MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis (1994 TV Movie) User Reviews

Side-splittingly bad

[jlopezf · 5/10 · 7 November 2005]

There is a certain element of ennui and self-derision involved in deciding, as a fully-grown adult, that you will devote an hour and a half of a weekday afternoon to watching this drivel.

And what do you get in return? First of all Mac's mullet - it takes a good 40 minutes for it to sink in just how terrible it is.

Also Brian Blessed - noted loud-voiced actor who came to fame in Z-cars (before my time) and did a marvellous Long John Silver in an ITV serialised adaptation of Treasure Island, which was never repeated.

But this is unashamed pap from the hearty shouter.

Risible history element.

But it is still nice to see two favourite childhood actors earning money and keeping out of trouble in this hastily assembled pot-boiler.

7 thumbs up.

SPOILER (if anyone really cares) The best moment for me was when Macgyver was keeping stum with the police about the stolen medallion and exchanged some hammy glances with Blessed, which of course the policeman doesn't notice.

At the end, when he proves that Atlantis invented democracy, treated women equally, etc etc, just from spending 5 minutes in a collapsing room with some decomposing scrolls that he didn't read.

It has its moments, though it's just not very special

[I_Ailurophile · 6/10 · 23 January 2023]

TV movies aren't exactly known for subtlety or a delicate hand in their execution; what of a TV movie based on a long-running series that, to at least some degree, was known for cleverness and detail? As it turns out, not even Angus MacGyver can shimmy his way out of the standards of the medium. The pacing is rather swift, and the dialogue and scene writing are sometimes downright lazy or sloppy, whether heavy-handed (such as shoehorning in lines about then-current events in the Balkans, or an excruciatingly ham-handed ending), clichéd, or otherwise. Above all, the writing prioritizes that every scene and every little facet of the plot should align Just So such that MacGyver and his friends can continue on their adventure, but do so with very specific, sometimes arbitrary stakes. Some broad strokes of the narrative are a bit predictable; characters might shift moods two or three times within one scene to match the needs of the forthright storytelling; some particular choices in the dialogue can only inspire skepticism. Even the story at large, clearly asking Richard Dean Anderson to all but don the whip, jacket, and fedora of Indiana Jones, plainly borrows from the blockbuster action-adventure franchise, including the appearance of a certain artifact, a character's motivations, a plot point or two, and the mannerisms that Brian Blessed adopts as Atticus (hello, Henry Jones, Sr.).

None of this is to say that 'MacGyver: Lost treasure of Atlantis' is inherently bad, or that it's not at all fun. It's well made, emphatically including production design, art direction, props, effects, and stunts. Michael Vejar's direction is quite fine, and David Geddes' cinematography; I like Ken Harrison's score. There are, still, flashes of minor brilliance at one point or another as the tale progresses. It's just that the series starring Anderson was nothing if not original and actively engaging, as the protagonist's keen wit was tested under various circumstances; even at its best, this TV movie feels all too imitative as the hockey-loving, mullet-wearing crafter of thingamabobs is thrust into a quasi-fantastical journey, even embracing pseudoscience for the sake of its plot. The "MacGyverisms" we quickly came to love in the series, improvised solutions, are present in some measure. Yet these are generally deemphasized in favor of half-hearted advancement of the story, and small moments that feel all too contrived - pure coincidences to get them out of a situation with something that is at the characters' disposal when there is no reason for it to be. With all this having been said, I think the cast do the very best they can with the material, and sometimes the performances are quite solid; on the other hand, there are definitely times, too, when the actors seem to be straining to be genuine.

I think what it really comes down to is that the screenplay needed to be developed a bit more to weave in more believable dialogue and scene writing. Even if it meant extending the runtime, maybe some scenes could have been added, or others simply built out, to bolster the plot development. And more than anything else: look, I love MacGyver, but this feature comes across as something that was written, greenlit, and ready to go as a standalone TV movie, in no way related to the character we know and love. I might be wrong, but it really seems like the protagonist was written in purely as an effort to cash in on the popularity of the series, or perhaps nostalgia for a series that by that time had run its course a few years prior. True, maybe there's nothing inherently wrong about this, either. The fact remains that save for Anderson's involvement, there's nothing about 'Lost treasure of Atlantis' to meaningfully connect it with 'MacGyver,' which accentuates to me that in the very least this isn't special even in the eyes of those who ordered it, and that it might have been rushed. Now, again, I believe this is well done more than not, and passably entertaining. Even if you're a diehard fan of the series, Anderson, Blessed, or someone else involved, however, I just don't think there's enough here to warrant going out of your way for it. Save 'Lost treasure of Atlantis' for a lazy day, when a "decent" film is good enough for suit your needs, and let's leave it at that.

