Terminal Exposure Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Terminal Exposure Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 30, 2024

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of The Nico Mastorakis Collection from Arrow Video.

Arrow Video has been cultivating a really rather sweet relationship with Greek writer and director Nico Mastorakis for several years, bringing out any number of Mastorakis' films, including .com for Murder , Nightmare at Noon, Death Has Blue Eyes, The Wind, The Zero Boys, Hired to Kill and Island of Death. It's perhaps worth noting that as with this release, Mastorakis tends to provide his own masters, which may "cut out the middle man" and facilitate releases. Mastorakis quite frequently uses some incredibly luscious Greek locations for films that might otherwise not be much above what the back cover of this release overtly mentions as "B movie" levels, and that's once again the case with the sextet of films offered in this nicely packaged new set. That said, even when the films stray from the stunning Greek locations, there's another kind of "scenery" regularly on hand in these films courtesy of a bevy of beautiful women, often in little to no clothing. This collection has a rather broad range of subject matter as well as tonal proclivities, and makes a pretty cogent case that Mastorakis can be at least decently facile in any number of genres.

If Terminal Exposure is just one of several potential examples of Nico Masterakis, um, borrowing an underlying conceit from another, much better remembered, film, as with many of Mastorakis' efforts, there are at least some interesting sidebars to take note of. "Taking note" is a salient turn of phrase in this instance because much as Sky High at least tangentially featured Chris De Burgh, this outing was an early underscoring effort by Hans Zimmer. In terms of actual plotting, Terminal Exposure tries fitfully to eke out a "comedy thriller" ambience built upon a basic conceit that may remind some more than a little of Blow-Up.

This has the same unabashedly leering tendency of several of Mastorakis' other pieces, as two less than savvy photographers find themselves caught up in a mystery where they may have inadvertently photographed an unlikely culprit. The humor here is kind of frat boy juvenile at best, but the scenery (in all of its forms) is a major plus.

Terminal Exposure Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Terminal Exposure is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet (really more of a pamphlet this time around) has the following generic information on all the transfers, which are lumped together on one informational page, as follows:

The Time Traveller, Sky High, Glitch!, Ninja Academy and The Naked Truth are presented in their original 1.85:1 aspect ratio with stereo and 5.1 audio.

Terminal Exposure is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio with stereo audio.

The high definition masters were provided by Nico Mastorakis.

This particular effort I'd rate as falling somewhere in the middle between the "highs" of The Time Traveller and the "lows" of Sky High, in terms of overall suffusion, palette accuracy and fine detail levels. Some of this presentation tends to be just slightly faded looking, with a somewhat sickly yellow cast, but large swaths pop quite nicely, with outdoor material (which is probably less prevalent in this film than in the two previous outings) typically looking great. There are some noticeable variances in clarity, with some midrange shots in particular looking on the fuzzy side. Grain tends to be most noticeable against some brighter backgrounds, as in some of the beach set material.

Terminal Exposure Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Unlike the two previous films in Arrow's Mastorakis collection, there's no surround track available on this film, with an LPCM 2.0 track provided as the sole choice. Some may understandably have wished for a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 option, given the early Hans Zimmer track, but Zimmer's music is well supported here, if perhaps not overwhelmingly strongly in the low end (which a surround track no doubt would have aided). Outdoor environmental effects help to create some energy, and dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Terminal Exposure Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Arrow has packaged Terminal Exposure and Glitch! together on one disc. All of the films in this set feature "self interviews" by Mastorakis detailing that particular film's production, as well as other supplements, as follows:

• Nicol's Self Interviews: Terminal Exposure (HD; 12:07)


• Nico's Self Interviews: Glitch! (HD; 17:07)


• Trailers

  Terminal Exposure (HD; 3:51)

  
  

  Glitch! (HD; 3:29)

Terminal Exposure Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The key art seen above and on the cover of this release is probably more titillating than anything in the movie, even if Mastorakis isn't shy about "featuring" the female physique. This is another Mastorakis outing offering some lunkheads stumbling through a comedic adventure, and while the general ambience is decently breezy, things really aren't very funny and the underlying conceit is obviously derivative. Technical merits are generally solid and Mastorakis' "self interviews" enjoyable, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.