Crappy film

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

TREASURE OF THE FOUR CROWNS may not be the best, but it's certainly the bizarrest of the various European Indiana Jones rip-offs that followed in the wake of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. This totally madcap film is bookended by two incredible scenes of action that will have you shaking your head in disbelief, whereas the slow middle section is for courageous viewers only who don't succumb to boredom too easily. And what the heck was Ennio Morricone thinking when writing a score for this trash?! It's rip-off time from the start with this movie, which opens with some yellow scrolling introductory footage which will no doubt make any STAR WARS fan feel a sense of déjà vu. Immediately afterwards we're introduced to J.T. Striker, our red-quilted jacket wearing hero who has to brave the dangers of a booby-trapped castle in the search for a hidden key. As well as rabid dogs - who know what they survive on in a deserted castle in the middle of nowhere - Striker must face jumping snakes, opening pits, a fair quantity of dry ice, moving skeletons and suits of armour, loud wailing, and, most hilarious of all, a vulture - made of CARDBOARD - which comes flying at him on a plainly visible string! If this wasn't enough, as soon as he retrieves the key, flying bolts, spears and rockets (!) are launched at him, the building burns down and Striker must escape from burning wooden spheres which roll after him and threaten to engulf him (let's see if anyone can spot the influence of this last bit). He manages to jump (in slow motion of course) through a window and escape as the castle explodes behind him. I guess somebody happened to leave their dynamite behind by mistake when vacating the premises! The most incredible thing about all this action is that this all takes place in the first TWENTY minutes.Well, it's a good thing that the film settles down at this point for some plot exposition or I might have had a heart attack from watching all that excitement! Basically, Striker must travel to a remote mountain-top castle which is inhabited by a religious cult led by the insane Brother Junas; there, he must retrieve three crowns which contain the power to stop evil in the world (one of the crowns is already owned by his local museum). For some unexplained reason, Striker must assemble a team of five to infiltrate the castle, get past the guard and booby-traps and steal the treasure.The director is Ferdinando Baldi, who was responsible for some enjoyable peplum epics back in the early '60s. Baldi's direction is adequate and he keeps the film lively at all times; on occasion he inserts lots of slow-motion in an attempt to emulate fellow Italian action director Enzo G. Castellari, no doubt! This is one of those movies made to cash in on the short-lived 3D craze of the early '80s, so they really go overboard with things flying at the camera; we've got ropes, hands, traps, flames, crossbow bolts, harpoons, knives, candles, feet, snakes, and you name it at various points; the most hilarious bit is when two people constantly pass things to each other, towards the camera every time! Pointless of course but still unintentionally funny. Speaking of the camera, couldn't they afford a duster to wipe it? On numerous occasions there are bits of grit, grime, and dirt stuck on the lens which is really off-putting. Just a sign of the low budget I suppose. If you're a fan of cheesy, low-budget rip-offs then TREASURE OF THE FOUR CROWNS (that should read THREE, because there's no sign of the fourth!) is the film for you.

