The Last Templar
The Last Templar
| 25 January 2009 (USA)
SEASON & EPISODES
  • 1
  • Reviews
    Jeanskynebu

    the audience applauded

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    Steineded

    How sad is this?

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    Moustroll

    Good movie but grossly overrated

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    Keeley Coleman

    The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

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    calnaturegal-75956

    But this isn't a series, it's a movie, so it's listed wrong but the description is correct. Not Sorvino's best movie, but I've seen a LOT worse. At least I was entertained. :D

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    classicalsteve

    Probably the most glaring flaw of this rather over-long but somewhat entertaining religious-mystery in the same vain as the Da Vinci Code is its depiction of Turkey which looks more like Saudi Arabia in the film. (Turkey is a relatively plush and green landscape with some brown rolling hills, but not like the Sahara desert of Iraq and Saudi Arabia.) According to the back-story, the Templar Knights of the Middle Ages were on the verge of extinction in the late 13th century. (At dawn on Friday, 13 October 1307, many Templars were arrested on trumped up charges, and many were executed which destroyed the Order of Templar Knights.) The Templars have in their possession a document purportedly revealing the location of ancient Jewish-Hebrew treasures uncovered beneath the ruins of the ancient Jewish Temple of Jerusalem which was destroyed by the Romans in 66 CE. The master of the Templars ordered the document to be taken by a special envoy of knights back to Turkey. Jerusalem is under siege from Saracens who were conquering part of Jerusalem which was under the control of Christian Crusaders and Byzantine Eastern Orthodox. (Islam would permanently take control of Jerusalem and the Near East in the 15th century, only a few decades before Columbus' voyage.) Fast-forward 700 years. At a special exhibition at a museum in New York, artifacts of ancient and early medieval Christianity are on display. One of the artifact-finders is an Indiana Jones type, Tess Chaykin (Mira Sorvino). According to the story, her father had found the Cross of Constantine which he supposedly held on his deathbed when he converted to Christianity in the mid-4th century, an artifact which just happens to be on display. In the film, the ornate Cross itself looks like a Latin Cross in the style of many centuries later, more akin to those of the time of Charlemagne, circa 800 CE and later, not like the Cross Constantine would have known. Constantine's Cross looked more like an "X" with a "P" on the top, called the "Chi Rho". This is just one example of many little "flaws" in the film which would certainly cause the raising of eyebrows of many-an historian of Early Christianity.Then four guys on horses dressed in Templar garb with helmets storm the exhibit and snag several of the artifacts, including the Cross and some sort of 13th-century decoder with metal gears about the size of your average box of corn flakes. Again, such an artifact would have only been conducive no earlier than the Renaissance in the late 15th century, not as early as the 1200's as suggested by the film, another one of the film's interesting "innovations". Tess subdues the "Templar" with the Cross but the others get away. Turns out the entire escapade was masterminded by Bill Vance (Kenneth Welsh), a fellow archaeologist and friend of Tess' father. Turns out he only wanted the decoder because of a secret document he found which is in "Templar Code". However, Vance's accomplices are being killed by an assailant whose motives are as of yet unknown. FBI agent Sean Daley (Scott Foley) is hot on Tess' trail, at first suspecting she's behind the murders of the "Templar" thieves of the museum. We also learn Daley is a devout Catholic, and because the artifacts belong to the Vatican, he turns to a Monsignor in the diocese of New York, played by Victor Garber, who interestingly enough played Jesus in the film version of the hippie-religious musical "Godspell", produced in the early 1970's.The film then becomes similar to "The Da Vinci Code", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", and "National Treasure" where the codes lead to other secret messages which in turn lead to other places. All the while, we get flashbacks to the small band of Templars of the late 13th century and what they were trying to accomplish. The trail leads Tess and Agent Daley to Turkey where the messages claim they hid a secret artifact in a Byzantine Church. One of the film's strengths is we see the episode in flashback of the Templar's adventures only as the next clue reveals what they had done. Part of what makes the whole thing work is a memorable performance by Mira Sorvino. Although I'm sure she wasn't nominated for any awards for this film, we run with it largely because of her. I thought Foley's performance as the FBI agent seemed a beat inconsistent, where he's portrayed as a devout catholic while simultaneously seeming uncaring about the Templar artifacts. So much of the film has elements which mirror the Da Vinci Code. Bill Vance is very similar to the character of Sir Leigh Teabing, scholar of Early Christianity and the so-called Priory. Vance is portrayed as the foremost scholar of the Templar Knights. The enigmatic and silent assailant is a cold assassin, similar to Silas of the Da Vinci Code, although in "The Last Templar" he's black instead of an albino. Tess has elements of both Indiana Jones and Robert Langdon, and of course she's coupled together with a member of the opposite sex who's an FBI agent, similar to Agent Sophie Neveu of the French police who gets together with Langdon. Overall, the story seems to be about archaeology versus faith which has become a hot-button issue in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, particularly in the wake of the discoveries of known Christian gospels found in Egypt in the 1940's. The theme is a decent one, although I am not sure I bought the overall point of view of the story which is revealed in the final climactic scene. Similar to Leigh Teabing, Bill Vance becomes a rather enigmatic character who seems at odds with who is by film's end.

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    Petri Pelkonen

    Female archaeologist Tess Chaykin goes chasing an arcade medieval decoder, which is stolen from the New York Metropolitan Museum by four horsemen dressed as 12th century knights.She's helped by an FBI agent Sean Daley.The Last Templar is a mini-series from 2009, and it's directed by Paolo Barzman.It's based on the 2005 novel by Raymond Khoury, which I haven't read.In this mini-series the lead is played by Mira Sorvino.Rebecca Windheim plays her daughter Kim.The male lead is played by Scott Foley.Victor Garber plays Monsignor De Angelis.Kenneth Welsh portrays Bill Vance.Omar Sharif plays the part of Konstantine.I saw this show on a DVD a little while back.It doesn't offer you great adventure like those Indiana Jones movies.And it is much closer to The Da Vinci Code, which was also about a secret the Vatican doesn't want you to know.There is some entertainment value this has to offer.Like Mira Sorvino chasing those horsemen, on a horse, is really something to see.So if you don't expect too much and want just to be entertained, you should watch this.

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    ozgur-27

    Sory but this film is suck....Especially the part about Turkey. Bodrum was shot like some town from the 3rd world, without even knowing the fact that every single person in Bodrum can speak English and I have never ever seen Bodrum like in the film! However Bodrum like Ibiza or something like that. But in the movie, Bodrum like Afghaninstan or Iraq. Thats not true. Also the movies and production, directing and acting are strictly amateurish.Stop wasting our time with this crap, NBC... maybe you wouldn't have to keep pumping this stupid stuff out if you didn't cancel good shows like Journeyman or My Own Worst Enemy. All you have left is Heroes, and that can't compete with 24 or House... NBC's golden years died with the ending of Friends and Seinfeld. Don't bother to watch it for anything other than the news.

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