Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014), Creed (2015), April and the Extraordinary World (2015)

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

Documentary about low budget production house The Cannon Group, with particular focus on its halcyon days of the 1980's. Incorporated in 1967 The Cannon Group started its existence producing English language versions of Swedish soft-core porn movies, along with the occasional non pornographic film. In 1979 the company was acquired by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, who the previous year had produced the biggest hit in the history of the Israeli box office, a teen sex comedy called Lemon Popsicle, and desired to turn their attention to the larger international market. Under Golan and Globus leadership The Cannon Group expanded rapidly, producing a staggering number of low budget films, peaking at 43 movies in 1986 alone. The cousins vision for the company proved too ambitious and expansion too fast however, financially over extended Golan left the company in 1989 and the group folded altogether in 1994. However during its 1980's hay day The Cannon Group was extremely successful, and more or less launched the careers of Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Electric Boogaloo takes its name from the subtitle of Cannon's Breakin' 2, the 1984 sequel to their hit breakdancing movie also of 1984 Breakin, which I think says a lot about how this company operated. The documentary is essentially a survey course on The Cannon Group in the 1980's, highlighting some of their better known and more infamous films, as well as interviews with Cannon veterans both in front of and behind the camera. There are some rather amusing stories here, with the larger then life Menahem Golan at the front of many of them. If movie making is by its vary nature a kind of confidence game, there were few finer confidence men, hence film makers, then Golan and Globus. ***

Creed (2015)

Technically this is Rocky VII, only it's a Rocky movie where Rocky is a supporting character rather then the lead. Directed and co-written by Ryan Coogler, who had a big critical and box office success with his 2013 indie drama Fruitvale Station. The young director could have done basically whatever he wanted for a follow up project and he chose to do a Rocky movie. The reason for this was in part because as a child Coogler had grown up on the Rocky franchise with his father being a huge fan of the film series. In Creed Coogler reunites with his Fruitvale Station star Michael B. Jordan to tell the story of Adonis "Donnie" Johnson, the illegitimate son of the Apollo Creed who died before he was born (see Rocky IV).

Orphaned early Adonis was tracked down and adopted by Apollo's widow Mary Ann (Phylicia Rashad) and raised in affluence, college educated and with a promising future in finance Adonis struggled with his relationship to his deceased father, took up prize fighting part time in Mexico and in the course of the film gives up steady employment to pursue boxing full time. Enlisting the help of an at first reluctant Rocky Balboa (Stallone indispensably again reprising his greatest role) Adonis ends up with an unexpected opportunity to fight the raining champ for the world lightweight championship, in a parallel in reverse on the original Rocky. Like all Rocky movies the film ends in an excellent fight sequence. This film is a worthy continuation of the franchise and adds a new take on what has become a classic story. I must add that I quite liked Tessa Thompson as the love interest. ***

April and the Extraordinary World (2015)

Done in a flash animation style and feeling like a combination of Persepolis and Tin-Tin, April and the Extraordinary World is set primarily in a steam punk version of 1930's and 40's Paris and tells the story of young April Franklin who loses her scientist parents in a strange explosion and spends years searching for her lost grandfather. Oh and she has a talking cat named Darwin, and is relentlessly pursued by a cop voiced by Paul Giamatti, and there are mysterious forces searching for the secret of something called 'The Ultimate Serum', and France wants to go to war over Canada because they (the French) are almost out of trees, and there's a Dickensian young thief, and Albert Einstein, and a walking house, and a lot of other crazy crap and its pretty fun. I am looking forward to showing this to the niece and nephews. ***