Electric Booglaoo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
THIS affectionate study of 1980s trash cinema kings Cannon Films finds director Mark Hartley (Not Quite Hollywood) exploring how Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus successfully took on Hollywood and paved the way for the Weinsteins' Miramax.
Globally pre-selling future releases at Cannes with vividly drawn posters for Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson vehicles that often didn't exist (yet), the wheeler-dealing Golan-Globus kept their 'pile 'em high and flog 'em fast' 20 movies a year production line running flat-out.
Good taste was not in the Cannon idiom, as the so-called 'Go-Go Boys' pioneered the low-budget action genre with Death Wishes II to V, Delta Force, Invasion USA and American Ninja, also delivering crazy oddities such as 'erotic musical' The Apple and eventually business-wrecking big budget blunders like Superman IV and Masters of The Universe.
Tobe Hooper, Dolph Lundgren, Bo Derek, Richard Chamberlain, Elliott Gould and Molly Ringwald are among those who share frequently hilarious/bizarre Cannon anecdotes, including Menaham pitching a script to Clyde the orangutan from Every Which Way But Loose.
Recommended viewing for video shop veterans.
:: Electric Boogaloo is released in cinemas on June 5.
