Watch Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films For Free

i must have seen a different film!!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

This documentary was just outstanding from start to finish as it brought back memories of that era when they made a lot of movies as I remember seeing a lot of them in theaters. They did make a lot of bad movies like Superman The Quest For Peace but they did make some decent ones like Delta Force. If you want to find out about the rise and fall of Cannon films you should see this documentary which is why I gave it 10 stars.

Writer/director Mark Hartley delivers one of the most entertaining, enthralling and genuinely hilarious documentaries of the decade with his 2014 release "Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films." In many ways a loving tribute to the iconic and infamous studio that rose to fame in the 1980's with its schlocky and exploitative releases before fizzling out in the early 90's, the documentary is filled with heart, soul and laughs. Containing interviews with dozens of figures associated with the brand in addition to numerous clips and scenes from various Cannon releases, "Electric Boogaloo" is as informative as it is amusing.Much of the film's focus is placed on Israeli cousins Menahem Golan (a struggling filmmaker) and Yoram Globus (the money-man), whom purchased the company in 1979 and started it down the path that would eventually lead to both it's meteoric rise and sudden fall. They were the main driving force behind the company and their story is one for the ages. They're the sort-of duo who might serve as inspiration to some while being a cautionary tale to others, as they were clearly passionate and loved what they did, but made many poor choices and were often less than honorable. Wisely, Hartley doesn't approach the subject matter with any sort-of agenda, and instead lets his various interview subjects discuss the cousins and the films they worked on with their own personal views and recollections. Which makes it weirdly poignant in a way when you see some talking fondly about their experiences with Golan and Globus while others condemn them.I highly admired the production of this documentary, and I definitely think this should be a must-watch for college film analysis and production classes. While the bulk of the movie is simply talking- head style interviews intercut with film clips and stock-footage, it's never anything less than enthralling thanks to Hartley's keen direction and pitch-perfect sense of editing. While it might move a bit too quickly for some, I think it does a remarkable job at setting and maintaining just the correct sense of urgency and flow. It's very much a "get in, get it done and move out" affair, and we're doled out just enough information about just enough key events in Cannon History to neither feel uninformed or overwhelmed. The interview subjects run the gamut and include everyone from Cannon film directors, to studio associates who were responsible for distributing their films to the various actors and actresses who have appeared in Cannon films. Unfortunately, Golan and Globus are nowhere to be found, and their addition to the film would have been invaluable.While I cannot give it a perfect score due to a few minor nitpicks I have with the production and final product, I can say with some certainty that "Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films" is amongst my favorite films of the past several years. It's never anything less that engaging and entertaining, and there's a lot to be learned over the 100 or so minute run-time. The story of Golan and Globus, and indeed Cannon films at large is one of the more fascinating and strange tales to emerge from Hollywood's varied and often sordid history, and it makes for one hell of a fun film.I give "Electric Boogaloo" a very strong 8 out of 10.

