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Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

  • 2014
  • R
  • 1h 46m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
5.8K
YOUR RATING
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)
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.
Play trailer3:04
1 Video
34 Photos
DocumentaryBiographyHistory

The history of the independent film company, The Cannon Film Group, Inc..The history of the independent film company, The Cannon Film Group, Inc..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
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.4/10
    5.8K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Mark Hartley
    • Writer
      • Mark Hartley
    • Stars
      • Sam Firstenberg
      • David Paulsen
      • Luigi Cozzi
    • 48User reviews
    • 146Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 3:04
    Watch Official Trailer

    Photos34

    Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)
    Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan in Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)
    Mark Hartley at an event for Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)
    Mark Hartley at an event for Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)
    Mark Hartley at an event for Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)
    Mark Hartley and Brett Ratner at an event for Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)
    Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)
    Robert Forster in Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)
    Bo Derek in Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)
    Lee Marvin and Chuck Norris in Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)
    Dolph Lundgren in Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)
    Charles Bronson in Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Sam Firstenberg
    Sam Firstenberg
    • Self - Filmmaker
    David Paulsen
    • Self - Filmmaker
    Luigi Cozzi
    Luigi Cozzi
    • Self - Filmmaker
    Menahem Golan
    Menahem Golan
    • Self - Cannon Chairman
    • (archive footage)
    Alain Jakubowicz
    • Self - Editor
    Itzik Kol
    • Self - Production Executive
    • (archive footage)
    Michael Hartman
    • Self - Associate Producer
    Quentin Falk
    • Self - Journalist, Screen International
    Boaz Davidson
    Boaz Davidson
    • Self - Filmmaker
    William Stout
    • Self - Production Designer
    David Womark
    David Womark
    • Self - Associate Producer
    Sybil Danning
    Sybil Danning
    • Self - Actress
    Roni Ya'ackov
    • Self - Production Executive
    • (as Rony Yakov)
    Yftach Katzur
    Yftach Katzur
    • Self - Actor
    • (as Yiftach Katzur)
    Dan Wolman
    Dan Wolman
    • Self - Filmmaker
    Christopher C. Dewey
    • Self - Co-Founder, Cannon Films
    John G. Avildsen
    John G. Avildsen
    • Self - Director
    Martine Beswick
    Martine Beswick
    • Self - Actress
    • Director
      • Mark Hartley
    • Writer
      • Mark Hartley
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Michael Winner was going to be interviewed for the documentary, but he died before production started on it.
    • Quotes

      Roni Ya'ackov: She said, "Menahem, I can't do it. I'm dying." He said, "Do it... then die!"

    • Connections
      Edited from Omnibus: The Last Moguls (1986)
    • Soundtracks
      Shake It Up
      Written by Ric Ocasek

      Performed by The Cars

      Lido Music Inc.

    User reviews48

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    7/10
    A throwback to a vision of the future
    In Tim Burton's Ed Wood, a cheapshot movie producer snorts at Ed's desire to create art on a shoestring. The irony is, of course, that however artistically credible he imagined himself, Ed Wood made junk anyway. There's a sweet spot where good intentions, lack of talent, and thriftiness meet, and Cannon Films regularly found it. The Asylum's mockbusters might be keeping the bad movie dream alive, but can you imagine a modern mini-studio greenlighting the likes of Superman, alongside Death Wish, alongside Shakespeare?

    Cannon was set up in the 1960s but rose to prominence/notoriety in 1980 when it was sold to Israeli cousins Yoram Globus (the money man) Menahem Golan (the would-be moviemaker). This is where Mark Hartley's breakneck documentary joins the sordid story. Talking heads – directors, editors, and actors – provide snappy anecdotes and bitesized insights into the passion and incompetence of two upstarts who, for a time, upset the Hollywood establishment. And then spent $25m on an arm-wrestling movie.

    Though remembered for Chuck Norris nonsense and some seriously ropey fantasy and sci-fi (Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce will make you question the value of cinema), at their peak Cannon were bashing out nearly 50 films a year. This left room for 'proper' movies from the likes of Franco Zeffirelli and Godfrey Reggio; Cannon even bagged an Oscar for Best Foreign Film at their mid-eighties peak. But for every Company of Wolves or Barfly there were five Charles Bronson Z-movies, so Cannon will always be remembered for the balderdash, churned out chiefly to take advantage of the burgeoning home video market.

    Indeed, this is the perfect Eighties trash story, beginning with The Happy Hooker, the strangely apt story of a European prostitute coming to the US and sticking two fingers up to the Hollywood elite. The party ended with Cyborg in 1989, a Van Damme oddity which has little to do with cyborgs and whose creative failure rests partly on the shoulders of Albert Pyun, who would later find cinema's comic book nadir with his mouth-dryingly terrible Captain America. Cyborg was built with bits of Masters of the Universe, which gives us a clue as to the state of Cannon's finances at the turn of the decade. A brief 90s relaunch provided nothing of interest.

    Perhaps there's a three-hour version of this documentary which delves into more depth and supposition about the essential culture clash that meant Globus and Golan failed spectacularly, time and time again, to grasp the mood of the nation they adored. But then the film would lose its briskness and humour, and Hartley's superb Uzi-editing would go to waste. It's a shallow documentary about men with shallow dreams, and it's enthralling for it.

    The only real art to emerge from Cannon were exceptions that proved the rule. That rule being: Make 'em quick and make 'em cheap. By the time the bloated excess of Masters of the Universe was vomited into the multiplex (I recall that particular disappointment sorely) audiences expected more. Hartley's film may ultimately overstate the influence of Cannon – although with a new Terminator movie potentially about to join Jurassic World, Avengers, and Furious 7 at the top of the year's box office, the business model that spawned five Death Wishes and three Delta Forces does seem disturbingly prescient.
    helpful•8
    3
    • rooee
    • Jul 1, 2015

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • June 5, 2015 (United Kingdom)
    • Countries of origin
      • Australia
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Official Facebook
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Electric Boogaloo
    • Production companies
      • RatPac Documentary Films
      • Wildbear Entertainment
      • Melbourne International Film Festival
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Gross worldwide
      • $864
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 46 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.78 : 1

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