A great TV-movie!

[Indyfan82 · 10 November 2003]

This tv-movie picked up right where the series ended and did a great job of delivering another MacGyver adventure! There's lots of great acting by all the cast, and some pretty cool music too. There's plenty of action and of course classic MacGyverisms! A triumphant return for MacGyver to television!

You are all deluded

[spawnyjoe · 1/10 · 5 October 2005]

This film is the baseline rating for how bad a film can be. The "wonderful" set allows us to see all of Battersea power station, London, AND the associated gas-holders in the background of a "Balkan" stockade.

Brian Blessed performs his usual overly camp rendition of an Englishman for the piece - becoming the baddie at the end in a plot line you could see from the moment he positioned his overly bearded face in front of the camera lens.

However, the best moment in this film is saved until the very end. Macgyver WITH HIS OWN TWO EYES witnesses all the planets in our solar system INCLUDING PLUTO move into line. Ludicrous, purely and simply ludicrous.

At no single point can this film create any form of suspense or thrill, I was left to amuse myself at Richard Dean Anderson trying to act seriously.

MacGyver does it again!!!!

[michaelrustage · 10/10 · 3 October 2005]

I loved the MacGyver TV series and I also loved this MacGyver movie even though most people pick on it. It may not be 100% brilliant but it's great fun and has all the elements that made the TV show so great. Sadly, MacGyver is the only character from the TV show to appear in this movie. He teams up with Brian Blessed who I have always found amusing because of his booming voice and over acting. They go off to find the Lost treasure of Atlantis which nobody else believes exists. There is plenty of action and MacGyver as usual has to build things out of nothing to get them out of various pickles. The only thing that spoils this movie is the sets. The caves especially. They look like they've been built for a children's school play, but if you ignore that, you have a brilliant movie.

So bad it even prompted me to write an IMDb comment for it

[echai · 2/10 · 14 February 2009]

I've had my fair share of deliberately exposing myself to awful films with my film student friends in college in the nineties but this was RIDICULOUS! I can't even be bothered to say anything insulting about it, it was so befuddlingly bad. I mean - it was BAD. Not bad meaning good but bad meaning bad. All I can say is I'm glad I bittorrented it and didn't buy it or even waste time watching it on TV. I watched it in two sittings (the first one I fell asleep and I was sitting on a swivel chair). Gladly, spawnyjoe, zipper69, and JL have outlined the main aspects of awfulness so I needn't revisit them again. I suppose as an excuse it WAS made for an American audience, and indeed the performances weren't even up to the standard of bad UK TV, they were more like performances of westerners in an 80s HK film like Jackie chan (who usually seem to just be extreme sports guys or random English teachers or porn stars or something). I guess you can't blame the actors for this, the script sucked and the director was clearly out to lunch. The setpieces looked like they were made in the Blue Peter studio at the BBC. The explosions were OK though and the soundtrack was pretty good too - for that alone it gets two stars instead of one. It's a shame because I remember the series being pretty good - but then I was about twelve when I last watched it. Stay away from this at all costs and trust me, the time reading one of these reviews which save you from the time wasted watching the film is time well spent.

Mac is Perfect!

[LisaVB · 10/10 · 24 February 2006]

Anything that has to do with MacGyver is a perfect 10 in my opinion. RDA is an excellent actor with incredible range and a great sense of humor, and the pinnacle of his career was MacGyver! His other works that show his range include Through the Eyes of a Killer in which he plays a psychotic killer, Pandora's Clock where he plays a airline pilot who was in the Gulf War, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (TV series, not the movie) where he plays the oldest brother (And he sings too, not bad!), Past the Bleachers where he plays a grieving father, Beyond Betrayal where he plays a bad cop, In the Eyes of a Stranger where he plays a troubled cop, Legend where he plays a 19th century dime novelist who ends up impersonating the main character in his series of books (part comedy, part serious send up that is similar to The Wild Wild West TV series), and of course Stargate SG-1 where he plays at first an Air Force Colonel and then a Brigadier General. All of this from one man; so did I say MacGyver is a perfect 10? Well so is RDA!

But the TV series was GOOD !!!

