When I think back on it, I
used to believe my conscious introduction to my homeboys
Menahem Golem and Yoram Globus, the geniuses behind Cannon
films, were those jingoistic Chuck Norris movies, Missing in
Action, Delta Force, Invasion U.S.A. and that special brand
of garbage, but as I span through their bloated filmography,
because as filmmaker Mark Hartley's documentary 'Electric
Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films' will let
you know in exquisite detail, they were nothing if not
prolific, I met them a lot sooner. It was either 'New Years
Evil' or the Jayne and Leon Isaac Kennedy vehicle 'Body and
Soul'. One or the other of the suspect films my brother took
me to way back in the day, heck if I remember which, and a
relationship between a schlock film watcher and a schlock
filmmaker was born.
'Electric Boogaloo' brims across the early days of cousins
Menahem and Yoram, and their love of all things film, which
eventually sprouted into these two forming their own film
company in Israel. By all accounts they were very successful
in Israel, but be you from Rhode Island or Tel Aviv…
Hollywood is the only mountain worth climbing in the
entertainment business and off they go to make their name.
After buying Cannon films, and with their unique style of
making deals, a name they made for themselves indeed. In
this film our director will be speaking with a lot of
talking heads from all aspects of the filmmaking process
with a lot of very interesting things to say about their
time working with or for Cannon films and the cousins...
some of them gracious… some not so much. For instance there
was the gentleman from MGM who struck up a deal with Cannon
in the mid 80's to distribute their films, and he was none
too happy with the product he got. That was a really angry
dude, and this is over
thirty years after the fact. But quite honestly… who should
this cat be mad at? I might've been around the age of 12 by
the time he signed this deal and I could've told him that
Menahem and Yoram will be sending a plethora of crap movies
his way. Did they watch any of these things before they
signed this deal? Did MGM watch 'Enter the Ninja'? Sure, I
might think 'Enter the Ninja' is all kinds of awesome, but I
sure as well wouldn't sign a deal with ANYBODY connected to
that movie. And I was twelve. And we won't even mention the
lady who set her lone copy of her Cannon film on fire, on
set. She was pissed too.
But there are those in this film who do revere the cousins
and what they were able to accomplish and the techniques
they developed, a lot of which are even being used today as
common practice. A lot of these 'common practices' designed
by these guys seemed unethical, if not completely illegal…
the words 'ponzi scheme' comes to mind as a theory to
describe their movie funding model. But as it turns out
their bookkeeping methods were totally illegal, which
eventually caused Cannon to be the focus of an FCC
investigation, which only strengthened the cousins resolve
to make bigger, more expensive movies, which eventually
destroyed them. And thus the 'fall' in the rise and fall of
Cannon films is complete.
Giving this subject matter to a filmmaker such as Mark
Hartley is akin to pitching underhanded to Barry Bonds.
There's almost no way that this doc could be anything but
entertaining, and it is endlessly entertaining. Part of this
entertainment comes from the fact that if one happened to be
an adolescent or teenaged boy around 1980, Cannon films
probably had a strong hand in helping raise you. I'm not
saying this is a good thing… probably just the opposite of
that… but it is nonetheless the true. Who among us during
that time didn't see 'Lady Chatterly's Lover' which taught
us pretty much everything we needed to know about sex? Or
saw something such as 'Delta Force' or 'Invasion USA' which
taught us an awful lot of important facts about foreign
affairs. Basically that all Arabs are terrorist and need to
be on the wrong end of a rocket launcher. We also learned
that white guys do kung fu best! And while everything I just
mentioned might factually and morally incorrect, however
Cannon did teach us a few things that are actually true.
Such as Rocky Balboa arm wrestling somebody just isn't the
same as Rocky Balboa punching somebody. Cannon taught us
that.
The problem with 'Electric Boogaloo' is that there's simply
too much to cover. Alex Winter, Richard Chamberlain, Tobe
Hooper, and so many more had so many great stories to tell
about the various movies they were in, that a director could
probably choose just about any Cannon production a make a
documentary about that all unto itself. Could a documentary
be made about the making of 'Breakin' and 'Breakin II:
Electric Boogaloo'? Easy, considering Shabadoo and Boogaloo
Shrimp both seem to hate Lucinda Dickey. Just like everybody
involved in those Indian Jones knock offs starring Richard
Chamberlain hate Sharon Stone. Think Bo Derek could film up
80 minutes on the making of 'Bolero', one of the worst
movies ever committed to film? A documentary on the history
of American Ninja's I-V would be too easy. There's so much
to cover in regards to the filmography of Cannon, and
Hartley only had time to pay service to just a little of it.
Regardless of all of that, this was a highly informative,
very entertaining revisit to a time when quality was not
king. Or queen. Or even a pawn. And while 'Ninja III:
Domination' made me throw up in my mouth when I saw it back
in 1985, thirty years later I loved every minute of it.
Thanks Menahen and Yoram. And rest in peace. Menahen that
is. Yoram isn't dead yet.
