Wonderful character development!

Dreadfully Boring

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It's one of those cheap movies that they make by getting two well known people (not necessarily stars anymore), two take a week out of their "busy" schedule to make a quick film.The story in the film is pretty decent about an expedition to find another exception gone missing in an attempt to find a treasure of a long lost civilization that worships a CGI monster like a God.I also like Micheal Shanks performance as a snobbish archaeologist on the expedition for a personal agenda. It also has a great set of interesting characters played out by some good actors, including the other name in the movie Shannen Doherty.It's one of those things that when it repeats on Syfy, you'll catch it and you'll like it, but it's not worth going out of your way to see.

Is it just me, or shouldn't a film with the Grand Canyon in the title be filmed somewhere near the actual Grand Canyon? Nothing in this looks remotely like Northern AZ, much less the Grand Canyon! Guess they couldn't afford to actually drive one state over? It'd help if the AZ legislature would wake up and make film-making more appealing to the studios, but they just keep sitting on their hands, or passing questionable laws like allowing anyone to carry a gun where-ever they want. Yikes! Maybe that's the real reason they resorted to filming elsewhere. Add to that the silly storyline, bad acting, terrible script, and you have one disaster. I had to look up how old Doherty is, cause she looks so bad in this. Seems to be hiding her weight behind baggy clothes, too. I was surprised to see her in this, but she's not done much else lately.

...not about the CGI or the budget. I can deal with those. I'm no expert, but they seemed acceptable to me. I figure SciFi channel movies are basically 2 hour episodes of the Outer Limits - story telling with a limited budget, usually done on 2 sets with a total of 10 people.Michael Shanks' character is ridiculous, and the archaeologist character is total type-casting, but I can deal with that.And its kind of ridiculous that *SPOILER* the critter explodes at the end. *SPOILER* But I can deal with that too.My questions are...Why is the sun never shining in the shots of the desert & the Grand Canyon? It looks like a foggy day in San Francisco. In reality that are is 100 plus degrees and blisteringly bright most days. Is it so expensive to send one camera guy to film some wide shots in the actual southwest for a few days? The plane fare from Vancouver or LA can't be more than a few hundred dollars.Who wrote this atrocious dialogue? It feels like a first draft.Who determined the accents the actors would use? They seem pretty random, and change from scene to scene. At least be consistently Canadian or Boston blue-blood or Californian.It seems like even if the filmmakers don't have a lot of cash for production they could still have a solid story. I imagine writing is the cheapest part of the entire process.

While I long ago gave up hope that the Sci Fi Channel would use its considerable assets in the pursuit of artistry, I've got to give credit where credit is due. THE LOST TREASURE OF THE GRAND CANYON is a passable Saturday afternoon feature. It manages to overcome the typical pitfalls of a Sci Fi Channel movie -- badly rendered CGI monster, limited sets, silly plot developments -- to showcase some low-budget ingenuity. And it does it with Shannen Doherty in tow...yes, that Shannen Doherty, the infant terrible of eighties teen television.Lest you think Doherty is the decisive factor, I want to clarify that it's director Farhad Mann's skill that elevates the picture. He has the good sense to keep the evil CGI god hidden for the majority of the movie. And even after it makes its obligatory appearance, he has the good sense to recognize that less is more. Unlike his contemporaries, who seem hell-bent on sticking their CGI creatures into as many frames as possible, Mann makes the monster secondary to the locations. Which brings me to the second major asset of THE LOST TREASURE: the photography. Mann also has the good sense to allow the beauty of the Grand Canyon to become a character in the story.Even Clay Carmouche's screenplay is decent. It's got its share of "Oh, no" moments, but it's got an equal dedication to recreating the atmosphere of an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel. It even sets it in a Burroughs style milieu.I'm not sure the picture deserves an 8, but in comparison to most of the Sci Fi Channel's oeuvre, it's a towering masterpiece. The only major issue I have is with the title. What did the Lost Treasure have to do with anything? It was mentioned, but almost in passing. Couldn't someone have come up with a better name for the picture? Guess I shouldn't think too hard. Nobody ever promised that the Sci Fi Channel was going to actually feature thought provoking science fiction.