Sky High
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
Will Stronghold begins ninth grade at Sky High, a high school that exclusively teaches teenagers with superpowers. Will's parents are The Commander and Jetstream, some of the world's most famous superheroes. Will's best friend, Layla, who happens to have a crush on him, has the power to manipulate plant life. Will is anxious about attending Sky High, located on a floating campus reached by a flying school bus, because, unbeknownst to his parents, he has not developed any super powers. On the first day, he and the other ninth graders are harassed by a trio of bullies: Speed, a burly senior with super speed, Lash, a skinny senior with extreme flexibility, and Penny, a senior cheerleader who can clone herself. Because of his lack of powers, Will is slated to enter a curriculum for "Hero Support" and becomes a sidekick. His classmates include Ethan, who melts into a fluid; Zach, who glows in the dark; Magenta, who transforms into a guinea pig; and Layla, who joins the class in protest against the two-track nature of the school's education system. The class is taught by The Commander's former sidekick, "All American Boy."
Will learns that not everybody gets powers, and there are such cases of those who have two superpower parents do not get any superpowers, such as the Bus driver Ron Wilson. The Commander is unaware that his son has been relegated to Hero Support, and shows Will his hidden trophy room. He is particularly proud of the mysterious weapon, "The Pacifier", which he took from his science-themed nemesis, Royal Pain, years ago. Unknown to either of them, Royal Pain, who had been presumed dead, watches the exchange from a hidden camera in one of the other trophies. As Will settles into Sky High and makes friends with the other sidekicks, he comes into conflict with pyrokinetic student, Warren Peace, whose supervillain father had been imprisoned by The Commander. During a fight between the two, Will demonstrates super strength, impressing Gwen Grayson, a beautiful and popular "technopath" who controls machines with her mind. Will is subsequently transferred to the "Hero" track and begins spending more time with Gwen and her clique of friends, ignoring the sidekicks and Layla, who reveals to Warren that she has loved Will for a long time. On the day before the dance, Gwen tricks Will into throwing a party at his house, and uses Speed to steal the Pacifier when she seduces Will into showing her the Secret Sanctum. After Gwen lies to Layla, who shows up to investigate the noise and believes the lie, Will breaks up with Gwen, refusing to attend the dance, even though his parents were invited as honored guests. Later, he looks through his father's old yearbook and sees a student who resembles Gwen. Believing that the student is Royal Pain and that Gwen is her daughter, he rushes to the dance.
At the dance party, Gwen reveals that she is actually Royal Pain. During her previous confrontation with the Commander, the Pacifier, which is meant to turn its target into an infant, had malfunctioned, turning her into a baby instead, thus faking her suspected death. She has since waited sixteen years for revenge. With the help of Speed, Lash, and Penny, she takes over the school and uses the Pacifier to turn the faculty and students into infants. After returning to school, Will apologizes to Layla, and teams up with Warren, the sidekicks and Ron Wilson to try to save the day. The sidekicks demonstrate their heroism after Royal Pain sabotages the school's anti-gravity drive and their powers come in handy restarting it. Meanwhile, Will discovers that he has Jetstream's powers of flight when he is thrown off the edge of the school grounds and prevents the campus from falling using his two abilities. Gwen and her henchmen are defeated and arrested and the faculty and students are returned to their proper ages. Will and Layla kiss, and a voiceover at the end reveals that they become a couple, he and Warren became best friends, and Ron Wilson gained superhuman powers after falling into a vat of toxic waste, thus becoming a superhero.

