ThiefHott
Too much of everything
Sexylocher
Masterful Movie
Megamind
To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.
Jemima
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki
A trio of schoolchildren spent eight summers in the 1980s filming Raiders Of The Lost Ark in their parents' cellars, impressively setting the cellars on fire, and doing all of the stunt-work themselves, getting ships to film scenes, with all of the passion and intensity Spielberg must have had.The trio used comic book adaptations, and saw the film as many times as possible, snuck in audio recorders to the cinema, hand drew storyboards, and filmed and starred in it themselves. A true labour of love, and well worth it. We, the audience, watch, knowing what scene comes next, and not wondering *if* these kids will do it, but trying to figure *how* they will do it. Some of the fire stunts were quite impressive, and could have turned disastrous, had anything gone wrong. (One of many jokes put into the closing credits says, thanks to "Mary Zala, for her support and for destroying her home")This film, and its 2015 documentary counterpart, Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made, are required viewing for Indiana Jones fans, and film buffs.
Ethan Straffin
Like Blueghost, I saw it at SF Indiefest and had a great time.To take stars away from this film based on its technical merits (eighties Betamax, bad sound) would be grinchlike and silly. Sure: when you go into a remake with a $5,000 budget, made by three friends who started in 1982 at age 12 and wrapped the project seven years later, you admire the concept even as you think you just might be in for a couple hours of junk. You would be wrong about the latter. This will stand as one of the most ridiculously awesome successful experiments ever committed to film.They set one of their parents' basements on fire, and (at least as they tell it) the parents only belatedly caught on and demanded adult supervision, which apparently didn't help much in that the "supervisor" was a total pyro. They did the famous truck chase in all its glory. They obtained snakes. Spider monkeys proved trickier, so Snickers the dog filled in. They scored an honest-to-God submarine. What can I say? Bring on the documentary, and the original on video for all to see.
plilja
I too cannot fathom why the rating is so low unless a bunch of people put in bogus ratings. Up until a major showing in Minneapolis in June 2007 (a week and a half ago from this post), I doubt many people have ever even seen this movie in its entirety - making the 51 ratings pretty suspect.If you know the background then watching this movie is more thrilling than watching the original.Incidentally, Paramount (the original Raiders studio) has just optioned the life story of the kids who made this movie. I'm eagerly awaiting the "movie of the movie of the movie"!!!
moniker_jones
I haven't watched all of this yet, though I'm thrilled to now have a copy of this hard-to-find video which I had read about at various times over the past few years. Makes me want to get out my camera and start shooting. I'm also thrilled to hear that Daniel Clowes is working on adapting these kids' adventures for a big-screen film. Maybe their story will inspire the next generation of Spielbergs.I'm somewhat surprised to see that no one else has commented on this film, though I suppose it's a bit difficult to find. My suggestion is to look for obscure film torrent sites like Karagarga, though some probably require invitations. I believe the film was shown in Austin a few years ago at the Alamo Drafthouse, but I wonder what sort of condition it was in at the time. The copy I have is fairly poor -- not unlike something you'd find on a VHS tape from 1985 that was re-recorded over several times. Makes me wonder if they'll show clips from the actual adaptation in Clowes' film or if they'll re-shoot clips using the actors who will play the kids in the movie. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out...