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This documentary tells the story of how two very successful Israeli filmmakers came to Hollywood and shook things up for a while in the ’80s. While neither Menahem Golan nor Yoram Globus are interviewed, their personalities come across in archival footage and an exhaustive array of interviews with people who worked on the films they produced. For the uninitiated, Golan and Globus pretty much discovered Chuck Norris and were responsible for the final act of Charles Bronson’s career. They were unafraid to throw sex and violence on the screen, usually at the expense of quality storytelling or even common sense.

Early on, Golan/Globus focus on sex and exploitation films, the most outlandish of which is The Apple (look it up, watch the trailer — you won’t believe your eyes, I promise). Bo Derek talks about behind-the-scenes antics on Bolero, while Tobe Hooper talks about the challenges of delivering Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Lifeforce, and Invaders from Mars. Other highlights include Sylvester Stallone’s record-breaking pay-day for Over the Top and the high hopes pinned on Masters of the Universe to deliver.

Pretty much everyone interviewed agrees that Golan/Globus had an outsider view of American entertainment that often shot them in the foot. That, in addition to their factory mindset to crank films out rather than spend time to make them really good, made them laughing stocks in Hollywood — but there’s no denying they made a big dent in Tinseltown. Their financial risk-taking and devil-may-care attitude eventually bankrupted them, but hey. We’ll always have Breakin’.

Golan and Globus refused to participate, opting to instead make their own documentary about themselves (The Go-Go Boys), but documentarian Mark Hartley leaves no stone unturned in Electric Boogaloo. The result is nothing short of an in-depth and illuminating look at one of Hollywood’s most notorious and absurd production companies. Among the others who lend first-hand accounts are Sybil Danning, John G. Avildsen, Cassandra Peterson (Elvira Mistress of the Dark), Albert Pyun (Cyborg), Catherine Mary Stewart, Mark Rosenthal, Richard Kraft, Robert Forster, Lucinda Dickey, Greydon Clark, Diane Franklin, Richard Edlund, Mark Goldblatt, Marina Sirtis, Franco Nero, Alex Winter, Elliot Gould, Oliva d’Abo, Gary Goddard, Michael Dudikoff, Molly Ringwald, Franco Zeffirelli, Barbet Schroeder, Edward R. Pressman, Richard Chamberlain, Harrison Ellenshaw, and Dolph Lundgren.

Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus