Reviews

I generally don't watch reality shows, but at the urging of a friend, tuned into this one with my wife, and got hooked. The premise is a man and a woman who don't know previously know each other are injected into a hostile or challenging environment with only a single tool of their choice each and with no clothes and must survive for 21 days. The challenges are (in the approximate order of criticality); get acquainted and establish a cooperative relationship; build a fire; acquire potable water; build a shelter; survive off native plants until you can acquire protein by fishing and hunting; avoid dangerous animals and exposure; be productive with your partner by emphasizing strengths and minimizing weaknesses. Then there is basically realizing that successful survivalism (i.e. surviving", means not making any mistakes (like letting your fire go out or burn down your shelter, or chopping your finger with a machete or drinking bad water and getting dysentery). Further, it helps to be lucky -- if possible avoid bad storms, flash floods, etc. If you like problem-solving; if you like the outdoors and have a respect for real nature; if you are fascinated by observing human nature under stress, you will probably enjoy this show. I've watched five programs to date, and quickly noticed the people selected are all "well-nourished" as coroners used to say -- not fat, but not thin. Every participant is faced with the huge challenge of trying to get enough calories to get by, and we quickly learn what a huge disadvantage most modern humans are at when they do not have tools or their culture to rely upon. The average weight loss among the ten people so far be roughly 30 lbs in 21 days, and it's easy to see the toll of stress and anxiety on the participants.

This movie is so uneven that it is hard to believe it is the work of one writer. After an interesting and exciting start with the daring robbery of a Vatican exhibit at a Manhattan museum by knights on horseback dressed as Templars, stealing treasures including (guess what) a Templar decoding machine. This part of the movie is a decent heist / caper movie, and it's hard to dislike Mira Scorvino in anything. Tess is a likable, plucky female (rich) archaeologist and single mom, who gave up her life of adventurous excavations to stay home and take care of her daughter as her dad never had. Scenes with homages to the "Indiana Jones / Tomb Raider" genre abound. Of course, our robbers made a fatal mistake by stealing a key discovery of her late father of the "Cross of Constantine".

Interspersed are somewhat confusing and garbled flashbacks that look like blurred outtakes from "Kingdom of Heaven", which basically serve to distract one from the uneven scenes and obscure the pretense of a plot. We have in this movie unscrupulous archeologists, evil minions of the Vatican dedicated to assuring the truth stays buried, and cameos by the CIA, the FBI, and the NYPD. Scenes and dialog almost seem lifted at points from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", and absolutely miraculous coincidences and discoveries abound. Then we have the "recovery of the Titanic" portion of the movie, or is it "The Perfect Storm". I could talk about how sad this movie comes in the really wasted role of Omar Sharif as a Christian holy man on a Greek (?) island who rescues Tess and her FBI guy. The parallels between the ending of this movie on the cliff and parallel to "The Last Crusade" where the Templars' fake "Gospel of Yeshua" blows away in the wind. They treat ancient technology (an astrolabe) like it was a modern GPS.

Worth watching for a laugh.