Done with the same cheeky'n'breezy tone and nonstop hurtling pace as the blithely trashy exploitation fare its about, director Mark Hartley's hugely enjoyable documentary presents the incredible world wind story of Menaham Golan and Yorum Globus, who were a couple of impudent swindlers from Israel who ruled the roost throughout the gloriously excessive 1980's by specializing in cheerfully crass low-grade schlock made by their company Cannon Films that often clumsily attempted to capitalize on whatever trend was popular at the moment. These guys hit pay dirt with their action films starring either Chuck Norris or Charles Bronson, but ultimately got too big for their britches and sank their own studio thanks to shady financing schemes and blowing massive amounts of cash on such costly flops as Lifeforce, Over the Top (in which star Sylvester Stallone was paid over ten million to play the lead), and Superman IV: Quest for Peace (the effects budget was cut substantially halfway through production and a beefy former Chippendales dancer was cast to portray Superman's nemesis Nuclear Man!).Not surprisingly, this doc comes loaded not only with lots of nudity and over-the-top violence, but also a wealth of hysterical tales about the wild antics of Golan and Globus: Among the most choice anecdotes are Golan discussing a movie deal with Clyde the orangutan (!), how everyone hated working with Sharon Stone (who was accidentally cast in King Solomon's Mines because Golan said he wanted that Stone woman and the guy who cast her didn't know he was talking about Kathleen Turner of Romancing the Stone fame), Barbet Schroeder threatening to cut off his fingers with a chainsaw if he can't make Barfly the way he wants to, Molly Ringwald not knowing if the character she was playing in King Lear was either alive or dead, Franco Nero having his voice dubbed by another actor for Enter the Ninja, Golan and Globus making two competing lambada pictures in the wake of their acrimonious breakup, Laurene Landon setting fire to her VHS copy of America 3000 to express her disgust over her unhappy experience acting in that flick, director Michael Winner being a total sadist who was a perfect fit for Cannon, Golan and Globus failing to realize that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 was intended as a comedy, Bo Derek getting told to make Bolero as explicit as possible, and Just Jaecklin remarking that the infamous Go-Bo boys had probably never read the book Lady Chatterley's Lover. While not everyone interviewed has the nicest things to say about Golan and Globus, almost everybody nonetheless generally admits that their hearts were certainly in the right place even if they possessed more chutzpah and enthusiasm than taste and decorum. It's this latter element of genuine affinity for these two kooky mavericks which in turn makes this documentary a surefire winner.

...Answer: The Cannon Group! Started in Israel by Manahem Golan and his cousin, Yoram Globus, in the 1970s, with Golan being the more flamboyant creative force and Globus being more of the practical money man, they churned out schlock movies for about 14 years, about ten of those being in the United States for a global market. They were all about rushed scripts including Manahem making up scripts as he filmed, getting one or maybe two big names that maybe had seen better days to draw in audiences, lots of violence, bad special effects, and lots of sex and nudity. I always wondered where those trashy movies that Showtime would show late at night thirty years ago came from, and this documentary answered that question for me. The documentary moves at a rapid pace, with some of the stars that were in the films that have a good sense of humor about the whole thing such as Catherine Mary Stewart (The Apple) and Diane Franklin (The Last American Virgin) telling their stories.Actually the documentary is a bit of a morality tale about the excesses of the 80's which pretty much overlays the time that the Cannon Group was based in the United States. Cannon Group was doing okay, even if they were making bad movies, until Michael Milken came along (remember, the guy who went to jail for what looks quaint compared to what the banksters did to tank the entire American economy 20 years later?) and managed to raise 300 million dollars for them. Accustomed to making films for just a few million dollars, sometimes less than a million, Cannon Group suddenly went on a spend and expand fest that ultimately brought them to bankruptcy. In the end they were filming and owned theater chains all over the world, and the colossal size of their failures brought them down almost exactly as the 90s began, after the cousins fought and split up and made competing films about the same dance - The Lambada - that opened the same day at the same theater in Los Angeles in 1990. Both films flopped.Just the shear number of stories is astounding - how the cousins heading Cannon Group wound up making the Alan Quartermain movies with an actress they didn't even want because they confused Sharon Stone with "Romancing the Stone" - they actually wanted Kathleen Turner, how MGM, desperate for some product actually distributed Cannon's films for two years and, in the end, would rather sell out to Ted Turner than keep putting out such tripe, Bo Derek on the hilarious dialogue of "Bolero", and a pretty good director, Franco Zeffirelli, saying that he didn't know how to top himself after he made "Otello" for Cannon and how Manahem Golan was the only producer he'd ever met who truly understood the entire process of filmmaking and had absolutely nothing but praise for Cannon Group!There have been many small film companies come and go, many from the Depression era in which everybody involved is dead, and their stories are probably are not nearly as interesting as this one. Watch this for the weirdness of it all and - if you are old enough - the nostalgia. One thing you can say about Cannon and the cousins that headed it - they had a willingness to take a risk that is entirely missing from filmmakers and especially their backers today. In fact, if character Max Bialystock from Mel Brooks' "The Producers" had been involved in film rather than the theater, and had been on the level and not an embezzler, he would have BEEN the colorful Manahem Golan, in my humble opinion. Highly recommended if you are interested in more recent film history.