Coming to theatres this Friday, September 18: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: THE WILD, UNTOLD STORY OF CANNON FILMS
Mark Hartley’s revisitation of the schlock cinema of the legendary 1980s film group debuted at Melbourne last year. It went on to screen at Toronto, London, Haifa, Sitges, Mar del Plata, Rotterdam, San Francisco, Glasgow, Dublin, New Horizons, Film Comments Selects, and Fantastic Fest, among many others
At the center of Hartley’s infectious if unexceptionally mounted film are B-Movie kings Menachem Golan and Yoram Globus, the Israeli cousins who headed the prolific Cannon Films and produced a range of primarily low-budget, disposable genre and T&A heavy films. However, as amusingly noted at its end, they declined to participate, and appear here only in archival footage, having decided to make their own documentary (Hilla Medalia’s THE GO-GO BOYS) – which debuted at Cannes three months earlier, echoing their beat-them-to-the-punch tactics as recounted throughout Hartley’s retrospective. His film assembles scores of talking heads – Cannon directors, actors, crew, and other behind-the-scenes folk – to give the inside track on the so-called “Go-Go Boys” and their remarkably bad output, illustrated through copious clips from gems like NINJA III: THE DOMINATION, BOLERO, and MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE. While prone to nostalgic anecdotes and a fair amount of repetition, the film is undeniably entertaining, and expresses a genuine affection for Golan and Globus and their enterprising spirit and over the top showmanship – even if their taste level remains in question.
what (not) to doc 