Maidgethma Wonderfully offbeat film!

Develiker terrible... so disappointed.

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Ed Heath Let me start by saying I love Anna Friel. I would watch her reading the phone book. But this movie is almost less interesting. The male romantic lead and his "brother" are a little hard to understand, and the concept of "treasure guards" is a notch below how the believable the Librarian is. And what-his-name Raoul the guy is hard to understand. But what makes it clear how bad the filmmakers are is the fight scenes (impossible to follow) and the montages. The concept of the seal of Solomon is no worse that most other movies, but the writer(s) do not know how to tell a story. The directing is okay as long as no one is moving too fast, but nothing special. But I love Anna Friel.

totalrewind-org First, let me say that Anna Friel does a pretty good job here, but unfortunately she's clearly in a different league to anyone else involved in this film. Maybe some of the other actors are OK; it's hard to tell because the film is so badly made.Somehow, despite a reasonable premise for a treasure-hunting story, there is just no atmosphere. It's completely flat, with no sense of drama or, frankly, interest. The performances are wooden, the filming is crude and the pacing is woeful.Near the start there are a couple of scenes with three girls in (and out of) bikinis, on a yacht. The director seems comfortable here, which makes me wonder if the crew is more used to making cheap porn. Certainly the feel of the film is that no-one really cares about the story, the characters or for that matter the basic principles of film-making or storytelling.

TheLittleSongbird Not without its flaws mind. The pace does meander in the last half-hour or so which makes the ending not as exciting as it could have, the story does have instances where it could have been explained more and where there was a suspension of disbelief and Raoul Bova and Volker Bruch are rather stiff and could have enunciated their lines much more clearly. However for a made for TV movie(a label that is enough to make anybody dubious) this is decent stuff, a million times better than anticipated. The production values are good, there isn't anything flashy but at the same time there is nothing that leaps out as amateurish. The music has moments where it rouses and also where it's low-key, both characteristics used well and appropriately. The dialogue is smart and provokes thought, while generally the story is well-paced, not too predictable for a concept that isn't all that original admittedly and has its fair share of fun and thrills. There are definitely moments where you are reminded of past adventure films but nothing that feels like a rip-off. The characters are likable though the types of characters are familiar(to be honest though that was expected), and the acting is above average apart from Bova and Bruch. Anna Friel in fact is very believable in the lead role, and Andre Jacobs is a good father figure. David Sherwood is underused but also brings admirable support. All in all, a quite decent movie that was also a pleasant surprise, considering how many terrible made for TV movies there have been recently and how the concept was suggestive of a perhaps mildly entertaining but uninspired movie. 6/10 Bethany Cox

David Love Surprisingly watchable. Anna Friel (best thing to come out of Rochdale since Gracie Fields) is lovely as archaeologist Victoria Carter. Frankly if it hadn't been for her I wouldn't have stuck with it.Unfortunately she does eclipse her 'co-stars' Raoul Bova and Volker Bruch who are wooden and difficult to understand. Scenes with just the two of them are painful. And they do spoil the film.I actually thought David Sherwood was good as Professor Elgar but he doesn't pop up much, either in this film, or on film generally. Shame. Andre Jacobs, as her dad, does a good impersonation of Roger Moore. But we don't see much of him either. Until they all get together at the end.There's a bit of topless nudity early on (not Anna) and the whole thing sets off at a fair old pace as she discovers an ancient parchment that may reveal the location of the seal of Solomon.The plot wasn't easy to follow but the dialogue was believable, at least the bits I could understand. Not bad for a writer who cut her teeth on Eldorado! Anyone remember that? Anyway I'm going to be generous and give it a six.