The next time you're at the movies munching away at popcorn while taking in some silly, schlocky piece of B-movie crap that somehow made its way into a multiplex, take a second and thank the guys at The Cannon Group for helping to make it all possible. Okay, so they didn't directly lead to the sort of low-budget genre stuff that has been all the rage of late but there's no denying Cannon's brand of weird, exploitative, and highly lucrative films had an influence, and it's been captured in the new documentary, Electric Boogaloo: The Wild Untold Story of Cannon Films.
If you don't get the title's reference, then shame on you. It refers to Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, a classic in the hip-hop and B-boy circles and obviously a sequel to the original Breakin', which Cannon released in 1984. It was just one example of Israeli producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus who bought the studio on the cheap and proceeded to take an...well, let's just call it "interesting" approach to film selection. Sci-fi, breakdancin', crude horrors, sex comedies...they threw everything against the wall to see what stuck and had a lot of fun while doing it, working with some pretty big names along the way. The film is directed by Mark Hartley with Brett Ratner producing, and this looks like must-see documentary viewing. Unfortunately, Drafthouse Films has yet to give it a release date although we should see it some time next year. Check out the trailer below.
