Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

In 1979, Israeli filmmakers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus purchased Cannon Films, a small American independent production company with a couple of successes, and came to America to become movie moguls. Golan and Globus cranked out cheaply-made genre movies with stars such as Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson, while also cashing in on current fads and box-office hits with quick knockoffs. The pair became infamous for their flamboyant self-promotion and for making incoherent and sometimes incompetent movies between occasional hits, driving the company into bankruptcy by the end of the 1980s. Mark Hartley's documentary is an irreverent but also affectionate portrait that emphasizes the excesses of the company and features interviews with over 80 actors, directors, and executives. Australian filmmaker Hartley has a real affection for cheap drive-in films and he clearly loves Golan and Globus, who do not appear here apart from archival clips. While Hartley can't cover everything, he does move through the history of the company at a rapid pace, stopping to marvel at the wide array of films, from grindhouse hits like Missing in Action, to arthouse films made by John Cassavetes and Jean-Luc Godard, to crazy colorful disasters like the futuristic musical The Apple and the Sylvester Stallone arm-wrestling drama Over the Top. It's an often fascinating and very entertaining slice of pop culture history that will be a must-see for fans of B-movies and stories of Hollywood excess and bad taste. Extras include deleted scenes. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (S. Axmaker)