As Good As It Gets

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Oh, cut this fun and funny movie a break, whydontcha.Here's a movie that revels – no, bathes – in its own ridiculousness to such a degree you really can't escape being charmed by all the fun everyone's having.So here's the silly story: A college professor who doubles as an illegal street racer and triples as an intrepid archaeologist is in Russia on a teacher exchange program but is really seeking the lost treasure of the Knights Templar. Because yeah.He befriends a kindly Russian vigilante strongman, woos the vigilante's Angelina Jolie lookalike sister, and runs afoul of drug dealers, a characteristically evil David Carradine, and Russian police who openly and inexplicably worry about "bad press."Talk about uneven! I lost count of how many movies were going on here. It's a "Fast & Furious" mockbuster, it's a "Da Vinci Code"/"Tomb Raider"/"Indiana Jones" mashup, it's a clichéd drug melodrama, all duct taped and Krazy Glued together into one Frankenstein of a movie.That said, "Treasure Raiders" is an idiotic delight; near perfect comic book escapism, with just enough unintentionally funny scenes like these to make it a big ol' hoot:-- CUT to stunt driver speeding through the streets of Moscow, then CUT to ancient David Carradine gesticulating wildly with a steering wheel, obviously not driving at all.-- Russian bodybuilder Alexander Nevsky is an expressive, genial teddy bear of an actor cut from Arnold's cloth, and is just as indecipherable as Arnold was back in the day.-- And his girlfriend is, oddly, Sherilyn Fenn, obviously old enough to be his mother, who acts as if she wandered in from the movie set next door.There's an ancient coded amulet, a secret bible, plot holes wider than Red Square, and a car that shoots rockets.Actual Russian location shooting lend this movie some much-needed validity, and there are some stunts and racing scenes that are actually quite jaw-dropping. One involving a motorcycle that bursts from a window in the midst of an explosion is truly impressive for a DTV silly like this.Know what I say? Woo hoo! What a Friday night, with "Treasure Raiders," some 7-layer dip and chips, and a coupla cold ones!H8rs gonna h8. Don't listen to them. Listen to me. This is a fun one. Pick it up.

I love junky action flicks. I don't mind low budget films. If a movie is entertaining and that was it's purpose, it's cool. However, this movie, eh where does one begin? It's like three guys with different ideas got together and decided they could make indiana jones, the fast and the furious, national treasure, james bond, speed racer, the transporter, davinci code and several other movies in one including all of their 'plot ideas' with a 5 year old as the script writer, in Moscow. I know sounds exciting or at least amusing right? Not so much. The whole time you're waiting for characters from all of those movies to burst in and beat everyone up for doing what they are doing. The pacing destroys any chance there may have been at creating a cohesive movie. The acting was terrible even beyond accents. The direction must have been consistently bad or non existent. The characters weren't believable from any stand point and at no point did the movie even get you into the 'story'. Constant gaping holes make you regularly ask the movie to let you in on the joke, the plot 'twist' or whatever it failed to tie in. It's like an in motion story board of round one 'brainstorming', if you can called blatant ... emulation, shall we say,... that. So, don't waste your money or even your time with this one. It's not really even one of those 'so bad it's good/funny' movies. It's just eh? what? You can find better stuff on Youtube or the bin at the dollar store, which is where this belongs.

This film is quite possibly the biggest piece of crap I've ever had the misfortune of watching, and that's saying a lot.The acting was painful to watch. It seemed as if they just pulled some random guys off the street and told them to wing it. The timing was unbearable. The chemistry: painfully lacking. The characters: one-sided, shallow, and downright weird (what were thy thinking w/ the guy from Colombia). Carradine and Fenn must be pretty hard up to have taken part in this monstrosity. Trust me guys, get new agents; making this kind of crap isn't going to bring you back.The plot was non-existent as if they set a couple of grade-schoolers loose with some crayons, took the end result, and used it to start shooting. Seriously, the big, Russian, wolf-guy who wrote this should be beaten to death with a playwriting guide.The title is confusing as there is no treasure and no raiding anywhere in this nightmare. Just when it shows a glimmer of getting interesting (more interesting than sleeping that is), the credits roll out. I give it 2 stars, and that's because I'm in a good mood.Do yourself a favor and avoid like the plague.

The worst movie I've ever seen (after Borat). Horrible actors, stupid story. These people have never seen a camera. Maybe they have been "hired" from the street. The plot of the movie is very shallow. They somehow tried to copy from "Largo" and other movies, but did not succeed. They even stole David from "Largo" so that they can get some viewers. Another side of the story is that all characters are really ugly. Even the "beautiful" girlfriend of the main character looks like hit by a truck. And she is also a very bad actress. The movie consists of disconnected scenes. Seems as if it has been shot randomly, with no main idea. Cars, races, history--all at one place. Really bad English coming from people who obviously read the text from behind the camera, because they don't even seem to focus on the subject they are talking about. Hard to believe someone spent time and money to shoot that movie. Shame.