Scriptum - Der letzte Tempelritter

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Treasure of the Knights Templar, codes, Catholic Church. Combine, switch out Nick Cage/Tom Hanks for Mira Sorvino, make her a single mother and blend until utterly bland. They make an Indiana Jones crack early on, probably to distract you from the obvious ripoffs of National Treasure.

A shame, because I like Mira Sorvino (she does looks great in this movie and half the shots are of her legs or derrière, also to distract you), Scott Foley and Victor Garber. If the writers had half the ability of one of these three actors it would have been much better, or never even made. This one belongs on the Lifetime Movie Channel, not NBC.

Three stars out of ten

This groaner ran in Canada a week earlier than NBC and I don't feel privileged because of it. The production, directing and acting are strictly amateurish. It was produced by Global TV in Canada and it reflects the poor economy and tight budgets likely shadowing the production. Even the "middle-ages" boating flashbacks look like they were filmed in a bathtub. Mira Sorvino's character is unrealistically like a female Indy Jones, jousting from the back of a mounted-policeman's steed, overpowering 3 hoods and performing various other unlikely feats of daring-do. It's devoid of mystery, drama or intrigue and too reminiscent of most dull network movies of the past decade.

The writing is a bit amateurish. Several scenes were just hard to accept. The opening scene ends with Mira Sorvino (in heels and mini skirt) jousting in Central Park to stop a medieval knight turned thief. In another scene Sorvino's character goes from old church tunnel to popping out of a manhole cover in mid Manhattan. The romance was clumsy and the ending unsatisfyingly predictable and sappy. Sorvino's acting was fine given the poor script she was burdened with. She is very believable as a smart academician who knows more than most about ancient artifacts. But the romantic relationship was just awkward and uninspiring. It looked like it came from a script a 15 year old boy wrote.

In New York, during the opening of the exposition of the Treasures of the Vatican for the public, four criminals posing as Templar knights break in the museum riding horses and heist the valuable artifacts. The archaeologist Dr. Tess Chaykin (Mira Sorvino) steals the horse of a policeman and chases and captures one thief with Red Cross of Constantine. The FBI Agent Sean Daley (Scott Foley) teams up with Tess that learns that the criminals' prime intention is a decoder mechanical device that can provide the location of the Templar treasure. They travel to Turkey where Tess expects to find the treasure and discover a conspiracy of the Church to keep classified information in secret to protect the Catholic Church.

Yesterday I saw "The Last Templar" on a DVD just released in Brazil and I did not know that this is a mini-series. The DVD has 171 minutes running time; therefore the original series was edited and 69 minutes are missing. The edited film is too long and boring, without the suitable pace of an action movie, but it would be unfair to criticize this aspect since it is not the work of the director but the producer. The romantic corny conclusion is awful. I am a big fan of Mira Sorvino and the shape of this gorgeous actress is amazing and she does not look to be a forty-three year-old woman.

The lame screenplay is dreadful, with ridiculous situation such as: (1) Tess cries to the thief in the heist to return the Constantine Cross that does not belong to him; (2) Tess investigates the case with several murders by herself, holding information that might have helped the official investigation, and is released by FBI; (3) The Catholic agent does not drink coffee in the Lent, but he shags a woman that he has just known; (4) The experienced archaeologist Tess drives reckless on the streets to show off to Sean; (5) A city buried by a volcano has light and only dust inside the building; (6) In a perfect storm with a huge wave, the perfect attitude is to jump overboard. There are many other silly and stupid situations that make the film a comedy, and not a suspenseful adventure. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "O Último Templário" ("The Last Templar")