[Zipper69 · 2/10 · 12 November 2005]

It's hard to know where to begin. Anderson is always good value and does his best with a fairly hopeless script. Brian Blessed is (I'm sorry to say) a positive embarrassment - unless the director was screaming "More ham, Brian" there is no excuse for his shameless gurning, vocal projection and am-dram theatrics. Perhaps for an uninformed US audience the Hollywood version of England and the (Battersea) Balkans would pass muster but they remind one too much of the "foreign" locations used on "Murder She Wrote". The plot holes are not just obvious but are yawning chasms in reality, McGyver supposedly studied under Blessed and yet has to ask how to pronounce a Greek (?) name on the ark. The "cliff-hanger" pre-story makes no sense and avoids telling us how the dilemma was resolved. How the good guys take the villain's short hop prop driven aeroplane in South West England and fly it without flight plan or ATC permission all the way to Thera is glossed over. The finale beneath the volcano is ludicrous as machinery thousands of years old grinds obediently into action, and the Bad Guy, supposedly a big wheel in the field of Archeology is so incensed that the "treasure" is scrolls filled with lost Atlantean knowledge that he plunges his hand into them and crumbles them to dust - good move (Dead Sea Scrolls, anybody?).

And that "Torch of Atlantis" gizmo looked like a reject from a 1970's episode of Doctor Who...pitiful.

it isn't THAT bad!

[Postdog · 4 May 2003]

I'm actually watching this right now. It's on BBC1 at lunchtime on a Sunday, and it is ideal fair for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Forget the comparisons to India Jones - it's a TV movie, it isn't supposed to be oscar quality, or even quality that you'd pay money for. If you liked MacGyver at all, you'll know what to expect, and you'll like this. Nuff said.

Some People Might Like It

[Theo Robertson · 3/10 · 24 November 2005]

This starts with Angus MacGyver and his old college professor Fat Shouting Actor Atticus going on a little jaunt to the Balkans to pick up some artifacts . You think being educated men Angus and Atticus would have picked up the artifacts before or after everyone in the region started killing one another but if they did that we wouldn't have a story . Strangely enough the first act is completely disposable and seems to exist only as a social conscience so we can hear MacGyver spouting lines like " mYou're committing ethnic cleansing , racial genocide " . Perhaps the worst thing about this is that you find yourself questioning if this is the right platform for people to be making these kind of speeches , I mean MACGYVER is supposed to be a fun show so should it be concerning itself with real life geo-political issues ? I mean in THE A TEAM no one came out with " The Republicans are obesessed with neo liberal market forces , so by helping ourselves we're not doing anything Reagan isn't doing " . You also can't help noticing that " The Balkans look suspiciously like Battersea Power Station in London . Guess where this sequence was filmed ?

After being hit over the head as to why ethnic cleansing and racial genocide are bad things MacGyver and Atticus depart " The Balkans " and go to London ( Ha Ha Ha But they've been in London the whole time - I meant another part of London ) where the plot is explained and Angus and Atticus embark on an adventure to an exotic location - Actually a quarry . A lot of people describe this TVM as an Indiana Jones rip off but it's more in keeping with DOCTOR WHO since no matter where in the universe the characters go it always ends up looking like a few minutes drive from London

Fans of MACGYVER might like this feature length adventure ( Most probably the 100 or so people who worked on it and gave 10/10 on this site ) but I didn't

MacGyver predicted the year 2023!

[SaintNinja · 10/10 · 5 March 2023]

It's a small TV movie for Macgyver's fans with pretty cool Guerrilla filmmaking on the crowded streets of London. It's very simple and formulatic, Buut! This film predicted 2023. Take a look:

• The Battle of Bakhmut in Ukraine. Huge underground tunnels and tombs with ancient artifacts right under the battlefield during the war for Soviet legacy (Yugoslavia), Ark of Atlantis in Yugoslavia and Thor's hammer under Bakhmut (according to famous Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer T. Heyerdahl east Ukraine is ancient Asgard),
• Venus Jupiter conjunction 2023,
• Seismic instability due to the gravity disturbances.

Ok. Enough of that.

There were some nice MacGyverisms (An ingeniously improvised solution to a problem) too. My favorite is a "trick" with tin fence inside the enemy base. It's primitive, but highly logical.

Bad, bad, awful, howling rotten bad movie.

