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City of Gold wants to be something it just isn’t: an action adventure serial. But, in a movie where supernatural possession occurs and leaps in time happen, all packaged in a quasi-S&M public service announcement, that adventurous spirit gets lost deep in the Peruvian (but really Hawaiin) jungle.
It feels like City of Gold, appearing this week on VOD, has been made three of four times already. And, unfortunately, the movie – originally filmed in 2014 – hasn’t improved at all. There is something very tired and “worn out” about the production which, dealing with a reclusive artist and a very dark entity living within a disturbed business mogul, is surprising. Trump anyone? Talk about a missed opportunity - especially when he is deemed as too disturbed to run the business. Ouch.
Featuring engaging (if brief) performances from Vernon Wells (Commando) and Christopher Atkins (The Blue Lagoon), City of Gold makes the assertion that it is mined in the same gold-crusted vein of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Tomb Raider. Fans of those movies will take issue with that statement as City of Gold, with stylized animation used to crystalize some of its missing links, doesn’t really DO anything much at all.
Directed by Harry Locke IV and written by Ronald A. Blum, this long in talk and short on action film is about the strange trip of Jonathan Davenport (Robbie Allen), a tortured media mogul, who journeys with his ex-girlfriend Elisabeth (Riley Dandy) to the Amazon in the search for an artist that she admires. The leafy greens of the jungle eventually leads to the search for El Dorado. {googleads}
A series of more bad ideas follow and, soon enough, we end on a sort of a cliffhanger . . . that no one wants.
What is awoken within Jonathan, as hinted at by his strange sexual demands (going too far into the “hurt me” category) right as his father takes his own life, proves to be something that even he cannot contain, putting their entire philanthropic pursuit in jeopardy.
Jonathan, like all media moguls it seems, cannot be stopped.
Co-starring John Charles Meyer (Avenged), Adrienne Whitney Papp, and Jennifer Rikert Wolski (Escape Artist), City of Gold should have been cheesy. It should have been fun. It is neither. Dull and flat, this journey into the heart of darkness takes itself way too serious and, with only a scene where a jeep trails after a long figure in the night as an exciting part, that adventurous spirit that it teases is largely wasted.
Never before has the cinematic search for gold been so lackluster. Simply put, this one has nowhere but down to go. Presented by High Octane Pictures, The City of Gold is on VOD December 4 and DVD January 1, 2019. Skip it.
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[tab title="Details"]
MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime: 99 mins
Director: Harry Locke IV
Writer: Ronald A. Blum
Cast: Vernon Wells, Christopher Atkins, Branscombe Richmond
Genre: Adventure
Tagline: Blood is the price to find it.
Memorable Movie Quote: "Historians believed in it. Enough to slaughter a nation."
Distributor: High Octane Pictures
Official Site:
Release Date: December 4, 2018
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: No details available.
Synopsis: An anguished media magnate, Jonathan Davenport, accompanies his estranged lover to the Peruvian Amazon in pursuit of a reclusive artist living in rebel occupation. Despite their philanthropic intentions, the mission proves to be the harbinger of something dark and ominous rooted deep within Jonathan.
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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]
Blu-ray Details:
No details available.
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[tab title="Art"]
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