Le trésor oublié

Released to cable in 2003 and directed by Jim Wynorski, "Lost Treasure" is an action/adventure flick about two estranged brothers (Coby Ryan McLaughlin and Stephen Baldwin) who team-up after finding a map to Columbus' lost treasure on a remote island in Panama. Nicollette Sheridan plays the bush pilot they hire while Scott L. Schwartz & Tami-Adrian George play an entertaining tourist couple for comic relief. Hannes Jaenicke and Jerry Doyle are on hand as heavies.

I'm giving this a relatively low grade because it's TV-budget comic book escapism with a story that's sometimes eye-rolling and not that compelling. But the protagonists are likable, there are a lot of thrills (with numerous explosions, if that's your thang), the locations are good and the story moves right along.

The film runs 90 minutes and was shot in Charlotte, NC, and the Los Angeles Arboretum.

GRADE: C-

Evidently, a good place to hide a fifteenth century treasure map is behind a not very interesting painting, which will eventually end up in an art gallery. How would anyone know that it was hidden behind a painting? Well that, and most of the other details of this film, is never explained. For example, why would an art museum be loaded up with 55-gallon drums of gasoline, so that when it is torched as a diversion to stealing the painting, they could explode like rockets? And for that matter, with all the exploding and flames everywhere, the painting should have been burnt to a crisp before anyone had a chance to swipe it. But this is supposed to be a thriller, so all the absurd pyrotechnics of the beginning were evidently thought necessary to startle the twelve-year-olds in the audience.

After that as an introduction, the basic idea is that there are no good guys, just varying degrees of bad guys and bystanders, who end up chasing after a lost treasure. Never mind that one is a cop and another a government agent, sworn to an oath to serve the public, and hence any treasure they might discover as a result of doing their jobs would more correctly belong to the people they serve. In other words, the basic message of this film is that serving the public might be fine in theory, but when the potential for feathering one's nest with a vast fortune gets involved, best to take the money and run. No wonder the current generation has so little faith in public servants. When they go to the movies, they see them portrayed as only marginally less greedy than the crooks.

This is a shameful story, which promotes the view that no matter how you end up with the loot, it is yours to keep and enjoy. The bad guys, who want to keep it all for themselves, must first be knocked out of course, after which the `good' guys get to divide the hoard. And the reason why they are `different' from the crooks is because they are less `violently' motivated by greed. In other words, if avarice is pursued less violently, perhaps more humanely, then it's okay. In any case, what matters is that you end up with the prize. Having the money is more important that how you got it. That, unfortunately, is the message of this story, and it is as harmful to the fabric of society as it could possibly be. It makes greed seem romantic and exciting, while acting as though social responsibility was not even worth considering.

It's gotta be fascinating to find out how movies like this get made. The budget and ambition of the film-makers appear to be large enough for pyrotechnics and CGI effects, with perhaps stock-footage accounting for some big-ticket items such as a fairly unnecessary scene inside a naval ship.

But let's start with that title. "Lost Treasure." Sure, that's what the movie is about, but could you have a more mundane title? That's like, say, calling "Independence Day" "Attack By Aliens." As noted by other reviewers, almost everything about this film is subpar, and yet it is still somewhat watchable. About the only reason for this is Mark Christopher Lawrence adding some much-needed comic relief as a disgruntled tourist. Otherwise, the only entertainment is derived from seeing how ridiculously bad the parts of the stereotypical bad guys are written. You could blame the actors, but why when they're given nothing to work with that you haven't already seen in countless other movies?

Meanwhile, on the good guy side, Coby Ryan McLaughlin tries gamely in his role of kidnapped cop, but his acting ability is the epitome of the entire movie in its averageness. Top billing goes to Stephen Baldwin, who does little more than reprise his role in the equally-awful "Shelter Island" as a brooding, moody type. About the only depth he's added to his character here is a beard.

Basically, pile some explosions, car chases and scenes of people being chased round an island in a storm on top of wooden acting and stilted dialogue and you have a very run-of-the-mill play-it-by-the-numbers movie that might not be the biggest travesty committed to celluloid, but doesn't add anything to the world of cinema either.

I just found out that "Lost Treasure" was contracted and produced as an "HBO Original Feature" and that is why it looks like and ends like a Made-For-TV Movie. It is! Since there is no indication anywhere that this is not what most people would call a "film" (theatrical release) but rather a hasty "teleplay," it is clear the distributors are screwing with the buying and/or renting public. This should no more be on the same shelf with a major studio release than my home movies. Maybe the Home Entertainment industry should do a little self-regulation on entertainment classifications. I have no problems with presentations like "Lost Treasure" as long as I know what I am buying or renting or watching. Other then that, let the viewer beware...

The writing was puerile and run of the mill, the director should have flogged. But Steven Baldwin was understated and came across very naturally - there's that.