The Hunt for the Hidden Relic (2002)

The Worst Film Ever

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

"Das Jesus Video" or " The Hunt for the Hidden Relic" or "Ancient Relic" is a German German-language movie that came out back in 2002, which means it has its 15th anniversary this year. It is based on a novel by Andreas Eschbach. The director is Sebastian Niemann and the writer is Martin Ritzenhoff and looking at other works from these two I must say I am almost a bit surprised that this film we have here did not become a huge failure as there are more than just a few projects in their bodies of work that are underwhelming to say the least and honestly when ProSieben makes a film about Jesus that runs for over three hours, then chances are it becomes a huge mess. So yes this was a small screen release, but it did not turn into a huge mess. But it also did not turn into a quality film by any means. If you look at the cast, you will not find too many known names here. Koeberlin is a bit of a poor man's Florian Lukas (not that Lukas is a great actor) and other than him the stunning Naike Rivelli is the female co-lead. Dietrich Hollinderbäumer is probably known to heute show audiences. Hans Diehl is August Diehl's father. Gode Benedix is kind of a nice presence, at least for me, even if he admittedly also played in quite a few bad films and you can probably count this one here as well into that category.Now about the film itself: There are some weaker acting performances with bad moments in here, but there is not one area where the film really sucks. But there is also not one area where it is really convincing. I already stated in the title that I feel the script is kinda bloated. The title of the film states that this is a film about time travel and thus about the possibility of making a video about Jesus Christ with actual footage and the latter is the absolute core plot in the film. But wait... isn't the fact that they may have succeeded with time traveling much more spectacular? Anyway, there are some moments here and there when the film digs into sucker territory, like the way they kill off one guy so that the female protagonist is single again and ready to mingle with the male protagonist. Anyway, with this subject I am not too surprised that the film received a great deal of attention (not with awards bodies, just audiences), but it is sadly at over 180 minutes not good enough, not focused enough, not concise enough to really live up to its potential. The ending is fine I think, though a bit melodramatic perhaps and I also liked some other scenes like the interrogation at the end of the first 90 minutes. As a whole, however, the negative is more frequent and I give this one a thumbs-down. Don't watch.

This is a reasonably good, fast paced action/adventure/time travel thriller. Here in Australia, it was screened by SBS (without commercial interruptions!) as 4 one-hour segments over 4 weeks. There have been enough strongly negative comments about this film, and enough low ratings, that I suspect it has been shown in different edits in different places. The four-hour edit I saw was suspenseful and compelling, the acting and production were good, and there weren't any more plot holes than your typical thriller, and fewer than many more popular films. It was good enough to bring me back for each part after I accidentally switched it on half way through the second part. If you like a good adventure/thriller, and don't mind a bit of blood and a (fairly standard) time travel premise, and can catch the four hour edit, give it a go.

I have seen a 2 hour version of this movie and found it nice and enjoyable entertainment. The story flowed well and was interesting. Having seen perhaps too many movies, the plot was somewhat predictable, but nice, nonetheless.In common with many action movies, we see the hero being beaten up, shot at, tortured ... and still running around in the end. Had it been me, I probably wouldn't even have survived the main character's first drop. Contrary, however, to many action movies, there was a story and the story did not get lost in the action. Dialogues were more than some stupid grunting and one-liners ... there was an attempt to make this story if not believable, then at least acceptable.All in all, a nice movie ... It got my attention enough to want to read the book.

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"!