As former film student, I really hate trashing student / hobbyist filmmaker adventure films as it's all too memorable the sheer effort of logistics that it takes to put something like this together, especially when it involves shooting overseas. However this one just got under my skin.
Easily the best / most interesting thing about this very low budgeted film is the location work in the Philippines. Throughout the film we catch glimpses of both rural and city life as well as some refreshing revisiting of that same jungle seen in so many action and war movies of the 70's and 80's. Now with the heyday of International/Filipino co- productions and cheap exploitation movies far behind us, the next generation of filmmakers is stepping in. Of course the sensibilities of these filmmakers, using their youthful enthusiasm to create "artistic" pieces, are quite different from the old ones who did copycat remake action classics such as FIREBACK, COP GAME, and COMMANDER. Unfortunately though, this film makes it quite evident that attempted artistry and originality doesn't positively impact watchability, especially if done on the cheap.
At first glimpse one would think this was a kids movie, not one necessarily made FOR children, but BY children as it's just so sloppy and loopy. The main group of characters consist of teenagers and a gung-ho couple 20-somethings on some vague quest to find some... thing (?)... in the Filipino jungles while avoiding a kidnapper/biker gang who just happen to assume that they're after some money. That's about all I could piece together. It sounds and feels innocent and lighthearted enough to earn a PG-rating until it suddenly delves into drug/alcohol abuse, a nasty attempted rape/murder scene, and then later a certain character shot bloodily & blindingly albeit non-fatally in the head and then having to continue about her business.
The story (which veers into scifi late in the film) and tone manage to somehow stay beyond incomprehensible, yet childishly inconsistent and inane at the same time. None of the main characters are likable or fleshed out in the slightest and the shoehorned-in romance between two of the tag-along local teens is just embarrassingly awkward. Some performances (especially those done by the locals in their native language) are quite believable but a lot from the inexperienced leads we spend the most time with are either flat or overly theatrical. The action scenes are killed by the hesitance of the filmmakers to actually show us any "money" shots. While at least they attempt ambitious stunts including a car chase / fight with bikers climbing onto a bus, it's maddening that so much of the fighting, injuries (several people are supposedly crushed by a roof caving in an obviously empty house) and bike crashes are merely implied off-screen for obviously budgetary reasons.
What's most curious to me about film is how much the barely-there plot parallels Ruggero Deodato's much more entertaining RAIDERS OF ATLANTIS only with most everything of interest stripped away. The film follows a group of disparate individuals on a quest to a lost island, avoiding violent bikers, and even culminates similarly with a hypnotic encounter with some lost / alien civilization. Personally I wish they'd just gone to the effort and found a print of RAIDERS and given it an official DVD release instead of producing this film. It would have saved us the addition of one more underfunded half-baked indie trashterpiece on the evergrowing pile. The makers could certainly make a much better living as location scouts for future Filipino action classics, should the genre ever happen to miraculously resuscitate itself.
Easily the best / most interesting thing about this very low budgeted film is the location work in the Philippines. Throughout the film we catch glimpses of both rural and city life as well as some refreshing revisiting of that same jungle seen in so many action and war movies of the 70's and 80's. Now with the heyday of International/Filipino co- productions and cheap exploitation movies far behind us, the next generation of filmmakers is stepping in. Of course the sensibilities of these filmmakers, using their youthful enthusiasm to create "artistic" pieces, are quite different from the old ones who did copycat remake action classics such as FIREBACK, COP GAME, and COMMANDER. Unfortunately though, this film makes it quite evident that attempted artistry and originality doesn't positively impact watchability, especially if done on the cheap.
At first glimpse one would think this was a kids movie, not one necessarily made FOR children, but BY children as it's just so sloppy and loopy. The main group of characters consist of teenagers and a gung-ho couple 20-somethings on some vague quest to find some... thing (?)... in the Filipino jungles while avoiding a kidnapper/biker gang who just happen to assume that they're after some money. That's about all I could piece together. It sounds and feels innocent and lighthearted enough to earn a PG-rating until it suddenly delves into drug/alcohol abuse, a nasty attempted rape/murder scene, and then later a certain character shot bloodily & blindingly albeit non-fatally in the head and then having to continue about her business.
The story (which veers into scifi late in the film) and tone manage to somehow stay beyond incomprehensible, yet childishly inconsistent and inane at the same time. None of the main characters are likable or fleshed out in the slightest and the shoehorned-in romance between two of the tag-along local teens is just embarrassingly awkward. Some performances (especially those done by the locals in their native language) are quite believable but a lot from the inexperienced leads we spend the most time with are either flat or overly theatrical. The action scenes are killed by the hesitance of the filmmakers to actually show us any "money" shots. While at least they attempt ambitious stunts including a car chase / fight with bikers climbing onto a bus, it's maddening that so much of the fighting, injuries (several people are supposedly crushed by a roof caving in an obviously empty house) and bike crashes are merely implied off-screen for obviously budgetary reasons.
What's most curious to me about film is how much the barely-there plot parallels Ruggero Deodato's much more entertaining RAIDERS OF ATLANTIS only with most everything of interest stripped away. The film follows a group of disparate individuals on a quest to a lost island, avoiding violent bikers, and even culminates similarly with a hypnotic encounter with some lost / alien civilization. Personally I wish they'd just gone to the effort and found a print of RAIDERS and given it an official DVD release instead of producing this film. It would have saved us the addition of one more underfunded half-baked indie trashterpiece on the evergrowing pile. The makers could certainly make a much better living as location scouts for future Filipino action classics, should the genre ever happen to miraculously resuscitate itself.