with the American characters in Canada having various hijinks during the countdown of the missiles going off, an epilogue revealing the hilarious fates of the main cast. Overall, I enjoyed this film just as much during the previous times I had seen it on Comedy Central and feel much of it has actually aged pretty decently, even if it's obvious it was made during the mid-1990s, with plenty non-topical humor in the mix and genuinely-funny lines. There are also some nice touches like Canadian Dan Aykroyd and even Moore himself making brief appearances, and I would highly recommend the film.
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| The Bottom Line | |
| A genuine classic. | |
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