Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

Description

What do Chuck Norris, Tom Cruise, Faye Dunaway and Jean-Luc Godard have in common? They all made films for the inimitable Cannon Group, and the splendidly entertaining Electric Boogaloo charts the course of the organization, the people behind it and the work it produced with great panache. Though Cannon Films begins in 1967, the story really takes off in the early 1980s when Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus buy the company for $500,000. Taking a cue from Roger Corman, their business model revolved around making films quickly and inexpensively, with a keen eye for the fads of the day. Among several amusing stories the film recounts are the race to be the first break dancing movie in theaters and the reason Sharon Stone got a role in the Indiana Jones rip-off King Solomon’s Mines (1985) instead of Kathleen Turner. Full of memorable clips from the Cannon library, from cult oddities like The Apple (1980) and Lifeforce (1985), to higher-brow films such as Runaway Train (1985) and Love Streams (1984), director Hartley (an expert chronicler of the global exploitation film) charts the company’s tumultuous history and ultimate demise. Full of terrific behind-the-scenes stories, archival footage and present-day interviews while offering a plethora of titles for the Netflix queue, Electric Boogaloo will have any ‘80s film fan doing the lambada up and down the aisles. —Rod Armstrong

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