ThiefHott Too much of everything

BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Wordiezett So much average

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Robert W. Having essentially grown up and gained my adoration for film in the 80's and early 90's, sooo many of these films were my bread and butter and I had no idea they had the same studio let alone such an interesting and ridiculous back-story. The only issue I had with this documentary was actually that I'm not sure it covered enough ground and I would have liked to have seen more significant interviews from the stars that these guys made and vice versa. Because despite how bad these movies were or tried to be where would the B Movie genre be without them let alone the 80's films in general. I think the story behind the "GoGo Boys" Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus is so interesting because ultimately they were passionate but had zero experience and got way ahead of themselves and played with fire and ultimately for lucky for a very long time until they weren't lucky anymore. Still its absolutely astonishing to see how many films they made and the similarities with those films.Very very very few of the movies mentioned in the documentary could ever be described as "good" and yet anyone who grew up in this era or loved movies will agree that so many of them are "legendary" in the minds of the fans. One of my favourite Stallone movies "Over The Top", one of my favourite "bad" movies "Masters of The Universe", and one of my favourite guilty pleasure film franchises "Death Wish." They gave us silly bad-ass heroes like Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson and unashamedly used exploitation to sell their early films and yet they kept making money until they couldn't anymore. I was ecstatic when I heard about this documentary because I love these kinds of Hollywood stories but interviews with the brothers would have been very good (both were asked and refused apparently) Chuck Norris interviews would have been great, talking to some of the bigger legendary stars that Canon made or kept going. I felt like this was a pretty surface look at Canon when there was so much here to cover but really interesting nonetheless just perhaps a little too simple. 7/10

Woodyanders 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.

paul2001sw-1 As 'Electric Boogaloo' tells it, Cannon Films was established by two Israeli wheeler-dealers, who came to the United States, established a film production company, and managed to make a huge quantity of low budget, low class movies before eventually their wild ambition caught up with them and they ran out of money. What makes the story more interesting is that this ambition was not just to establish a film-making giant, but also to make movies of at least some distinction: but a combination of unavoidable financial constraints and an inherent belief they could do it on the cheap inevitably sank their grander ambitions. This could make for a riveting film, but in fact, all we get are a succession of clips coupled with talking heads asserting ad nauseam just quite how crazy the company was. How do you actually make a low budget movie? How did the company stay in business for as long as it did, when (according to what we're told), its every film was a disaster? What is the evidence that the founders did, as we're repeatedly told, genuinely love cinema in spite of their abysmal product? We never really learn these facts. Instead, 'Electric Boogaloo' promotes a legend of Cannnon in a way that the studio's own bosses (whose talent for self-promotion is repeatedly attested to) might have envied. In fact, there's an irony here: asked to participate, the two of them made their own movie (and true to their past record, made it first). Without their involvement, there's a hole at the heart of the film they chose to spurn. Although based on the evidence presented here, I'm not sure I'd expect too much of their own effort, either.

Hellmant 'ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: THE WILD, UNTOLD STORY OF CANNON FILMS': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)Documentary flick, about the infamous B-movie making cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus; and their studio Cannon Films. It was written and directed by Mark Hartley; who also helmed such other B- movie documentary flicks as 'NOT QUITE Hollywood: THE WILD, UNTOLD STORY OF OZPLOITATION!' and 'MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED!'. The film features interviews with several different actors, and former associates of theirs; including Dolph Lundgren, Michael Dudikoff, Franco Nero, Robert Forster, Richard Chamberlain, Molly Ringwald, Bo Derek, Olivia D'Abo, Lucinda Dickey, Elliot Gould, Alex Winter, Franco Zeffirelli and Tobe Hooper. It's a very informative, and extremely entertaining, documentary flick.The film explores how two movie obsessed Israeli cousins (Golan and Globus) followed their dreams; and moved to America, to make movies. They started Cannon Films; which was notorious (in the 80s) for making really low-budget B-movie exploitation flicks. Most of them contained lots of explicit sex, nudity and violence. Most of them were also really bad movies, and Box Office failures. They did have a few hits, on occasion though, and some (a few) were pretty good movies too. The cousins were also infamous for being really cheap, somewhat abusive and extremely prolific. I grew up on so many Golan and Globus produced movies; seeing their logo now, is extremely nostalgic for me. They discovered action stars like Jean Claude Van-Damme (one of my favorite actors as a kid) and Michael Dudikoff; they also made several action vehicles, for the likes of Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson. I watched most of them, and I loved them as a kid. So I really enjoyed this movie. I especially liked learning how they were made; and hearing several comical stories, about the process, from many actors (and other filmmakers) involved. Being a movie lover myself, I can definitely relate to Golan and Globus's passion, and obsession for filmmaking. It's a really fun movie to watch!Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://youtu.be/41q3ZuWGdEE