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Cannon Films gets an affectionate profile in ‘Electric Boogaloo’

Australian documentarian Mark Hartley crafts his third vigorous valentine to exploitation cinema, alongside Not Quite Hollywood and Machete Maidens Unleashed!, with Electric Boogaloo, an explosive trawl through the snarling ferocity of Cannon Films before its inevitable bankruptcy in the early 1990s. Whilst the former documentary in the cycle celebrated the boom in Ozploitation cinema of the 1970s and 1980s, and Maidens! took a appreciative scan of the laxly monitored Philippine film factory, this time the viewfinder shifts to the excessive and action packed oeuvre of Israeli movie moguls Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, whose 1979-founded company became an explosive production house in Hollywood during the Reagan-mandated 1980s. Much to the disgust of snooty critics and prestige-minded executives, Cannon (an apt name) forged repeated success due to their box office-incinerating brand of chaotic, cheap and politically dubious action and exploitation films, bringing the grim jaw lines of Chuck Norris, Charles Bronson and Sylvester Stallone to international markets.

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Director & Actor Teams: The Overlooked & Underrated (Part 2 of 2)

Following are some supplemental sections featuring notable director & actor teams that did not meet the criteria for the main body of the article.  Some will argue that a number of these should have been included in the primary section but keep in mind that film writing on any level, from the casual to the …

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Director de Toth balances the gritty with the stylistic in ‘Crime Wave’

Crime Wave Directed and Andre de Toth Screenplay by Crane Wilbur U.S.A., 1954 Sometimes the merits of a film noir come down to how superbly directed and acted it is, simple as that. Truth be told, there are only so many variations of the same story which can be told within the genre for it …

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SOS Staff Gateway Films: Bill Mesce – ‘The Magnificent Seven’

Throughout November, SOS staffers will be discussing the movies that made them into film fanatics. (click here for the full list) There was no a-ha! moment, no seeing of the light, no epiphany.  I’d loved movies since I was a kid, had been a buff since my early teens, but there was no one, shining …

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