Electric Boogaloo: The Wild Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)
Rated R
Starring Chuck Norris, Charles Bronson, Sybil Danning, Nearly Anyone Who Ever Worked On A Low Budget 80s Cannon Film Masterpiece.
Written & Directed by Mark Hartley
The Story:
This is the story of Menaham Golan and Yoram Globus, two Israeli cousins who really loved Hollywood movies. They loved them so much, they decided to make their own. So began the fabled rise of Cannon Films. And ultimately with the rise of Cannon, the fall was not far behind.
So, if you grew up in the 80s and rented movies, which pretty much includes everyone likely reading this review, you know what Cannon Films is/was/will always be...
The Greatest Studio Ever!
Okay, that might be overreaching, but Cannon cranked out some serious movies in their day. While other studios would put out 6-8 in a busy year, Cannon was trying to crank out 6-8 in 2 months!
As they were filming one, they'd be lining up 2 or 3 more.
Making up the scripts as they go, check!
Making some of the shlockiest B-Movies we've ever had the pleasure of watching, check!
Making Chuck Norris a star, check!
Resurrecting the career of Charles Bronson, check!
Giving the movie public what they didn't know they needed: Breakdancing movies...check!!!
And really, any studio that gave us the title Electric Boogaloo, that's aces in my book!
I still use that title today when I await sequels to movies.
Now, sit back and reflect as writers, directors, stars and other folks that were there reflect on what Cannon Films meant to them, their careers and movies in general.
In essence, Cannon paved the way for other studios, like Miramax, who would come along and break the old studio system.
The difference, while Miramax concentrates on quality, Cannon was trying to overwhelm us with quantity!
Where it all went off the tracks was when they decided instead of making a film for a few million dollars that made its money back and then some, it was time to make a big budget film...
Superman IV !!!
I have now, thanks to footage in this documentary, seen more of Superman IV than I had ever seen before in my life.
And yes, it's as bad as I feared!!!
The problem was, they wanted to make a good movie with a big budget...they just ran out of money and then went ultra-cheap.
And the end was near...
The cousins attempted to go it alone, and each created their own company and their first movies out of the gate would be about the latest craze that was going to sweep the nation...
The Lambada!
That's right, one cousin gave us Lambada! The other, The Forbidden Dance.
They hit theaters at the same time, divided the marketplace, and doomed both companies.
Of course, decades later when the cousins learned of this documentary, they rallied together like old times and put out their own documentary...
And it made it to theaters first.
:)
I haven't seen that one, but this one is currently streaming on Netflix as of this writing.
Final Grade: A-
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