I think everybody should watch this movie, not as a serious action movie, but simply for being incredible and hilariously funny. Basically constructed as a cheaper TV imitation of familiar mega productions (Tomb Raider, Indiana Jones, Waterworld etc.),"Lost City Raiders" presents the ultimate explanation for the climate catastrophe: we all live in a gigantic bathtub, and every few thousand years, someone needs to pull the plug to lower the water level. Moses did it once, and our heroes just need to find his scepter to repeat the trick. Mind you, this is not a parody, it's intended to be convincing and scientific. When I read the summary on the back of the DVD cover, I desperately wanted to see the movie because I found it hard to believe until I saw it with my own eyes. How does one sell a story like this to a producer? It sounds like a lunatic Troma project, but actually is an international co-production, quite big by TV standards. Apart from the crazy outline, the script is pretty well constructed though: Bettina Zimmermann's character signing a deal with the wrong team, a lot about James Brolin's character only being revealed afterwards etc. - and finally, I liked the design of the cave, archaic and futuristic at the same time.

40 years in the future Global Warming has submerged most of the Earth underwater and a Father (James Brolin) and his two Sons (Ian Solmerhalder & Jamie Thomas King) salvage treasures from sunken buildings for a living when they are given an important assignment from the Vatican to uncover an historical artifact which can lower the seas moses-style - or some such nonsense. The budget as this is a Syfy Channel Production is Low (looks a lot lower than the $6.4M quoted here) and it shows rather badly at times, especially as buildings in the far distance look like paintings, but the acting isn't too bad and there is enough action to keep you interested if not glued to the screen.

A German made production Filmed entirely in South Africa and Directed by Jean De Segonzac, who has been in the Director's chair on many a TV Series and several forgettable DTV Movies.

Before I say what was bad about Lost City Raiders, which was a lot, I don't think it is SyFy's worst. Titanic II, War of the Worlds 2, AVH:Alien vs Hunter, Battle of Los Angeles, Quantum Apocalypse, 2010: Moby Dick, Super Tanker and Dinocroc vs. Supergator were worse. And I did think the settings were nice. However for redeeming qualities, that is it. There have been worse special effects elsewhere, but they still look artificial, while the editing is hackneyed. The music was overbearing and seemed out of place with the film's mood, and SyFy have still yet to prove that they actually do any kind of research in regard to their films' science and geography in my eyes. But the worst offenders were the script, story, characters and acting. The script is actually not that much different from the quality of most SyFy movies, which is usually cheesy and aimless, but it is still enough to make you cringe and wonder whether the actors are ever going to have anything worthwhile to say. The story is thin in structure, never exciting or suspenseful and never does know what it wants to be. Constantly it switches from one theme to another, often in uncomfortably rapid shifts, and it just doesn't work. The characters are very stereotypical and underdeveloped, with not much done to make us care for them. And the acting is not worth mentioning, some like Ian Somerhalder overdo it horribly. So all in all, I can name worse but Lost City Raiders was a really bad movie, cheesy, dull, sometimes cheap and never knows what it wants to do. 2/10 Bethany Cox