Os Invasores da Cidade Perdida

The subject is exciting, I like movies with underwater adventures, it makes me thinking of those wonderful Jules Verne's novels. Especially when the action is set in 2048, on an Earth flooded by waters, which is happening for real due to the global warming and the melting of the pole's ice cap. Now, to attack the deeper things of a spiritual nature, not only submarine. I do not give a damn about religions (including Catholicism) but I liked the cardinal line: "Without faith, our hopes go to hell". James Brolin still has charisma and he's natural. Elodie Frenck and Bettina Zimmermann not only they look great but they are also convincing actresses. Ian Somerhalder and Jamie Thomas King are natural and sympathetic. Ben Cross is good enough as the villain. It has something from "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1959) and "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1954). Some good action and chases with water scooters. It's like a novel that Jules Verne did not wrote or which he would write if he lived today.

I saw the trailer for this on YouTube and thought it looked pretty good. The story about "rising sea levels due to melting icebergs" petered out after 15 mins. The rest of the movie is just bad other than some great looking gals with fabulous legs. Ok to watch when there is nothing else.

I think everybody should watch this movie, not as a serious action movie, but simply for being incredible and hilariously funny. Basically constructed as a cheaper TV imitation of familiar mega productions (Tomb Raider, Indiana Jones, Waterworld etc.), "Lost City Raiders" presents the ultimate explanation for the climate catastrophe: we all live in a gigantic bathtub, and every few thousand years, someone needs to pull the plug to lower the water level. Moses did it once, and our heroes just need to find his scepter to repeat the trick. Mind you, this is not a parody, it's intended to be convincing and scientific. When I read the summary on the back of the DVD cover, I desperately wanted to see the movie because I found it hard to believe until I saw it with my own eyes. How does one sell a story like this to a producer? It sounds like a lunatic Troma project, but actually is an international co-production, quite big by TV standards. Apart from the crazy outline, the script is pretty well constructed though: Bettina Zimmermann's character signing a deal with the wrong team, a lot about James Brolin's character only being revealed afterwards etc. - and finally, I liked the design of the cave, archaic and futuristic at the same time.

At one point in the movie, the villain is on his boat in the Mediterranean and commands: "set a course for Geneva". That would be impossible.

That's just an illustrative example. The movie gets so many other things wrong about Bible prophecies, about the Vatican, about how grenades work, about many things. The only saving grace is James Brolin, but unfortunately he's not in the film very long.

Still, it's a fun ride done with some energy. There are worse says to spend an evening.

The world is soggy. Everybody has a sinking feeling. Global warming, resulting from too much cell phone texting or something, has begun melting polar ice caps, increasing sea level, and turning cities into giant swimming pools. Fortune hunters James Brolin and two other guys playing his sons, roam around looking for artifacts and trouble. They wear wet suits and scuba equipment. One of the sons tries to get eaten by a shark about 30 seconds into the film. Brolin exits the film soon after; must not have been paid much. He delivers his few lines well, and he's buddies with a Vatican cardinal.

Rich megalomaniac Ben Cross pays off a girl who talks like Arnold Scharzeneggar; she used to date the guy who wanted to get eaten by a shark. Legend has it that there's a scepter that just may end the water problem, and so everybody goes after it, even some rogue priest. There are a few good underwater temple scenes, and some fun action, and the story line works. Although it's obviously copying Indy Jones, it at least offers some new ideas to the formula. The conflicts to get the scepter and its immense power keep you involved, and the cast make the most of what they're given. The temple scrawling of how the scepter machine works made me laugh. It looked like the schematic for one of those old transistor radios from the '50's.

Hastilly put together with limited resources, but somehow this film gets away with it. For a SyFy freebie, it's really not bad.