Benutzerrezensionen

Someone forgot to write a script for this movie. It really doesn't appear to have a script. It looks more like a bunch of people getting together and just filming scenes as they go along, much like the old TV fantasy series like Xena. Lots of conflict and some action, but no clear content. Suffice to say, there is a quest for ancient artifacts, and the ancient idol, Ba'al is involved. We even see Ba'al as malformed clouds during the movie. Not a bad visual. But to call it confusing is to be generous. This movie has nothing really going for it, other than a few characters who are reasonably likable. We also have a very trite villain, however. Not sure what the audience for this would be. Perhaps 12 year olds, but even they would want some sort of story. There just isn't a story here.

Occasionally we select a film from the rental shelves because we were intrigued with the jacket cover. In school we often study and learn of ancient Gods from around the world. The title of this movie is " Ba'al " so I was intrigued. From it's inception, the story begins to fracture like a thin layer of ice. Beginning with a trip to the Alaska wilderness, we meet Carol (Stefanie Von Pfetten) and her companion, Dr. Lee Helm (Jeremy London) who have come to visit an eminent archaeologist, Dr. Owen Standford (Scott Hylands) who has discovered one of four ancient amulets. Although the find is dangerous, the mad doctor becomes obsessed with their combined power as it will activate the wrath and power of the ancient Sumarian god. The film then has our heroes gallivanting around the globe, chased by an assortment of characters like the F.B.I., Commander Kittrick (Michael Kopsa) of the Canadian government and the director of the museum. One need not see the entire movie to notice all the inaccuracies within the film. Granted the mistakes are obvious, the movie does get a couple points, like the impressive special effects and the near resemblance of the hero to Brandon Frasier. The conclusion is, although it's a badly constructed movie, it's entertaining enough to warrant a look-see. **

I wasn't expecting much from Ba'al:The Storm God, and I didn't get much. That said, compared to a lot of other SyFy projects, it's not that bad, the visual of Ba'al is a reasonable and somewhat interesting one, the photography and effects are far less crude than you would expect, the characters excepting the villain are reasonable and the sound is decent. However, the villain is rather trite and uninteresting, and the story is dull and predictable complete with some wooden acting, really clunky writing and uneven direction. In conclusion, it's not good, but it could have been worse too. 4/10 Bethany Cox

This movie can be summed up by one word: "blah". It wasn't good, and it wasn't really bad. It just *wasn't*. I was hoping for another laughable Sci-Fi Original; some terrible script, some sad predictable plot, some poorly delivered lines, some poor acting.... but there's none of this. It's just "blah" all around.

In this film, you won't find much of a story. There really isn't a plot, just some very vague good-vs-evil. There's a lot of running around, and the whole movie is one big exercise in boredom. It doesn't even have the humor of a so-bad-it's-good flick.

So don't bother. Just go rent Carnosaur instead ;)

This is a ridiculously funny TV movie, though I doubt the producers planned it that way. The dialogue is stilted, the acting is wooden and the plot is completely nonsensical. However, it's really good for a laugh. Canadians will get a kick out of watching for the ridiculous Canadian goofs. (Like much on SciFi, this picture was produced in Canada -- Vancouver, natch.) Listen for the secondary characters with their Brampton accents... the Canada Post mailbox in the background... and my favourite, the US Navy Lieutenant with bars on his collar and corporal's stripes on his sleeve (reminds me of the MASH episode where Radar gets a "field promotion" to a Captain-Corporal). To make things even better, the rank chevrons point downward, a-la Commonwealth usage. Hell... you'd think someone in the crew would have noticed this?

This must be the only movie with serious pretensions that exceeds in cheesiness Steve Martin's production in the movie "Bowfinger". To be fair, the people who made Ba'al may have had a smaller budget than Steve Martin's character had. Let's face it, the Black Sea doesn't really resemble an inlet on the West Coast of Canada. After all, it's a SEA, people. Sebastopol isn't ever visible from Turkey, not even on a clear day. Plus BC Parks information boards don't mark archaeological sites on the Turkish Black Sea. Plus, the construction crew look as if they're right out of a bar in Prince George, BC rather than Turks. Finally, the Dead Sea Scrolls are kept in Jerusalem. They're so important to the Jewish people that Israel doesn't let them out of the country, not even on tour. They have squat to do with Sumeria and the Hebrew alphabet was invented a millennium later. The Sumerians wrote on clay in cuneiform. Finally, the Dead Sea Scrolls are not written on stiff hand-tooled cowhide. They're written in ink on fragile sheepskin parchment that sometimes took a year to unroll. See them for yourself at the Shrine of the Book.

I can forgive a low budget if the actors and screen writers turn in a decent effort. Nobody shows up for work in this turkey. The actors don't even try to make the stilted dialogue work. Lexa Doig turns in a particularly shameful performance, substituting a deer-in-the-headlights expression for emotion. The script writing appears to be the result of a committee. (OK on the rogue geologist versus the military, Mort but we also need a dying Indiana Jones plus we'll have four McGuffins, not one.) I could go on but you get the idea. See this only if you want to add more goofs to the list.

