Canadian Bacon (1995)

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Jeremy Gallen Updated October 08, 2025

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Movie Info

Movie Genres

Comedy

Year Released

1995

Directed by

Michael Moore

Top Cast

MPAA Rating

Runtime

90 mins

Release date

September 22, 1995

Budget (In USD)

$11 million

Revenue (In USD)

$178,104

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Movie Overview | Canadian Bacon (1995)

"Surrender pronto, or... we'll level Toronto!" Academy Award® winning* writer/director Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11) serves up a "delightfully ludicrous" (Sight and Sound) political send-up brimming with madcap hilarity and side-splitting slapstick! Starring legendary funnyman John Candy (Planes, Trains and Automobiles), as well as Rhea Perlman ("Cheers"), Alan Alda (Marriage Story), Kevin Pollak (The Usual Suspects), Rip Torn (Men in Black) and Steven Wright (Natural Born Killers), Canadian Bacon is one "funny, acidic satire" (Variety)!Faced with sagging approval ratings and disgruntled arms manufacturers, the U.S. President (Alda) decides to cook up a new Cold War with Canada! And after a flood of media propaganda, Americans waste no time in "patriotically" burning their ice skates and swearing off maple syrup. But when bumbling U.S. sheriff Boomer (Candy) and his hair-trigger deputy Honey (Perlman) decide to take matters into their own hands and lead a preemptive strike, they soon find themselves embroiled in a hilarious international incident that's too close for comfort, eh!

User reviews

1 review

Overall rating

4.2

Entertainment Factor

5.0(1)

Story

4.0(1)

Actors Performance

4.0(1)

Cinematography

4.0(1)

Sound Track

4.0(1)

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D'oh, Canada!

October 08, 2025

Overall rating

4.2

Entertainment Factor

5.0

Story

4.0

Actors Performance

4.0

Cinematography

4.0

Sound Track

4.0

Troublemaker Michael Moore's only non-documentary film to date, I first watched Canadian Bacon on 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 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his successor Mark Carney. Does it still hold up?

In Niagara Falls, New York, laid-off employees of Hacker Dynamics are angry at the weapons manufacturing plant's recent closure, with local sheriff Bud Boomer, portrayed by the late lamented John Candy--the film having been 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's 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 their ongoing war with Ukraine), yielding nothing, along with an attempt to fight international terrorism being deemed absurd--as 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 mainstream 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 angry at the president, seeks revenge by using his software program, Hacker Hellstorm, to activate missile silos across the country aimed at 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, with 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 of 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.

The Good

+Much of the film has actually aged pretty decently.

+Genuinely funny, with plenty of nontopical humor.

+Some good sociopolitical commentary.

The Bad

-Obviously filmed in the mid-1990s.

Jeremy Gallen 1 reviews