[bbchops · 1/10 · 15 October 2000]

This film misses everything that is good about Macguyver. From the inexplicable, and unexplained, cliff-hanger at the beginning to the "epic" finale, visiting such locations as the Eastern European military base (Battersea power station, London) and "London University" (Royal Holloway College, Windsor), this film stinks as bad as Brian Blessed's acting. Speaking of which, if Oscars(tm) were awarded purely on sheer weight of acting Brian Blessed would have won Leading Actor for three years running, and one leading actress. Oh, and best sound effects. Imagine an episode of the TV series at twice the length with half the budget and you still would not imagine how bad this film is.

The best MacGyver movie

[timi-artturi-makela · 8/10 · 15 July 2021]

This is the best MacGyver movie. It has nice adventure feeling. Eith the bigger budget this might have been a really great one.

Good Old-Fashioned Entertainment

[El Cine · 3 August 2001]

I haven't watched many TV movies and don't care for them as a rule, but as a devoted MacGyver fan I was compelled to watch and tape this ABC special. I'm glad I did; this turned out to be one of the most enjoyable made-for-TV films I've encountered. I realize that this film (and TV movies in general) is one that isn't that easy to come across, and thus this comment won't be read by many, but after seeing the low rating that the film has now on IMDb, I wanted to offer my comment.

The viewer will be struck by the engaging range of settings and the memorable action sequences, surprisingly diverse for a two hour film. We go to a pair of ancient catacombs, a buzzing military depot in the Balkan peninsula, a picturesque British university, Blessed's charming and messy office, a scenic mansion estate in Plymouth, and finally to Greece, where the finale takes place around an impressive underground lagoon. All of the British scenes were shot on location in England, and it's a pleasure to watch Mac crossing the streets of London. It gives the viewer a great sense of location. In fact, it's quite a glossy production for a TV-movie. Granted, the viewer must suspend their disbelief when we see some of the technology that the Atlanteans had at their disposal (including those metallic funnel things, complete with hinged handles, that Mac blasted out of the cave with the steam :-) ). Those stalactites in the caves of "Exeter" aren't very convincing, either. But after all, as one character said, "The most important thing an archaeologist needs is an open mind!" It's all in good fun, anyway. It's too bad one bitter IMDb user couldn't get over the fact that the Balkan scenes were actually filmed in England. Were we really to expect the producers to set up shop in war-torn Bosnia?

Most important of all, there are plenty of memorable MacGyverisms. I especially enjoyed watching Mac figure out how to escape the military cell and then play around with the contents of a weapons shed. And with the familiar musical bits taken straight from the TV show and playing in the background, Mac fans will feel right at home. The tone is just like that of the show.

Even though he didn't appear in the original TV series, Brian Blessed's character proved to be a welcome presence. His performance is bombastic but he keeps the character from slipping into triteness by evoking real intellectual interest and passion. Energetic, devoted to his history, blithe, and acting erudite when he really doesn't know what's going on, he's a guy who's easy to warm up to.

Certainly, "Lost Treasure of Atlantis" owes some inspiration to the Indiana Jones series, but it's an engaging production nonetheless. And there have been many other such action-adventure flicks that have been less creative and more dull-witted than this one. If you're looking for globetrotting adventure and exciting action and entertainment, "MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis" will give you exactly that. Superior to the "Trail to Doomsday" MacGyver movie in every way. Check it out if it shows up on the Action channel.

Atlantis, the Jupiter Effect and Looting Cultural Artifacts

[aramis-112-804880 · 8/10 · 8 October 2022]

This is an adventure featuring MacGyver's high-minded mentor, played by the great Brian Blessed.

Remember the Jupiter Effect? When the planets aligned in the 1990s all heck was supposed to break loose. But they didn't really align and the books and videos about the Jupiter Effect have gone on the rubbish heap with books on Y2K and 2012. Fear mongering really looks stupid in retrospect. It'll happen with Global Warming one day (when I was in school we were fearmongered into believing we were barreling into the next Ice Age; that changed on a dime and now sounds quite quaint. And now all the teachers of the next Ice Age ate dead and I alone have escaped to tell thee.

Too, the Greek word for fear is Phobos.

Still, exciting novels and movies have been made out of worse nonsense, so this Raiders of the Lost Ark knock off (More Roger Corman than Spielberg) is fun and exciting with several places for MacGyver to show his ingenuity to make something out of nothing. But he's not the man he was when the series started.

It actually has pretty good effects for a TV budget. Though the planets are never that big nor so perfectly aligned.

Epic Adventure!

[studiocrap · 8/10 · 4 February 2023]

This is really one of the best MacGyver adventures that have ever been put to screen! (Although it was just the TV screen release). If the original MacGyver series ever continued on this path (between the show and these two movies there was a ton of design ideas done differently) it could have been an amazing new twist of adventure energy.. Kind of like how the first season felt, you know..?

