klingon-attack

I tend to judge a movie by what it claims to be. You don't expect Doctor Zhivago to be a porn movie, you don't expect the SpongeBob movie to win an Oscar and that's exactly why you don't expect "The Da Vinci Treasure" to play in the same league as a Hollywood production.

Make no mistake, this is not what I would conventionally call a "good movie" and I won't even start the old "so bad it's whatever" stereotype here. It's a mockbuster by The Asylum and anyone who has ever watched any of their movies knows what to expect already during the opening credits.

I found this mildly entertaining, obviously trying to cash in on the success of "The Da Vinci Code" (although towards the end I had a slight reminiscence of Indiana Jones movies). So what the gunfire was CGI, so what the story was totally ludicrous (I admit I did not try to follow the very, very far-fetched clues). Da Vinci and Afghanistan? WTF?

I have watched worse movies, including some who took themselves more seriously than this one. But perhaps this is just my bad taste.

What always amazes me when I read non-professional reviews (and yes, I am non-professional, too) of B-movies is that they usually fall into one of two categories. The ones give it a complete bashing, complain about everything from acting to post-production, the others try hard to squeeze it into the somewhat outworn so-bad-it's-good category. A minority sometimes tries to regard them as hidden gems that are bound to become cult movies.

Yes, cast was definitely overacting, possibly on purpose, I am not so sure about this. I am non-native in English but this sheriff character left me wondering if people in Texas really speak like this. And yes, the inbred family could have used better costumes and/or wigs, the plot could have been more coherent and logical and the sound could have been better, but hey, this is a low-budget horror movie of which species I have certainly witnessed worse specimens. The movie makers made sure it did not lack any of the stereotypical ingredients, some gore, some T & A (hot Davina Joy, who looked too good for the role) and not failing to throw in the odd corrupt small-town sheriff.

I actually somewhat enjoyed this movie. It was certainly odd and would have benefited from a higher budget, but as low-budget slasher movies go it was watchable. Just don't expect a polished, coherent Hollywood production with a budget to cover all those flaws that my co-reviewers and me so ruthlessly point out.