The Hunt for the Hidden Relic (2002)

Maybe I didn't enjoy this movie only because I read the book first.The book: it is not utterly brilliant, but contains some excellent ideas and some cleverly touching moments, making it a worthwhile read on overall.The film: although I appreciate that the plot had to be shortened to fit into a two hours duration, it has almost nothing in common with the book. On the plus side, a few entertaining and well-made action sequences that weren't contained in the book. But most (really, most) of the good things of the book were simply left out - IMHO the screenwriter did a terrible job. The plot was super-flattened and the characters were frighteningly empty, making it a silly action flick as opposed to the great and clever film it could have been. I have *very* rarely observed such a huge discrepancy between a book and its film version.

good story with well developed characters. baddies were real bad, pre-dates the intrigue of the current religious stories. good action simple and dramatic with good twists and turns. A bit of a brain teaser and not completely predictable as some generally are. I should be available in the US even in German but it would be nice as to have some English. this is one of the few where you could get away with that as there asre several characters from various nationalities in the cast. If it ever remade re made please don't loose the good acting, good story and mystery for to much action, it does not need anything more. several of these actors need more exposure, i found them all believable.

I saw this film on Australian SBS in which the film was divided into two separate time slots. If the same train of thought that it was perhaps a television series, it works wonders. The plot is brilliant for small screen - the constant unraveling of new information and the constant killings of more people would be very effective for a serial show or mini-series.On the other hand, I couldn't imagine this to be a movie. It wouldn't have the same edge of your seat feeling. The set decoration, costuming and make-up aren't adequate to be a fully plausible film. (my dad even spotted a make-up malfunction to do with the scars on Steffen's forehead). The complications may be considered as confusing or deviating. The biblical references would become slapstick and laughable.Meh... it's still a series to me.

I almost always avoid to compare movies to the novels they're based upon. You can't film a 600 page book and stay true to the text. That film would be 10 hours long, have endless dialogue scenes and be terribly boring. So I do agree, a screenplay writer has to simplify the story. But `Jesus Video' goes way too far to be acceptable. The book offered an amazing story (time-traveller presumably filmed J.C. Superstar, surely envied by Cecil B De Mille, but where did he leave the camera for the world to see?), many new ideas and surprising turns. Andreas Eschbach, the author, had a very clever way of never letting you easily guess what will happen next. His characters think a lot about the problems of time-travelling and the origins of religious belief, a fascinating concept. The movie script abandoned all creative ideas and all logical thought that made the book so impressive, instead it replaced them by a stupid action story we have seen a thousand times before: hey, that guy stole something that rightfully belongs to us! Let's chase him, torture him, kill him! Thus, a breathtaking story full of suspense was turned into a violent, boring 3 hour movie. 3 hours should be plenty of time to develop a clever storyline! Why were the producers scared and preferred to waste the huge potential? For example, the professor (in the book) is in a difficult situation, standing between his employer and the hero (his student). In the end, he is the key figure to the solution. In the movie however, they somehow didn't know what to do with him, since they wanted to rewrite the ending anyway (with another big explosion if possible), so somebody just shoots the professor in the middle of the film without any convincing motive. Bang, bang, one character less to write lines for, story even more simple from now on. The movie's only virtue is: every five minutes, somebody fires a gun to keep you awake.This is definitely not a candidate for the `worst film ever'. It just is so depressing that this particular novel offered something we rarely get to see: new ideas, no cliches! But the movie doesn't use ANY of these ideas and delivers a below average action movie (I voted 3/10) instead. Such a waste of potential is annoying.In opposite to a few other reviewers here, I think the actors did okay (within the limited possibilities the script gave them). Naike Rivelli reminded me so much of her mother, screen legend Ornella Muti, in the early 1980s. I'm looking forward to see more movies with this talented young lady, but please not `Jesus Video 2 - Pontius Strikes Back"!