Review: SHOULD BE PASSED OVER.. Director Nico Mastorakis is responsible for some fairly well-crafted linear output, but with this piece it is obvious that he lacks a point of view as to the nature of the type of film he wishes to create, with a result being an inordinately silly affair that is opposed to constraints of taste or the merest intelligence. The storyline wanders in all sorts of directions, beginning with a scene of suspense, then abruptly shifting into being after a teenage sex farce, all the while touching upon themes of what could have been, if handled appropriately, mystery and romantic love, with ancillary liaisons to slapstick, psychedelic music videos, and entirely too much else. A chaotic plot outlines antics of three male U.C.L.A. students who have taken a year off from school to gambol about in Greece but, instead of just chasing young women, they also find themselves prey for what may be C.I.A. operatives, since it is believed that the collegiate trio has by chance come to possess an astounding audio visual tape that may destroy civilization. This is rather stupidly presented and is exacerbated by some atrocious acting, largely by tyros who seemingly receive little directoral supervision, although veteran supporting player John Lawrence adds needed ballast.  The self-indulgent director is responsible for having organized digital effects design and trite sound FX, as evidenced in tiresome scenes mindful of MTV, and also offers meaningless voyeuristic shots of topless beach bathers.  As in many films lacking coherence, a goodly amount of footage is of scenery, in this case featuring the beautiful Greek islands of Rhodes, Santorini and, especially, of Mykonos, where most of the sunlit action is to be found.  As some of the locations are responsible for backing of this puerile effort, camera eye roving of the picturesque is understandable on that account, but no rationale can be found for the greatest portion of a film that one avoids, to one's advantage.. Travelogue Masquerading as Thriller in Sunny Greece. This tame account of three single, male, UCLA students on vacation in sunny Greece is a travelogue masquerading as a thriller. Director Nico Mastorakis stages the action against some of the most breathtaking scenery in the Mediterranean Sea. Unfortunately, the scenery is more interesting than this lame spy thriller about a Russian who gives a top secret formula to a nerdy kid while visiting the Acropolis of Athens. The drug works on the central nervous system like no other drug imaginable at that time. This mysterious drug is the best thing about this forgettable nail-biter. The KGB stalk Lester (Daniel Hirsch of "My Chauffeur"), Bobby (Clayton Norcross of "Defending Your Life"), and Mick (Frank Schultz) across the Aegean in an effort to get their hands on the secret formula. Along the way, our misfit heroes run into a bevy of beautiful babes, and we are treated to lots of topless shots of women strewn out on the beach. Mastorakis conjures up marginal suspense. The best action scene involves a "From Russia With Love" style helicopter shoot'em up where a major supporting character, a CIA agent Boswell (John Lawrence of "Hot Summer Week"), who has been running interference for them for about two-thirds of the movie, dies from three bullet wounds to the chest. The three leads are leaden lugs and their acting is abysmal. Les is the be-spectacled computer nerd who is drawn out of his corner and given a make-over. Les is also the one who has the drug thrust upon him before they pile aboard a cruise ship with two sinister KGB agents tailing them. Les throws the drug that was recorded onto audiotape into the sea. Evidently, the drug when it is encoded into a tape puts out a sound that stops people dead in their tracks so you can walk around them without them seeing you. The dumbest scene has Bobby and Mick fleeing across white-washed roof-tops with the KGB hot on their heels and then leaping off the roof and landing without injury onto a vehicle loaded with eggs. Talk about far-fetched nonsense. As one KGB agent pursues them, they hurl eggs at him. Eggs! The major revelation that comes with a quarter-hour left to go contains a couple of surprises, but these reversals don't compensate for the lackluster thrills and chills. Incidentally, the title of the movie is the name of the mysterious drug that gives everything an hallucinatory experience.. this is so bad it's almost good. You never really quite know what's going on, and some of the acting is unspeakably terrible, amongst the worst I've ever seen. The plot is not so much full of holes as gaping bottomless-pitted crevasses. Nevertheless I can't give it a 1/10, there is something about it that makes it riveting viewing, just to see the next mind-bogglingly acted scene or twist in the "plot". I have to also give it marks for originality as well, and the rickshaw-chase scene with the two heroes throwing eggs at the villain was a camp masterpiece that had me in stitches. I mean, it's so frightening it's almost good! Remembering that it was filmed in 1985 in the middle of cold war hysteria, it does look a little bit dated now with the KGB and all, but it was certainly a reasonable idea that could have been executed better, although that might have taken it out of the realm of the truly pathetic and into the humdrum of the forgettable.