Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014) (English Language)

Review

106min

Genre:    Documentary

Director: Mark Hartley

Cast:      Elliott Gould, Franco Zeffirelli, Dolph Lundgren…and more

Writers:  Mark Hartley

Mark Hartley documentary about the meteoric rise & fall of B-movie Indie film studio Cannon Films whose extraordinary success changed the movie industry for better or worse, and whose fate was inextricably linked to that of its two larger-than-life bosses.

For those of us who love movies and follow the film business with a keen eye, ‘Electric Boogaloo’ is a fascinatingly entertaining eye-opener to a historical side of the industry few will be familiar with… and with two industry players that were cut from a different cloth than your traditional movie “bosses”.

‘Electric Boogaloo’ is very much a documentary with a strong comedic tone that derives from the farcical nature of the work produced by Cannon which is seen through film clips of an often sexual & violent nature, as well as the outrageous way the company itself worked, brought to life by stock footage and interviews with many of its former stars and employees.

We are captivated by the depiction of an independent film company that rocked the industry in the 70s & 80s by mass-producing low-budget mostly “exploitation” films which were as commercially successful as they were lowbrow in quality, essentially low-budget genre mashup movies that resembled Hollywood productions, minus the good taste.

The heart of ‘Electric Boogaloo’ is the depiction of the two stars of the film, the Cannon Films bosses Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus who don’t appear apart from stock footage, two brash and boisterous Israeli cousins who went to the USA, bought the company and revolutionized it into an assembly-line film production studio that focused on quantity, cutting corners wherever possible.

Golan and Globus are fascinating characters, Golan himself often operating as film director/writer/producer/editor as well as company CEO, they resembled car salesmen as much as did movie producers and made most of the larger-than-life Hollywood big-shots look like monks.

The result was a company that was critically savaged for their work but which expanded rapidly and became globally successfully, with B-films that gained a huge cult audience which remains today and even some classic indie action films like Chuck Norris’ ‘The Delta Force’, Charles Bronson’s ‘Death Wish’ sequels and Jean-Claude Van Damme’s breakout film ‘Bloodsport’.

Even though the bottom fell out when Cannon Films overextended themselves into Hollywood studio territory and budgets they couldn’t afford, ‘Electric Boogaloo’ is a captivating modern “American Dream” story about a couple of immigrants who made it big and revolutionized an industry, for better or worse. Somehow we get the feeling that Quentin Tarantino would be a big fan.

‘Electric Boogaloo’ is a fascinating and humorous look at a rarely seen side of movie history and a captivating account of two of the most unique characters in the industry, a must for film buffs and B-Movie fans… but not for the faint-hearted.

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Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2008)

Mark Hartley’s first documentary about the exploitation B-movie industry focuses on the “Australian New Wave” of cinema in the 70’s and 80’s that brought the world a slew of outrageously violent and lewd films which, among other things, launched the career of Mel Gibson and gave us iconic films like the ‘Mad Max’ series, as well as influencing a generation of filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino.

Directed by Mark Hartley and featuring Barry Humphries, Dennis Hopper and George Lazenby among others.

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