Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films is director Mark Hartley's latest documentary. Hartley's Not Quite Hollywood also screened at midnight madness in 2008 and was extremely well received. For those unfamiliar with the Cannon films produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus think of the Chuck Norris, Charles Bronson Jean Claude Van Damme movies from the eighties and nineties and that is only a fraction of the output of films made by Cannon Films. Here are some reviews from the premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival.
"The film works as a fascinating look behind the scenes of a genuine outsider company. it feels about a half an hour shorter than it's 107 minutes, thanks to how much damn fun it is to experience these cult 'classics' in a fast paced, greatest hits format." - SilverScreenSnobs.com
"Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Film doesn't pull its punches." And "Hartley's film is consistently entertaining..." - The Hollywood Reporter
"Mark Hartley's follow-up to Not Quite Hollywood is an amusingly enjoyable excavation of Cannon Films, the definitive 1980s B-movie production house run by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yorham Globus. "Outlaws...hustlers...junk peddlers," - The Sydney Morning Herald.
"The best parts of this film are the archival footage of Menahem Golan in action on set, doing business in his office and doing publicity for his copious films. This is one charismatic, fascinating dude[.]" And, "In what could easily devolve into simply bashing these films for the low-budget schlock they generally were, Hartley treats the topic with reverence and he hits the tone of the documentary just right." sorryimlate.com
"Like Hartley's previous documentaries, Electric Boogaloo is an energetic confection, buoyed by zippy editing and more than occasional use of animation." - melbournecentral.com.au
"'Cannon films were the epitome of the '80's in terms of stars and films,' Hartley reflects. 'It's also a great story - it's about a couple of outsiders taking on the might of the studios. There's a real David and Goliath element to this.'" - Beat Magazine
"Hartley's films play like a wildly enthusiastic thesis submissions from the ultimate student of exploration cinema." - screen-space.squarespace.com
"[I]t was bloody marvelous to see so many of these past stars, directors and writers up on the screen again. I was also reminded of movies I had forgotten about and will now seek and find." - fakeshemp.net
ELECTRIC BOOGALOO screening times:
Mon., Sept. 8th, 11:59 PM, RYERSON
Wed., Sept. 10th, 9:00 AM, BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
Sun., Sept. 14th, 12:45 PM, SCOTIABANK 11
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