NEIL STRYKER AND THE TYRANT OF TIME (a.k.a. Guardian Of The Universe) **** U.S.A. 2017 Dir: Rob Taylor 97 mins
A second Neil Stryker feature from director Rob Taylor who first introduced him in the 2003 movie EVIL CULT. Many years later, in a futuristic world, he has returned as a Secret Agent to rescue his kid and the rest of the world from his former mentor turned evil villain, simply known as The Mad Scientist, who has mastered time travel and wants to destroy the world and exact revenge on all that have tried to stop him. This has to be one of the funniest films I have seen this year so far.
Packed with purile humour, ridiculous plot lines, hilarious one liners and entertaining B-movie props and effects it is incredibly entertaining if a little lengthy in running time. Rob Taylor plays both The Mad Scientist and Neil Stryker (“‘I’m stapling in the holiday lights Barbara….that’s about as important as it gets!”). With co writer Nic Costa as Strykers right hand man Clark Longbow (“last one on the ship is a rusty trombone”) and The Mad Scientists stooge Darrel Freeway, both are brilliant as their characters and have mastered the art of cheesy over acting and really wooden self conscious awkwardness to a fine art. Also cast are Walter Koenig (Star Trek) as Nabroski and David Ogden Stiers (M*A*S*H) as the Admiral. Some stand out performances from Matt Zak as Agent Kevin Humphries and Stephen Lisk as Commander Fred, I could go on, suffice it to say the whole cast were a lot of fun! This movie took ten years to complete and you can see the attention to detail and effort that was put into it. The crappy B-movie effects are spot on and the more serious futuristic ones look great. The kills do have a lot of CGI blood but they make up for it with the epic goblin puppets that look like they came straight out of Jim Henson’s LABYRINTH. Great, effective synth/punky and occasionally corny soundtrack even surprises us with a cheesy musical number from a broken and despairing Darrel Freeway which is something to behold. The whole thing is wacky, surreal, campy and just plain stupid but ridiculously entertaining. It makes for great viewing, I highly recommend this so please check this out and see for yourselves!
Review by Sarah Budd