The supporting cast is also absolutely legendary in this movie. There is no doubt that they were going for the big vibes here, and I really love the vibrations!

It's also amazing how fresh this feels for a MacGyver adventure - it really feels like a whole new section of his life that I would love to explore more!

Richard Dean Anderson

[LeneMorissette · 11 August 2001]

As a fan of Stargate SG-1, I watched MacGyver to see Richard Dean Anderson. The character of MacGyver is very similar to his current character in Stargate, Colonel Jack O'Neill. He has the same sense of humour,same characteristics and the same attitude towards people. In fact the only difference that I noticed was that Mac is a whole lot smarter than O'Neill. ( More along the lines of the IQ of Major Carter than O'Neill.) Examples of this are that the dialogue was so predictable in parts for anyone who watches Stargate. Maybe it's just me but that's my opinion.

Richard Dean Anderson finds Atlantis with a Paperclip

[modius · 8 July 2002]

Sunday movie made for TV film with Anderson reprising MacGyver who must find Atlantis, for some reason, and gets involved with serbs who hide out in Battersby Power Station and Brian Blessard overusing his loud voice in EVERY scene.

The plot is horrible, the film is horrible, the action is non-existant and the whole thing sticks of Indiana Jones without the fun, adventure or indeed Dr Jones himself.

Probably made as a cash-in on the Amiga/PC Indiana Jones Game "Fate of Atlantis", it finds MacGyver finding atlantis and its plantium computer...or something.

Its bad. And so is MacGyver's Mullet.

A (very) poor man's Indiana Jones

[bob the moo · 8 May 2003]

While searching for artefacts relating to the lost city of Atlantis MacGyver and Professor Atticus uncover a lost amulet that holds the key to the location of the lost ark which contains the flame of Atlantis. Looking for more funding Atticus is laughed out of town and strikes out alone with MacGyver's help. They uncover the ark but the theft of the amulet reveals that they are up against Lord Cyril Cleeve who seeks the treasure for himself to add to his riches and get him into the history books.

I watched the TV show in the mid/late 80's and was a regular viewer on Saturday evening here in the UK. However I cannot remember whether it was any good or not (I was maybe 12 when I watched it). However the name was enough to tempt me back to watch this TVM one lazy Sunday afternoon. If the series was as good as this movie then I can only assume that I had nothing better to do with my Saturday evenings back when I was younger!

The film is every inch a TV movie. There is little of quality and much that is cheap or mediocre. The plot is clearly inspired by the Indiana Jones video game where he searches for Atlantis, however it has better effects than this. The story doesn't always make sense and MacGyver's devices to help them are just ludicrous. The worst one is where they escape from a crater by using steam to fire a funnel (with a rope attached) up over the crater edge. The (plastic) funnel not only manages to stick on the crater edge but also supports their weight! This is the one that sticks in my mind but nothing really makes sense if you think about it.

The script is pretty poor but there are actually large sections of the film with little dialogue so we're spared apart from every other scene where the characters recap the plot for those of us not bright enough to keep up. The cheapness of the film can be seen in the sets. Most of the special sets are very plastic looking. Some of the locations (a volcano & the Balkans) look like a quarry and a disused industrial estate respectively. When the film does get a good location (the stately home) the film stock makes it look cheap.

The action is poor mainly due to MacGyver's stupid devices. However even car chases where MacGyver clings to the windshield lack any sort of tension – in fact that one looks like he been strapped to the front of a car as someone slowly drives it round London! There is one good twist in the middle that took me by surprise but the film never builds on it and actually manages to diffuse whatever tension was injected within 5 minutes of the twist occurring.

The cast are laughably poor. Anderson is still stuck in the 1980's with his mullet hairdo. He never convinces in the lead and has the look of a man who is waiting for someone to take control of the film – he is more suited to a good series than films I think. Blessed is having fun (and I'm glad someone did) but is very out of place. His booming voice and high spirits don't fit in at all and it occasionally feels like he's taking the p*ss. Burgress as the bad guy is woefully toothless and the only face of interest is McCormick who is more well known for his role in Casualty.

Overall this is a poor reflection on how I spent my time as a pre-teen. A real poor quality product that aspires to be an Indiana-Jones-on-a-budget film but never even manages to get to that standard of film. Not awful – but just really poor, you'll forget you saw it 10 minutes after you switch it off.