Treasure Raiders

I gave it a try, stayed with it for about an hour, but I had to give up. It beat me. Although there was an effort, as one other reviewer noted, it appeared the producers figured they had to dumb it down for the masses. Editing was weak. At one point, the police get a call of a disturbance so they decide to go investigate. Next scene, the disturbance begins! No respect for the viewer. And the clichés - Lord, I lost count. From your typical fight at the bar to the comment, "If I tell you, I'll have to kill you." I can see middle school kids being entertained, but certainly not grown adults. Although I must say, the character of "Wolf" had the best Schwarzenegger impersonation I've ever heard!

After seeing the first scenes of this film I thought I made a new discovery, but my disappointment settled early on. I didn't expect anything special, and so it wasn't. This movie has some of the most unrealistic and wannabe acting I've seen. The characters are false, and the interaction between them is like in a cheap soap opera. The situations created are far from being credible and with a mixture of some superficial special effects, some scenes look really funny, far from their original purpose. Overall it's one of those bad movies in which you have the idea that you know all the way what's gonna happen, and it happens. It has many dead scenes, the plot is too predictable, and the important moments have quite typical solutions. I had the patience to see it until the end, with all of these, and there's no wonder if I won't hear much of it in the future. What surprised me was David Carradine accepting this role, but maybe I haven't seen more of his movies. I gave it a 3/10 for the effort, and I'm not sure it deserves as much.

If you want to waste your time, this is the one for you. Very bad acting. poor dialog delivery, stupid action scenes (if you have ever watched any Jackie-Chan movie, OK forget Jackie Chan, Steven Seagal! OK forget Seagal, Chuck Norris! OK forget Norris, any other American/Chinese/hongkong action movie, you will wonder what is going on here!), idiotic expressions at times. Only one villain is worth watching who survives at the end! He reminded me of Mickey Rourke(Marv) in Sin City.

I watched this movie because someone had given very good feedback (someone who wants to make money!!) and the actor 'Alexander Nevsky' is considered hero in his country. After reading his profile, I liked him for not depicting Russian as bad guy as he refused few offers to act in blockbuster movies! But he is destroying the Russian reputation by being a bad actor. He is a bodybuilder alright, but it's the acting, which counts, not just the body!! Schwarzenegger or The Rock would not have done so well if they had acted poorly.

I want my money back. Although I watched it for free, It was still not worth my time!

I love junky action flicks. I don't mind low budget films. If a movie is entertaining and that was it's purpose, it's cool. However, this movie, eh where does one begin? It's like three guys with different ideas got together and decided they could make indiana jones, the fast and the furious, national treasure, james bond, speed racer, the transporter, davinci code and several other movies in one including all of their 'plot ideas' with a 5 year old as the script writer, in Moscow. I know sounds exciting or at least amusing right? Not so much. The whole time you're waiting for characters from all of those movies to burst in and beat everyone up for doing what they are doing. The pacing destroys any chance there may have been at creating a cohesive movie. The acting was terrible even beyond accents. The direction must have been consistently bad or non existent. The characters weren't believable from any stand point and at no point did the movie even get you into the 'story'. Constant gaping holes make you regularly ask the movie to let you in on the joke, the plot 'twist' or whatever it failed to tie in. It's like an in motion story board of round one 'brainstorming', if you can called blatant ... emulation, shall we say,... that. So, don't waste your money or even your time with this one. It's not really even one of those 'so bad it's good/funny' movies. It's just eh? what? You can find better stuff on Youtube or the bin at the dollar store, which is where this belongs.

I watched this film mainly because it has received such a high IMDb rating (7.8 when I saw it) and some very positive viewer comments. I decided to overlook the dodgy sounding plot (a hard working academic by day, and a racy car driver by night, seeks unspecified "treasure" through the streets of Moscow), and give it a go. How I wish I hadn't...

The main problems with this film are as follows: (1) the plot is ridiculous, utter nonsense. You can actually here the script writers in their meeting with the studios, gulping their mineral water and saying "it's Indiana Jones meets The Fast and the Furious meets The Da Vinci Code!" Well it is in that elements have been blatantly copied... sorry I mean influenced... by those films, but unfortunately none of the humour, excitement or intellectual interest has made it into this particular piece of cinematic history.

(2) The acting. This is probably the best thing about the film, because it is just unintentionally hilarious. Who knew there were so many bad actors working in Hollywood? Their timing and delivery is atrocious. And don't get me started on their "Russian" accents. I had no idea Moscow had such a prominent French-German population. Some money might have been best spent on a dialect coach, or at least helping this poor habitually out-of-work (for a reason, some might say) actors learn that not all Europeans speak in the same accent. And Sherilynn Fenn - have times got so bad for you, my love? You should be ashamed!

(3) The direction. I know very little about film making, but this is so bad that it jars even if you are an average Joe with no idea about movie-making. My favourite bit of direction was the cut to a large dead animal on the wall of a bar, that jerked me out of my clunky-dialogue induced reverie and at least provided me with another piece of unexpected mirth.

(4) The script. Don't ask. Just don't.

So all in all this film MIGHT (and I stress might) appeal to 13 year old boys whose ideal film is Indian Jones meets The Fast and the Furious meets... oh you get the picture. However if said 13 year old boys have a little more intelligence and taste than perhaps that group generally get credit for, then they might also run screaming from this monstrosity.

I'd say to all involved in the making of this film - don't give up your day job. And if this is your day job? God help us all.