A bit of a break from horror and B movies for today to delve into the world of made for TV movies.
El Dorado: Temple of Sun is the first the two parts of this movie with the second being City of Gold.
The plot is simple enough and could easily have been a lost pitch for National Treasure or Indiana Jones. Jack Wilder played by Shane West (he of gravelly voice and chiseled face) is left a book (praise be to the MacGuffin) by a former colleague which leads to a clue underneath a church in Cusco which starts him on a journey to find El Dorado. Eventually he's captured by the Peruvian police/army and bailed out by his former lover Maria Martinez (played by the stunning Natalie Martinez) and all the while he's pursued by former SAS turned mercenary Colonel Sam Grissom (Luke Goss).
Eventually there's a sub plot about why Goss is pursuing the heroes but for the first part at least it feel pretty unimportant and comes across as a bit of a cheap dig at greedy mega corps and capitalists.
The cast overall do a good job with what is at times some pretty cheesy dialogue and the inevitable romance sub plot is about as deep you'd expect from this type of film but this isn't meant to be one of histories greatest romances and it's not like Indy or Benjamin Gates (National Treasure) exactly had extremely well written or developed love stories.
Gordon played by Elden Heston comes off the worst for this because he plays the "comedic" sidekick. At times he does get some funny lines but because he's the obvious tech geek forced out of his comfort zone he spends most of the film whining which makes him more annoying than endearing.
For a made for TV movie the production is damn good and being shot on location in Peru gives provides some absolutely stunning landscapes and the action scenes are great fun to watch and don't fall into the recent trappings of fast cuts, super close ups and the Zack Snyder slow mo to full mo action.
***Special mention spoiler***
The completely over the top escape from the mountain cave where Wilder for whatever reason has managed to pack a parachute into the same rucksack he uses to store all his normal gear.
The fight scene with the native tribesman just because capoeira looks cool as hell.
I never noticed how much Shane West appears to be channeling the spirit of William Shatner until I rewatched the trailer. Actually the trailer itself is worthy of review.
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