The world is soggy. Everybody has a sinking feeling. Global warming, resulting from too much cell phone texting or something, has begun melting polar ice caps, increasing sea level, and turning cities into giant swimming pools. Fortune hunters James Brolin and two other guys playing his sons, roam around looking for artifacts and trouble. They wear wet suits and scuba equipment. One of the sons tries to get eaten by a shark about 30 seconds into the film. Brolin exits the film soon after; must not have been paid much. He delivers his few lines well, and he's buddies with a Vatican cardinal.

Rich megalomaniac Ben Cross pays off a girl who talks like Arnold Scharzeneggar; she used to date the guy who wanted to get eaten by a shark. Legend has it that there's a scepter that just may end the water problem, and so everybody goes after it, even some rogue priest. There are a few good underwater temple scenes, and some fun action, and the story line works. Although it's obviously copying Indy Jones, it at least offers some new ideas to the formula. The conflicts to get the scepter and its immense power keep you involved, and the cast make the most of what they're given. The temple scrawling of how the scepter machine works made me laugh. It looked like the schematic for one of those old transistor radios from the '50's.

Hastilly put together with limited resources, but somehow this film gets away with it. For a SyFy freebie, it's really not bad.

I don't know if James Brolin has just become too old to act or if he's always been a bad actor and I just never noticed because he is so damn good looking. His acting in this movie brought the movie down. Old age is no excuse - just look at Sean Connery, Clint Eastwood, Anthony Hopkins, etc. Brolin "reads" his lines slowly, as if slightly drunk. He moves like he is suffering from either arthritis or severe constipation. The movie itself was very good, surprising for a TV movie. The premise is a rather new one and could actually happen. A catalytic event that threatens civilization is nothing new in movies, but Lost City Raiders makes the premise very believable. Overall, I really enjoyed the movie, but not Brolin's acting.