The Time Traveler is a Sci-Fi fantasy that finds a recently widowed astronaut’s wife (Adrienne Barbeau) and son helping a mysterious stranger (Keir Dullea) who has washed ashore on a Greek island. The mother and son soon begin to realize that the stranger is more than he appears. In the thrilling action-comedy Sky High, three college athletes’ vacation takes a terrifying turn when they are handed a mysterious tape that a criminal organization will stop at nothing to obtain. Terminal Exposure brings a touch of Hitchcock, as two photographers accidentally capture a murder on film and pursue the lethal blonde who did the deed. The film features a score by a then-unknown Hans Zimmer. Next up is Glitch!, a screwball comedy that tells the tale of two inept burglars who attempt to throw a party in a Hollywood producer’s luxurious beach house. The party takes a wrong turn when the mob shows up to collect a debt owed them by the producer. In the tradition of Police Academy comes Ninja Academy, a comedy that follows a ragtag group that includes an awkward nerd, a mime, a rich kid, a spy, a survivalist, and two runners who are put to the test as they are trained in the ancient art of ninja! The Naked Truth takes a cue from the Billy Wilder cross-dressing classic Some Like It Hot, with two friends on the run who must dress up as women during a beauty pageant to hide from the mob boss that wants them dead. The only problem – the boss falls for one of them!
What We Thought
I can’t say I was familiar with the films of Nico Mastorakis before this collection. I will also add that I watched The Time Traveler first and it’s nothing like the other five films. Watching that first made me think the rest of the collection would be similar and they are not, not in the slightest.
The Time Traveler is about a woman and her son who find a man on the beach in Greece. They nurse him back to health and it turns out he’s a time traveler. Ok simple enough, the son is into Star Wars and other science fiction stories so he figures out what the man is, but then it gets into a religious angle where he might be the brother of Jesus and man did it take a turn at the end. I was prepared for the rest of the films to be similar, but then I watched Sky High which shouldn’t be confused with the Kurt Russell film.
Sky High is about three American friends who take a trip to Greece and get involved with mind control and the Soviets after being handed a cassette tape. That premise of friends finding themselves in a weird situation is pretty much what the other films use as a plot as well which makes The Time Traveler stand out even more.
Terminal Exposure is about two friends taking photos of women’s butts at the beach and accidentally capture a killing with their camera. They get involved with the mob while in Las Vegas. Glitch! is two burglars who try to throw a party at a Hollywood elite’s house, but the mob gets involved. Ninja Academy sees the son of a rich guy sent to a ninja academy along with a mime, a James Bond ripoff, a gun nut, some babes and more and is very 1980s karate/martial arts looking with really bad fighting and stereotypes. The Naked Truth is like Bosom Buddies with two men dressing up as women in a beauty pageant to hide from a mob boss but he falls for one of them. It’s jam packed with cameos like M. Emmet Walsh, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Erik Estrada and Lou Ferrigno. It’s sort of a spoof film like Police Academy but also mixed with Bosom Buddies.
Clearly The Time Traveler sticks out like a sore thumb when the other films in The Nico Mastorakis Collection feel more like the filmography of Andy Sidaris. The Time Traveler is serious, gets deep and is shot in Greece. Sky High was also Greece, but is drastically different in tone. The other films are all LA or Las Vegas based with lots of babes, boobs and action. These are definitely cult flicks and if a second collection heads our way I’d check them out. If you don’t like cheesy action with even cheesier dialogue and lots of nudity these films aren’t for you. But if you grew up on 80s flicks you’ll dig this collection.
Bonus Features:
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations
- Original stereo and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio sound
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- Nico’s Self Interviews, six brand new interviews with writer, director and producer Nico Mastorakis where he looks back on how the films in this collection came to be, featuring behind-the-scenes footage and cast and crew interviews
- Dan Hirsch: A Revealing Self-Interview, a brand new interview with the star of Sky High Dan Hirsch looking back on his role in the film
- Gerald Okamura, Ninja Academy’s “Chiba” Remembers, a brand new interview with Gerald Okamura, looking back on his role as Chiba in Ninja Academy, and his career as an actor and martial artist
- Original trailers for each film
- Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the career Nico Mastorakis by critic Barry Forshaw
- Limited Edition Deluxe packaging with reversible sleeves featuring newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch
The Nerds Templar 