jellopuke
Love this movie for the overview of one of my favourite schlock companies and while they do a good job of talking to everyone, the lack of Chuck Norris's and Charles Bronson's words (tough since he's dead) means you miss out on some alternative insights. I think a detailed book is in order. Or maybe a three hour cut of the movie that allows for more exploration into some of the crazy making of stories and lets more people talk. Still love the movie, just wish there was more here.
Fluke_Skywalker
'Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story Of Cannon Films' is an occasionally scathing but generally affectionate look back at the rise and fall of Cannon films, an 80s B-movie powerhouse started by two Israeli cousins, Menahem Golan and Yorum Globus, as told by the people who were there.Even if you don't have any nostalgia for the era and the Cannon catalog (which totals over a hundred films), if you're a film fan in general my guess is you're still likely to enjoy this often hilarious documentary about the dream of two men with lots of passion and very little good taste.
MartinHafer
In the late 70s through the 1980s, Cannon films churned out a huge number of films...mostly extremely low-budgeted, schlock at that. So, if you remember a terrible but exciting movie from this era, there's a very good chance it was made by the geniuses(?) behind this studio, Mecahem Golan and Yoram Globus. And their films often were designed to appeal to the lowest sorts of audiences--with ample nudity, violence and tasteless scripts. A sampling of their products include the "Happy Hooker" franchise, all the "Death Wish" sequels, Chuck Norris films, Ninja films and the worst picture of the era, "The Apple" (my favorite bad film of all time). This film is the Golan-Globus story which explains their pairing, the growth of the studio as well as its eventual demise.It's actually very interesting that this film about Cannon is much better and much more enjoyable than any of the studio's films! It's told by many insiders...though Golan and Globus themselves did not participate in the making of the film because they reportedly are working on their own documentary on the subject (though Golan recently passed away)!
Scott LeBrun
Fairly interesting documentary charts the rise and fall of The Cannon Group, a company made popular by two Israeli cousins, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. For the most part, they didn't exactly make prestige films, but they did an uncanny job of cranking out scores of B pictures that were often quite entertaining, no matter if the level of quality wasn't the highest. After a number of years, they did leave an impression on the film industry, if only for their impressive knack for "pre-selling" movies, using no more than posters, titles, and concepts.This reasonably entertaining production is from Mark Hartley, who's left his own indelible stamp on the industry by making these kinds of films; previously, he'd done documentaries on the cult and exploitation pictures of both Australia ("Not Quite Hollywood") and the Philippines ("Machete Maidens Unleashed"). Instead of having a narrator to sort of take us step by step through this tale, a series of sit down interviews play in quick succession, with various cast and crew of numerous Cannon efforts giving their thoughts on the movies that they made. Some of the interviews are quite engaging; people interviewed include Franco Nero, Sybil Danning, Laurene Landon (it's actually rather distressing seeing her mime setting fire to a copy of "America 3000"), Boaz Davidson, David Engelbach, Christopher Pearce, Richard Edlund, Tobe Hooper, Greydon Clark, Alex Winter, and others.After "Electric Boogaloo" is over, one does feel that they've gotten a pretty vivid, "warts and all" picture of the Golan & Globus personalities. Golan was the real character: volatile, demanding, opinionated. Globus was the somewhat more restrained of the two, the one who handled more business oriented duties. Ultimately, their hubris caught up with them. Although they could on occasion produce something truly special ("Runaway Train"), they simply ended up getting too ambitious, and getting in over their heads.Many of the interviewees do seem to hold Cannon product in quite a bit of contempt, which is unfortunate, because while much of it may not be Oscar baiting material, it was, most of the time, a good deal of fun. If you're like this viewer, The Cannon Group has given you many hours of viewing pleasure with their B grade action movies, thrillers, sci-fi, and horror features.In the end, it's quite telling that Golan & Globus declined to participate in this documentary, instead beating it to the punch with their OWN non fiction feature titled "The Go Go Boys".Seven out of 10.
