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

The history of the independent film company, The Cannon Film Group, Inc..

Director:

Mark Hartley

Writer:

Mark Hartley

Stars:

Sam Firstenberg, David Paulsen, Luigi Cozzi

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sam Firstenberg	...	Himself
David Paulsen	...	Himself
Luigi Cozzi	...	Himself
Menahem Golan	...	Himself (archive footage)
Alain Jakubowicz	...	Himself
Itzik Kol	...	Himself
Michael Hartman	...	Himself
Quentin Falk	...	Himself
Boaz Davidson	...	Himself
William Stout	...	Himself
David Womark	...	Himself
Sybil Danning	...	Herself
Roni Ya'ackov	...	Himself (as Rony Yakov)
Yftach Katzur	...	Himself (as Yiftach Katzur)
Dan Wolman	...	Himself

Storyline

A documentary about Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus - two movie-obsessed cousins whose passion for cinema changed the way movies were made and marketed - and the tale of how this passion ultimately led to the demise of the company they built together.

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Plot Keywords:

cannon group | cannon films | golan globus | film company | film studio | 

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Taglines:

At Cannon Films, 52 movies a year just wasn't enough...

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Genres:

Documentary

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity, violence including rape, language and some drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

UK Israel Australia USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 June 2015 (UK)

Also Known As:

Electric Boogaloo

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fury Productions, RatPac Documentary Films, XYZ Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Color:

Color Black and White (archive footage)

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Due to their rather "cheap" budgets, rarely did the studio ever shoot films in 2:35.1 Anamorphic Widescreen during their run. The handful of films that were actually shot in this aspect ratio included Treasure of The Four Crowns, Sahara, Sword of the Valiant, Lifeforce, King Solomon's Mines, Invaders From Mars, Down Twisted, Allan Quartermain and The Lost City of Gold, Over The Top and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.

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Quotes

Dolph Lundgren: [Referring to the 1987 Cannon film "Masters of the Universe" in which he portrayed He-Man] I felt a little stupid doing it.

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Connections

Features Barfly (1987)

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Soundtracks

Action
Written by Andy Scott (as Andrea Scott), Steve Priest (as Stephen Priest), Brian Connolly, and Mick Tucker (as Michael Tucker)
Sweet Publishing Ltd.

User Reviews

An uproarious, celebratory, melancholy romp...

Mark Hartley, the man behind the wildly entertaining documentaries about B-grade films and filmmakers, Not Quite Hollywood (2008) and Machete Maidens Unleashed (2010), premiered his latest and, sadly, last documentary - Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films - in the opening weekend of the 2014 Melbourne International Festival (MIFF).

As with Hartley's previous documentaries, the story at the heart of Electric Boogaloo (its name taken from the film, "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo", the strange sequel to the hit 1984 rap dancing film, "Breakin'") cleverly unfolds through the skillful editing together of myriad eyewitness talking heads and interspersing these with clips from relevant films along with some wonderfully tongue-in-cheek animations. Essentially, Hartley's latest film explores the story behind Cannon films from its inception to its ultimate demise, following the weird and wild careers of crazy Israeli cinephiles-cum-directors-cum-producers-cum-Hollywood B-grade movie moguls, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. Theirs is an extraordinary rags-to-riches- rags story and one well worth seeing for yourself. Hartley has a rare gift for storytelling in his documentaries, bringing together a complex panoply of opinions, rants, scathing criticism and fond remembrances, and weaving these all together into a taut, laugh-out-loud, highly entertaining film, and Electric Boogaloo is no exception, as demonstrated by the very enthusiastic reception the film received from the audience at MIFF.

For film lovers and those who grew up with the Golan/Globus catalog in the 1980s with films like Missing in Action, Lifeforce, Treasure of the Four Crowns, American Ninja, Break Dance, Death Wish 2 and its sequels, Masters of the Universe, The Last American Virgin, Cyborg, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace ... the list goes on, and on, and on ... this film is pure joy and something of a nostalgia trip. In this regard the film does have a sad side as it follows how the dreams of Golan and Globus would eventually fizzle up in bankruptcy and acrimony, leaving behind a library of impossibly bizarre creations that are truly weird and wonderful. Electric Boogaloo will no doubt prompt you to want to revisit many of these titles or discover others for the first time. I suspect that, being a true lover of B movies, this is ultimately one of Hartley's aims.