A surprisingly competent Italian rip-off.
So, Ark of The Sun God...Temple Of Hell.
One thing that could be said about the Italian film industry(and has been said on a number of Anchor Bay re-issues), was that in the 70's and 80's, the surest way to get your film made was to ape something that had already been sucessful. So we had the series of Romero zombie rip-offs, and quite a cottage industry in Mad Max rip-offs, and here, we get ersatz Raiders of The Lost Ark.
Of course, it's what Raiders would be if Indiana Jones was a common thief and Marcus Brody was an ancient boozehound named Beetle. Rick Spear(David Warbeck, of Fulci's The Beyond) is an American safecracker in Istanbul to pull a routine heist. The heist turns out to be a setup orchestrated by Lord Dean(John Steiner) in order to get Rick to pull another job. Lord Dean is after the Scepter of Gilgamesh, which supposedly contains "untold powers", and is in a secret underground lair somehwere in the desert guarded by a supposedly uncrackable door. We're supposed to believe that Rick would risk his life to take on the uncrackable door. After a car chase involving both speeded-up film shots and extensive use of radio-controlled cars(or something obviously along that scale) and the kidnapping of Rick's girlfriend(twice!), Rick agrees to go after the Ark, taking with him a Sallah-substitute named Mohammed(who does resemble John Rhys-Davies, but is much larger) and the aforementioned Beetle, who had previously gone to the temple with another expedition back in the 30's. (Mention is made of the Jewish archaeologist of that expedition and being chased by Nazis, but the professor's fate is never revealed.)
Once out in the desert, they look for a "bad sign" which turns out to be an obviously fake mountain shaped like a swastika. They're also being tailed by minions in the employ of a local sheik, who takes offense to the foreigners trying to steal his heritage. Of course, he also wants the Scepter for himself, so HE can take over the world. Lord Dean and Rick's girlfriend decide to follow him, and get into a car chase in the desert with the minions(more speeded-up camera work, and they're driving Trans-Am's. In the middle of the desert. No, really.). In the end, there's much fighting and cheesy special effects, and a good time is had by all.
Overall, Ark of The Sun God is pretty entertaining for a low rent Spielberg rip-off. The video quality of the circa-1986 Trans-World VHS is not too bad, and the full-framing is done well, as though Antonio Margharetti knew this one was destined for the video racks. There's some entertainingly cheesy late 70's disco music on the soundtrack, as well as the appropriate faux-John Williams orchestral score. David Warbeck is plausible as the action hero, though he hardly resembles this:
The drawing of Warbeck on this high-quality video cover of the 1980's augments his arms just a bit, making him closer to a Stallone or Schwarzenegger as opposed to his actual more wiry self. Of course, it also ups the Raiders rip-off imagery by adding some things that aren't in the movie. On the right side, there's a WWII-era plane as well as an exploding truck similar to the truck the Nazis used in Raiders. Also not the way it looks in the movie is the ark over Warbeck's head, which resembles a certain other movie as well. The Ark of the Sun God is more like a big coffin in the movie. (Sorry about the quality of the pic. The copy that I got from Best was, shall we say, well-used.) Also, the description on the back of the box is half correct, as the text suggests that Rick is actually looking for the tomb of someone named "Semiramis, Queen Of Babylonia", and that there's also a "fanatical German terrorist" battling for the prize. Neither of which, of course, are mentioned in the movie, but then of course, we are talking about the 80's, which was a great era for deceptive video advertising.
If you can find this movie in your local non-chain video store, you could do worse then to try this one out. I enjoyed this a heck of a lot more than I thought I would.
One thing that could be said about the Italian film industry(and has been said on a number of Anchor Bay re-issues), was that in the 70's and 80's, the surest way to get your film made was to ape something that had already been sucessful. So we had the series of Romero zombie rip-offs, and quite a cottage industry in Mad Max rip-offs, and here, we get ersatz Raiders of The Lost Ark.
Of course, it's what Raiders would be if Indiana Jones was a common thief and Marcus Brody was an ancient boozehound named Beetle. Rick Spear(David Warbeck, of Fulci's The Beyond) is an American safecracker in Istanbul to pull a routine heist. The heist turns out to be a setup orchestrated by Lord Dean(John Steiner) in order to get Rick to pull another job. Lord Dean is after the Scepter of Gilgamesh, which supposedly contains "untold powers", and is in a secret underground lair somehwere in the desert guarded by a supposedly uncrackable door. We're supposed to believe that Rick would risk his life to take on the uncrackable door. After a car chase involving both speeded-up film shots and extensive use of radio-controlled cars(or something obviously along that scale) and the kidnapping of Rick's girlfriend(twice!), Rick agrees to go after the Ark, taking with him a Sallah-substitute named Mohammed(who does resemble John Rhys-Davies, but is much larger) and the aforementioned Beetle, who had previously gone to the temple with another expedition back in the 30's. (Mention is made of the Jewish archaeologist of that expedition and being chased by Nazis, but the professor's fate is never revealed.)
Once out in the desert, they look for a "bad sign" which turns out to be an obviously fake mountain shaped like a swastika. They're also being tailed by minions in the employ of a local sheik, who takes offense to the foreigners trying to steal his heritage. Of course, he also wants the Scepter for himself, so HE can take over the world. Lord Dean and Rick's girlfriend decide to follow him, and get into a car chase in the desert with the minions(more speeded-up camera work, and they're driving Trans-Am's. In the middle of the desert. No, really.). In the end, there's much fighting and cheesy special effects, and a good time is had by all.
Overall, Ark of The Sun God is pretty entertaining for a low rent Spielberg rip-off. The video quality of the circa-1986 Trans-World VHS is not too bad, and the full-framing is done well, as though Antonio Margharetti knew this one was destined for the video racks. There's some entertainingly cheesy late 70's disco music on the soundtrack, as well as the appropriate faux-John Williams orchestral score. David Warbeck is plausible as the action hero, though he hardly resembles this:
The drawing of Warbeck on this high-quality video cover of the 1980's augments his arms just a bit, making him closer to a Stallone or Schwarzenegger as opposed to his actual more wiry self. Of course, it also ups the Raiders rip-off imagery by adding some things that aren't in the movie. On the right side, there's a WWII-era plane as well as an exploding truck similar to the truck the Nazis used in Raiders. Also not the way it looks in the movie is the ark over Warbeck's head, which resembles a certain other movie as well. The Ark of the Sun God is more like a big coffin in the movie. (Sorry about the quality of the pic. The copy that I got from Best was, shall we say, well-used.) Also, the description on the back of the box is half correct, as the text suggests that Rick is actually looking for the tomb of someone named "Semiramis, Queen Of Babylonia", and that there's also a "fanatical German terrorist" battling for the prize. Neither of which, of course, are mentioned in the movie, but then of course, we are talking about the 80's, which was a great era for deceptive video advertising.
If you can find this movie in your local non-chain video store, you could do worse then to try this one out. I enjoyed this a heck of a lot more than I thought I would.
posted by Jon M. at
11:09 PM
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