A Cannon Films Documentary better than a Cannon Film
I listen to a lot of podcasts and if you read my movie review blogs, I mention a podcast called Film Sack. filmsack.com Recently, they posted podcast number 323 about Superman IV-The Quest for Peace. One of the points they talk about is how the film franchise had fallen in quality so far that Cannon Films released this movie.
I knew Cannon was the home of schlocky sci-fi movies. The Film Sack people said there was a documentary about Cannon called Electric Boogaloo-The Wild Untold Story of Cannon Films. I watched it on Netflix.
If you like movie trivia and the backstories of movies, this was one to watch. Advance warning, lots of nudity. Cannon started with Cinemax type movies starring Sylvia Kristel. The first mainstream movie they produced was The Last American Virgin. That was a typical 1980s teen sex comedy but had heavy themes. I remember the soundtrack, but never saw the movie in it's entirety.
Cannon wanted mainstream attention and public love so they branched out to PG, action and sci-fi.
A few times, they got it right, like the movie Breakin in 1984. Then they made crappy sequels to Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I remember being 15 years old and feeling bad for Charles Bronson because he was in Death Wish 5. The first Death Wish was good, the second was too graphic in the beginning, but Ok. They made 4 sequels that no one asked for. Poor Charles Bronson went from The Great Escape to Death Wish 5.
They got it right with Chuck Norris. Perhaps they were action loaded almost cartoon films, but they were successful. People still talk about Chuck Norris. Cannon discovered Jean-Claude VanDam.
The documentary was redundant in points, but it was really interesting.