Riddles of the Sphinx

Take a guy dressed as Indiana Jones, a woman dressed up to look like Lara Croft, stick in a kid and wrap it up with some home made computer effects and you have this movie. Honestly, you can hear the lack of imagination that was shown in the pre-production meetings screaming at you through the screen. I mean why would you so blatantly copy two of cinemas iconic characters like this? It's bound to effect the entire film project. And I say 'film' very loosely as it looks like it was shot on tape. The sets aren't too bad but the green screens don't do the locations any favours. So what about the plot? Well this is one of these where you couldn't care less. The characters are writen so one dimesionaly and lines delivered so blandly you can't invest in them. It's terribly over written and the shots way too long, but the worst part is the choice of lead male actor. He is beyond bad. Even for tv. I can only assume he was chosen because hit fit the Indy jacket. It's worth watching to knock one off over Lara. She wears her outfit well. But it's all just badly put together rush at the end of the day. Oh and there's some bald guy hanging around them for some reason... like a Star Trek security guard... I think you know why 😊 One for 6 year olds to keep them busy while you do your tax returns.

No surprise - about what you would expect from a third rate network. The budget was probably whatever the limit on the producer's credit card was. All of the typical clichés for a poorly written / directed / acted project that looks like it was done by a bunch of film students over a weekend in Vancouver. (Yeah, we noticed that Egypt, Greece, and Iraq all look a lot like British Columbia in the fall, cough, cough)

The only real surprise is that someone with the talent of Dina Meyer would agree to participate in this kind of garbage. Yeah she looked great, but come on, put any physically fit 40 year old actress in an outfit inspired by Laura Croft and they will too. Need the work that badly eh - what a shame.

A big waste of time and pretty sad considering how many other potentially decent projects didn't get bankrolled so this waste of film could.

A hacky pastiche of Indiana Jones, Lara Croft and a little of "The Librarian", with mediocre acting, a non-sensical script, and a shape-changing sphinx who is alternately mediocre CGI and laughable human. While not as truly vile as some of the SciFi channel offerings, there is little else to recommend this. You could find a worse way to waste two hours, but you would have to try. As usual, everywhere in the world (Greece, Iraq, etc.) look just like where the movie was shot, in this case Canada. The sets are either obviously something else (power plant standing in for secret underground base) or so minimal (burned out 50 gallon drums for Iraqi war zone, a few Styrofoam pillars for Greek ruins) as to be distractingly laughable. Everyone continues to shoot at the obviously bulletproof monster, and if you can't guess who the traitor is I hope your babysitter didn't ruin it for you.

So bad it becomes entertaining. The CGI is some of the worst I have ever seen in a movie and the storyline itself is also not exactly strong. The sets are so horrendous there is zero immersion throughout the entire movie. I am only giving it four stars because there is something entertaining about watching something this terrible. The characters all feel very generic, the one girl is clearly meant to be a cheap tomb raider knock off while the guy is supposed to be Indiana Jones or something like that. The only reason one would watch this movie is because they are extremely bored and have nothing better to do. Not recommended.

An Egypt-themed B-movie from the Sci Fi Channel. I'm not sure that many people will be wowed by this set-up or idea and indeed the execution turns out to be just a poor as in many a film made by the channel. The storyline sees a couple of heroic characters teaming up to battle an ancient curse whereby a Sphinx is wreaking havoc in the modern world and killing all who stand before it.

Despite the Egypt theme and setting, this cheapo movie was made in Canada and boy does it show. None of the sets are remotely convincing, the CGI effects are awful, and nowhere is there an air of authenticity. Instead, the film happily copies and combines the characters from the INDIANA JONES and TOMB RAIDER franchises, to ill effect. Dina Meyer (STARSHIP TROOPERS) is the ageing female lead, saddled with an awful hairstyle and trying desperately to be Angelina Jolie (hint: she isn't). Lochlyn Munro is the chubby, goofy Indiana Jones wannabe (he even dresses the same) and frankly he's an embarrassment. RIDDLES OF THE SPHINX is thus barely watchable.