Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films is a love letter to cinematic chaos—an energetic, sharply edited ride through the anything-goes spirit that powered Cannon’s 1980s output and the larger-than-life cousins who willed it into existence. Director Mark Hartley keeps the pace brisk and the tone gleefully mischievous, letting a parade of candid interviews and behind-the-scenes war stories reveal how movies were sold on sheer audacity, hustle, and a poster before a script was even finished. It’s funny and genuinely informative, not just dunking on “schlock” but showing why this kind of risk-taking mattered, and why it couldn’t last forever. Fair warning: it’s R-rated and revels in the rough edges of the era, so if you’re allergic to exploitation-film history, it may not be your vibe—but if you love movies, it’s hard to resist this wild, affectionate backstage pass.

Electric Boogaloo is clearly trying to bottle the manic, anything-goes spirit of 1980s Cannon Films, using a parade of talking heads to celebrate how two ambitious cousins turned schlock into a mini-empire. When it’s firing on all cylinders, it’s funny, nostalgic, and packed with entertaining war stories from the people who were actually there. But it can start to feel like an overlong highlight reel that repeats the same joke—Cannon was chaotic, cheap, and reckless—until the energy dips and the snark wears thin. And without Golan and Globus properly in the mix, it can leave you with a fun ride rather than a fully satisfying, definitive story, so if you want a tighter, more balanced business history than a rambunctious hangout doc, this may test your patience.