Expedition in die grüne Hölle

'Forbidden City' is a modestly-budgeted adventure yarn, that actually is fairly well-made and exciting! The story of an expedition searching for a lost Mayan 'City of Gold', it relies on the usual cliches of jungle movies (double-crossing team members, venomous animals, the ever-popular capsizing boat in a raging river), but serves it up with a kind of brawny acceptance, best personified by Fred Ward, as the adventurer leading the party ("Don't expect tears; you play the cards you're given.") By keeping the story moving, you find you don't mind the familiar territory as much!

The opening is reminiscent of 'Romancing the Stone'; an American archeologist in Central America calls his brother, begging him to bring a Mayan plate that had been a gift to their mother. The brother (Robert Patrick), an insurance investigator, agrees, but arrives a day late, with fatal results for his brother!

Upon arrival, Patrick discovers his brother's body, and is taken into custody by the police; upon release, he is immediately chased by the gang of thugs who murdered his brother! At the last moment, he is rescued by a pretty Italian archeologist (Chiara Casselli), who explains that the plate is a map, which, when joined with another plate, will give directions to a lost city with a fortune in gold. The second plate belongs to an American millionaire (Fred Ward) who is prepared to finance and lead an expedition. This is where the adventure REALLY begins!

Robert Patrick, best known as 'Terminator 2', and as Scully's new partner on 'The X-Files', is, as always, a bit wooden as the lead, but he can deliver a one-liner with just the right degree of sarcasm! Casselli is lovely, with jet-black eyes, and a more modest sexuality than you usually see from the female lead in this kind of film. The real 'star' here is Fred Ward ('The Right Stuff'; 'Tremors'), who conveys cockiness, arrogance, and pathos with equal skill. He is always fun to watch, and gives an 'A' movie performance in this 'B' movie!

If you want a jungle 'classic', check out 'The Emerald Forest', but if you're in the mood to kick back and relax with a good no-brainer 'lost treasure' flick, try 'Forgotten City'! It won't win any prizes, but it will serve up a nice helping of old-fashioned adventure!

Bad beyond belief, this Costa Rican vacation for Fred ward and Robert Patrick reeks. Chiara Caselli barely can speak English as the heroine. Talky with no tension or excitement. I give it two stars only because the photography is well done, and Fred Ward gets a star for being the only competent performance in the film. Totally unacceptable as entertainment would best describe this boring, meaningless trek through the jungle. There is zero character development, so we have characters we know nothing about pursuing some treasure we know nothing about. All this adds up to a movie that has little science, and no sense to the story. Not recommended. - MERK

I've seen this movie on cable tv and thought it will be interesting as "Indiana Jones" series. I was wrong.

The story is fine at the beginning and when the final parts are about to come, it changes to a very dull plot with no direction. It seems that Patrick's performance is much more better than the rest because of his acting experience.

The leading girl is fine but i can see her looking at the camera instead of looking at the person she supposed to talk to.

I want to know how these kinds of films get money. How does an 'Omega Code' or a 'Vivero Letter' make it beyond the script reading process? Basic writing rules are broken here. The acting including Fred Ward's is pure high school. Now, we all know Robert Patrick is NO ACTOR, but usually he's interesting to watch --- but the writers gave him nothing to say and he ain't that pretty or naked. So why? The worst of it is -- this is suppose to be a tresaure hunt, and as a veiwer half the fun is following the heroes as they go through the steps but there are no steps. What we are given is "No don't blow up the temple. Usually there are keystones that open the door. Let me look. Oh, look, here it is" or my personal favorite, "The symbol is the magician, (we are never shown a close up of the 'tray') so that must mean a river with teeth" Just bad. Purely Bad. Bad. So bad ------------------

Okay, everyone has talked about the bad story line, bad direction, not so great acting. What about all the continuity problems??? Just as a single, and one of the most glaring examples: This group of 7 people are white-water rafting (not too white) down this river. A guy from the shore shoots one of the guys in a raft and he and the other 2 guys fall out of the raft. In the next scene, nobody is even remotely upset about their friend getting shot. In fact, there's no discussion of it whatsoever. They're on the side of the river and Robert Patrick is hitting on Chiara Caselli. Can't blame him, but still... Okay, so then we cut to the next scene. Remember, it was 6 living people and 1 dead last we saw. Now, about 10 or 12 of them are walking through the jungle together? How'd the others get there? Drive? If so, why didn't they all drive instead of white-water raft to this place?

This was the most ridiculously stupid movie I've seen in a long time.