Cannon Films was a massive force in ’80s indie distributors. Yorum Globus and Menahem Golan occupied the vacuum created when American International Pictures was shutdown at the end of the ’70s by their new owners. They went big and hard with movies all over the spectrum. They made art films with Barfly. They had Oscar nominations with Street Smart and Runway Train. They got people dancing with Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. But their bread and butter was massive action films starring Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson. Director Mark Hartley who made the insightful documentaries Not Quite Hollywood about Australian drive-in flicks and Machete Maidens about Filipino action films turns his attention to the wild times of Cannon in Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films.
The documentary will receive special screenings in the upcoming weeks.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
In select Landmark Theaters: Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, San Diego, San Francisco (Embarcadero Center Cinema), San Francisco (Guild Theatre), St. Louis, Washington D.C.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
In select Alamo Drafthouse locations: Austin, Detroit, Kansas City, New York City, Washington D.C.
If you can’t make it to the cinema, don’t fret. The home video release is September 29. Along with a solo release on DVD and Blu-ray, Warner Home Video is putting out The Bombs, Babes and Blockbusters of Cannon Films which includes the documentary and nine of their high octane titles. The boxset turns your TV into a retro arthouse with carpet on the walls. Here’s part of the press release from Warner Home Video that describes the contents of the massive boxset:
Director Mark Hartley takes us on a hilarious thrill ride through the masterworks of Yoram Globus and the late Menahem Golan, two movie-obsessed immigrant cousins who became Hollywood’s ultimate gate-crashers. With hair-trigger randomness, these cousins of chaos churned out a breathtaking cavalcade of hits and misses, made movies out of posters, released a sequel before the original film, botched plots, bounced checks and burned careers – and in so doing, changed the way movies were made and marketed.
MISSING IN ACTION (1984)
American servicemen are still being held captive in Vietnam and it’s up to one man to bring them home in this fast-paced action film starring martial arts superstar Chuck Norris.
INVASION U.S.A. (1985)
When America faces invasion by an army of terrorist mercenaries, it’s up to one-man army Matt Hunter (Chuck Norris) to wage war upon the enemies of freedom.
COBRA (1986)
Sylvester Stallone is a one-man assault force who must protect a witness (Brigitte Nielsen) from an army of psychos bent on slashing their way to a “New Order.”
THE DELTA FORCE (1986)
When a U.S. passenger plane is hijacked and taken to Beirut, the President calls in a crack team of commandoes led by Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin to rescue the hostages.
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (1987)
A group of freedom fighters led by the heroic He-Man (Dolph Lundgren) attempts to stop the evil Skeletor (Frank Langella) from taking over their planet.
OVER THE TOP (1987)
Sylvester Stallone stars as a hard-luck big-rig trucker who tries to rebuild his life by winning a wrestling championship and the love of the son he abandoned years ago.
BLOODSPORT (1988)
Go inside the hidden Hong Kong arena of full-contact fighting, where American Frank Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) became the first Westerner to win the world championship.
THE HITMAN (1991)
A good cop (Chuck Norris) who is betrayed and left for dead by his crooked partner survives and goes undercover as a hitman for the mob in order to exact his revenge.
HELLBOUND (1993)
Chuck Norris stars as a Chicago policeman who, while on a murder investigation in the Holy Land, discovers a powerful satanic messenger has been restored to life.
ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: THE WILD, UNTOLD STORY OF CANNON FILMS (2014)
From Director Mark Hartley comes this cinematic rampage through the hits and misses produced by the movie-obsessed cousins of Cannon Films.
EXPLOSIVE EXTRAS: Over 25 Minutes of Deleted Scenes & Over 30 Minutes of Trailers!
