Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made (2015)

Load of rubbish!!

As Good As It Gets

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

I've been following these guys for many years, just after the internet starting buzzing about them. I am glad that they are finally getting all of this recognition, and that they were able to "finish" their film.This documentary does a neat job summing up the journey they have been on, with both its highs and its lows. It also manages to balance between the two narratives it is following, one being the process of making the film itself (starting when they were just kids), and the other one being the process to getting to finish the final scene of the movie.It's the story of the old film that is the interesting one, while the filming of the airplane scene feels it's mostly in the documentary to justify the topic being relevant. I'm sure they knew this on some level, as the focus on the airplane scene is more towards the guys themselves than it is on the actual filmmaking they are doing.It's typical of the genre, and maybe it's needed to fit a modern day audience, but I wish that they didn't lean so much on the drama of it all. I'd much rather watch a documentary giving the story to me straight, instead of trying to build so much excitement. That said, this movie does not do that a lot, but enough that I got slightly annoyed at it.Other than that, I think they handled the subject well, and it gave a good glimpse into the brilliant fan movie, and the resilience of youth.

Inspiring, often times funny documentary about a trio of eleven years- olds who set out to do Raiders Of The Lost Ark- they didn't remake it, they *made* Raiders Of The Lost Ark- in its entirety, in the homes and cellars, with next to no money, and over the course of several summers in the 1980s. Four documentary film crews then followed them in 2014, as they filmed the sole scene they could not film originally. This doc includes new interviews with them, along with clips from the film itself, and a few blooper reel scenes and outtakes, and original, hand-drawn storyboards (of which there were 602, as explained in a film festival Q&A session after the screening, and before showing Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation) and people like John Ryhs-Davies, who have publicly commended the film.Required viewing for fans of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, film buffs, and anyone who ever dreamed and fantasised about making a film.

There are a lot of good movies out there. Hell, there are even some damn near perfect ones, but there are only a small handful of films that fall into the legendary category. These films that have become legend only come around once in a blue moon, but when they do, they tend to hit an emotional cord and stick around forever. I'm sure we can talk for days about what movies fall into this category, but there is one film in particular that definitely belongs here, and I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that you've never even heard of it, nor seen it. Reason being, is that I'm talking about a home movie here. That's right, a home movie.Back in the early 80s, a few friends by the name of Eric Zala, Chris Strompolos, Jayson Lamb, and Angela Rodriguez, who were all around 11 years of age, saw 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. It blew Zala and Strompolos's minds and at the age of 11 they decided to make a shot for shot remake of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. Over the next seven years, Strompolos and Zala would enlist the help of all their friends and their friend's friends each summer to complete their film, which was made with money from their allowances and on their home video camcorders. The result is nothing less than spectacular or well, legendary.These kids spent the best summer years of their lives making a movie that hell, has already been made, but it's their sheer passion and love for this film and character that drove themselves and everyone else around them to finish the movie. The result is actually a very kick-ass kid made film that captures each camera angle and expression just like it was made in the original film by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. over the years, some of these friends lost touch, but the movie was still stored away on VHS, until a few people got a hold of it and began showing it to other people.Those people then got it into the hands of a few filmmakers who are well known, which led to this homemade 'Raiders' movie being shown at a film festival, to which the crowd went crazy over. Everyone loved it, because it was pure magic. It reminds those of us who use to take our dad's over the shoulder camcorder and make our own movies with friends. Back to a time when nothing else mattered but making a fun adventure film with your best friends.Let's fast forward to present day where filmmakers Jeremy Coon and Tim Skousen ('Thunder Broke the Heavens') found out about this documentary and thought there would be a good story to tell here in the form of a documentary. Well, they did just that. Coon and Skousen tracked down Eric Zala, Chris Strompolos, Jayson Lamb, Angela Rodriguez and their families and asked them to tell just how they accomplished this amazing achievement in movie-making. Come to find out, this homemade film was not yet finished.It was still lacking one scene, which was the iconic fight scene on top of the Nazi airplane with Indiana Jones and that huge giant of a beast guy. So, 'Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made' tells the story of the ups and downs of the making of this homemade movie along with the entire cast and crew reuniting to make the last scene with a decent sized budget. This documentary has tons of archival footage of these kids making this movie during their youthful summers as well as interviews from each cast member and their families.For those of you who have ever tried to make something, whether it be a movie, a song, or a piece of art, will completely become infatuated and fall in love with these people's stories and passion for making a movie and for their undying love for 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. You'll laugh throughout, shed a tear or two, and jump out of your seat at a couple of truly shocking moments. This documentary is one of the reasons I truly love movies and making them.

Greetings again from the darkness - from the Dallas International Film Festival 2-15. Most documentaries are pretty simple to recap: A filmmaker makes a movie about a topic or person. However, simplicity just doesn't fit here. Filmmakers Jeremy Coon and Tim Skousen made a movie about the making of a movie that is a movie re-made in honor of a movie that was already made. This isn't Coppola's Hearts of Darkness which portrays his difficulty in making Apocalypse Now. Far from it. This is a modern day look back at two/three geeky eleven year old boys making a shot-for-shot remake of Steven Spielberg's classic Raiders of the Lost Ark.Coon and Skousen catch up with forty-somethings Eric Zala, Chris Strompolos and Jayson Lamb as they are trying to put together the financing and logistics to film the final scene of their unfinished movie Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation. These are the same boy that started the process in 1982 and filmed each of the next seven summers until they graduated from high school.If you are a total film geek, you have probably heard of their film and know that it has been an underground film favorite for years. But you may not know the real life details behind it and certainly not the modern day drama of Eric and Chris as they try to complete it. How about some interviews with their mothers? How about the real world possibility that Eric risks losing his job to complete this thirty plus year old kid's summer project? How about the personal struggles of Chris over the years, or the fallout with Jayson as he is left out of this final chapter? Director Eli Roth was instrumental in spreading the word of this film project throughout Hollywood, and the boys even got invited to meet with Spielberg. Mostly we are left with the fascination that young boys can have such passion and persistence over so many years. When asked about whether they missed out on their childhood, Chris responds "We filmed childhood". A true and fitting response, that doesn't tell the whole story. Fortunately, Coon and Skousen do.