This movie was horrible and everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves for ever having been associated with it. Having said that, there were a few aspects of this movie that appealed to me, namely that there was a history behind the crowns. I saw this a few years ago, so some of my details may be a little off, but you'll get the idea of just how horrible this movie is.The movie opens with J.T. Striker (Tony Anthony) approaching some old castle. We quickly learn that this castle is booby-trapped to the max and our hero has to dodge everything from darts and flying buzzards to ancient torture racks to reach his goal, which is the coffin of some long-dead king. Inside this coffin is his goal: a key. He collects the key and then escapes, as the entire castle starts to "come to life" and eventually explodes. Just where this explosion came from is a mystery.Back to the world goes our hero to meet up with Ed, who takes him to a museum where they hand over the key to Prof. Montgomery. Montgomery and Ed tell the story of the crowns, which they key will unlock. They actually have one of the crowns in their possession. I found this to be the best part of the movie and the only true attempt at meaningful dialog.Ed speaking, as the crown slides out of its container: "This is one of the Four Golden Crowns created by the Visigoths in the 6th Century some time after the conquest of Spain." Prof. Montgomery: "Legend held that the gold balls on top three of the four crowns contained secrets to unleashing incredible powers of good and evil. After a time they passed into the fabric of myth and legend." Ed: Until sometime in the late 1800's when they were discovered (somewhere in Spain).Prof. Montgomery: "But when the Arabs invaded Spain three of the four crowns disappeared. The fourth fell into the Arabs' hands and attempting to unlock its secrets without the key, they destroyed the gold ball. Three years ago I learned the location of the key, but saw no sense in retrieving it since the other crowns were missing until this crown, reportedly the one containing the scroll surfaced. I found it in the possession of a Sherpa mountain climber in Nepal and convinced him to sell it to me. And now, we shall see." The professor opens the crown and there is the scroll and now the enlist Striker to help them steal the remaining two crowns from a cult leader who uses them to control people (we are never told just how the crowns help him do this). Striker reluctantly agrees and assembles the team of Rick The Drunk, the dying old clown Socrates and his daughter Liz, and Ed.The hapless crew infiltrates the secure room where the crowns are kept and are very close to getting them without incident, but then a piece of equipment that is supposed to knock out the security systems, fails to function and J.T. decides to go for it anyway. What follows is a comical collection of deaths by each of the participants (except Liz and J.T.). First, Socrates has a heart attack (we were told earlier he had a heart condition). Rick is killed by arrows that shoot up from the floor. Ed is at first crushed by the arms of this statue that the crowns are sitting on and then a snake comes out of the statue and bites him on the cheek (leaving no fang marks). Before the entire ridiculousness of this scene can even be comprehended, J.T. who has been blinded by some steam that shot out of the statue (and set off the alarms), regains his feet and opens the crowns (I guess all of the security mechanisms had been exhausted at this point). The crowns (the green one evil, the gold one good) make breathing noises at him. He takes them in his hands and his head spins around a la The Exorcist and then his face is divided between good and evil, with the evil side corresponding to the hand he is holding the green ball in and the good corresponding with the had he is holding the gold ball in.Brother Jonas, the cult leader, has by this time burst into the room with his machine-gun toting, mask wearing followers and J.T. shoots fire out of the two crowns and kills them all. He snaps back out of it after they are all dead and he and Liz are lifted out of the room by the professor, but not before he throws the crowns into the fire.There is a final scene which makes no sense. We see this blob rise out of a swamp and snake-like thing shoots out. But I want to point out that there were THREE crowns shown in this movie. People seemed to forget about the one with the scroll.O.K., that's basically the movie. The 3D was horrible. Strings are visible everywhere, much of the 3D was wasted on things that didn't need it, and nothing was really explained about how the crowns could help mankind, even though this why they were all risking their lives for them.None of the characters were complicated or compelling. There was nothing that made you root for these guys to win. And the director seemed to just do whatever he wanted without thoughts to continuity or credibility. A shining example of this would be the fact that Striker escapes from the castle in the beginning by breaking through a stain-glass window that leads right outside. Why didn't he just go through that window in the first place instead of risking his life maneuvering through the booby-trapped castle? Hope this saves you a few bucks.

The Treasure of the 4 Crowns, a low budget Raiders of the Lost Ark ripoff, was part of a brief 3D revival in the early 80s; on video, shorn of the novelty of an extra dimension, the film loses any impact it once had and ends up a tedious and unexciting affair.Tony Anthony, the rather piggy-faced star of Comin' at Ya! (another 80s 3D movie), stars as J. T. Stryker, a treasure hunter who gathers together a group of fellow adventurers to steal some mystical crowns from a heavily guarded fortress (owned by a strange cult).Opening with a scene in a deserted castle, where J.T. faces deadly booby-traps in order to find a magical key, director Ferdinando Baldi makes known his intentions from the start: to steal liberally from Spielberg's movie whilst dangling everything possible into the foreground for maximum 3D effect.The story is quite simply awful, the acting rather poor, and the special effects lousy. Scenes specially shot to make the most of the 3D technology look quite ridiculous, and the wires supporting many of the objects 'floating' in the foreground are clearly visible.The finale, which sees J. T. and his team reaching the crowns and unleashing their 'awesome' power, is particularly confusing: J. T.'s head spins round and round, Exorcist style, and then he shoots flames from his hands. The main bad guy, cult leader Jonas, has his face sliced up by lasers and then gets roasted by J. T.'s flamethrowers. Bizarre.And as if that wasn't enough, a final shot sees a strange snake-like creature leap out of a swamp, for no apparent reason.On a positive note, Ennio Morricone's score is pretty good (well... far too good for this tripe, anyway!).Even if Treasure of the 4 Crowns received a proper 3D release on DVD, I would still think twice about watching it again!

Was there a story line to this movie? It seemed everything in it was simply to have a 3-D FX for the viewer. 3-D pictures made a brief comeback in the early 80's and this was one of them. I couldn't even imagine watching this without the 3-D bit. MST3K should have latched on to this one.