Yes, the film was a valiant attempt at making a movie. The 'Leutenant' at the beginning was wearing COrporal stripes AND LT. bars, AND NO epaulets. The aircraft were erroniously identified, the list goes on and on. Was this a good film? no. Would a bigger budget have fixed it? doubtful. Would different actors fix it? no. Would different directing or FX fixed it? Doubtful. Would it have been a good film if made in the US? no.

What is NOT noticed by one other reviewer (JoeB131) is that low budget films are made all the time. This is common. there are probably 10-20 made of this calibre for every blockbuster. Suck it up man.

Calling every film made in Canada cheesy is a national insult. There have been MANY blockbuster big budget films done in Canada, and many top TV series are filmed in Canada. The difference in the dollar offers producers a chance to make a lot more for the same budget.

Yes there was weak acting here, and there was some good work too. The specific work of Lexa Doig was certainly professional.

Don't let an obvious 'hater' make you think nonsense. OK, the film was low budget, it was weak, but some comments were a blatant slam and unwarranted.

Okay, you have all the factors for a Skiffy Channel movie here. Made in Canada, military guys in the wrong uniforms, bad CGI, an ex-star from another Sci-Fi series no one watches anymore.

The plot is that a terminally ill scientist steals the Dead Sea Scrolls to discover the location of the amulets of Ba'al, the Storm God of ancient Sumeria. (Except the Dead Sea Scrolls were written by Hebrews who didn't believe in Ba'al, but never mind. He decides to dig up all four amulets and unleash Ba'al because his HMO wouldn't cover Lartril. Or something!

Anyway, in another movie, Lexa Doig of Andromeda Fame, who still can't act, tries to alert the military that a really big storm is coming...So they do a lot of filler scenes in a room with big screen TV's and cheap computer graphics....

it's dumb, it's silly and it's lame. It's the Sci-Fi channel. Did you expect GOOD science fiction?

I could watch Lexa Doig dust book shelves, so fortunately, not knowing she was in this monster of a movie, I was otherwise sparred the wasting of 2 hours of my precious life on this celluloid crap-heap of a flick. Although I doubt even she could have held my attention in this stencher.

Is this a fair review? Of course not. I actually only saw about 20 seconds of it! 18 seconds too much, I fear... Probably near the end, a scene that struck me as a bad rip from the Mummy movie, that looked like the angry-mummy-face-in-the-sand-storm scene. That's all it took, and I hit the "next-channel" button, musing to myself, like others have mentioned, that it had "Bad Sci-Fy Channel Movie" written all over it.

It was on "Show Case". I wonder what they would classify as a "Bottom-Of-The-Shelf-Case" movie on a Saturday night, if this was the event of the evening? The mind recoils at the possibilities...

When are we as a civilization going to man-up and just start culling our archives of this crap? Stick with the bank commercials, Lexa. At least there's a little dignity in that pay-cheque.

This film ticks all the boxes, and then more. It is distinguished by the use of at leas three replacement actors - fake Brendan Fraser, fake Woody Harrelson and fake Terence Stamp. I also loved the extravagant flight simulation usage. Most impressive was the fact that one of the ancient sites was a picnic spot - they could have just read the information board to locate the amulet. Also, you'd think that a storm that destroyed the golden gate bridge and most of London would have caught the attention of some people higher up than a lieutenant in a corporal's shirt, the G man and a pretty girl with a satellite dish on her truck.

This movie is good fun, clearly love and care went into craft of this movie. It has it share of eye brow moments but overall it was clear and told a cohesive story. Very much enjoyed this movie. Great to watch with friends

Don't listen to morons who reference pseudo history. It was a good effort, and those idiots who whine about wrong uniforms, and bad acting, have never made a film and don't know what they're talking about. Will this film win any awards... no. But bigger budgets, bigger names, and bigger producers have made much worse films.

Also, if you're going to get into history, some of the scrolls were written in Greek as well as Aramiac (Canaanite languages such as Phoenician) but remember you're watching a MOVIE!!! Meant to entertain and pass the time. Buttheads who sit with their history books open to pick fault with such trivial things is asinine.

While some of the special FX aren't too bad for a movie with this budget, I cannot forgive some really poor production values which makes this film painful to watch. Let me highlight an example...one of the main guys in the film is a lieutenant, he is often referred to by his rank, he even has lieutenant bars on his collar...yet somehow he and everyone else on the movie set fails to notice he has giant corporal stripes on his arms as well. It's beyond ridiculous.

The plot, very typical disaster movie, but with a sci-fi twinge. So rather than it being mother nature that will destroy the planet, it's a supernatural being wielding the power of mother nature.

Suffice to say, I changed channel without watching the whole thing.

Unless you really like one of the actors in this film, I can't see why anyone would want to watch it.