Lost City Raiders (2009/First Look DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: D Telefilm: D
Before
the Sci-Fi Channel oddly changed its name to SyFy, they made some lame,
so-called “original” programming and hardly any of it ever worked. One of the more hilariously bad ones is the
endlessly goofy Lost City Raiders,
written and directed by Jean De Segonzac.
With James Brolin and hoped for future successes Ian Somerhalder,
Bettina Zimmermann, Jamie Thomas King and Ben Cross in tow, this is a tired (and
overly digital) recycling of the disaster genre by throwing in bad tidings of
adventure.
To stop
the disaster, the script wants to have us believe that if they get a certain
artifact, they can reverse the process.
This is a MacGuffin that does not work and everyone looks bored. The adventure is unconvincing and how they
kept this going for 98 minutes is a combination of fluff and somehow not
falling asleep. This one a pointless
exercise that should have stayed on cable.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is very soft for a new production and
the combination of dated-on-arrival digital effects and bad final digital work
give this motion blur and softness throughout.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix tries to stretch out the low-budget,
limited-sonics sound, instead causing it to be harsh and shrill more than it
should. Extras are not here for this
release, but you get previews of other First Look releases you could see on any
of their other DVDs.
- Nicholas Sheffo
