Synopsis:

A mix up puts a secret treasure map into the hands of seven adventurous kids-who set out to turn their boring high school rock collecting trip into a quest for a mysterious lost pirate ship. These lucky kids discover a tunnel in the desert leading to the buried ship! But they must face awesome odds before their booty is secure. While they may be one step closer to finding the pirate ship, they are not the only ones looking for its lost treasure. Two strangers from China, a crazy hermit who thinks he was once a member of the crew and a wild camel bearing a skeletonized rider are all on the trail of the pirate ship as well. Who'll get to it first? After watching it, you'll be able to exclaim…who cares! Have you ever watched a PBS program entitled "DeGrassi Junior High"? Well, if you have, you've already seen this movie a billion times. Just take horny young kids into the desert on a boring trip and you'll easily recreate the circumstances seen in this painfully boring movie. Not too mention, you'll be serenaded by a band that either hasn't hit it big yet or has and flopped before even being heard, entitled "FRESH". Nice sound but they sound like every other boy band on the circuit today-surprise surprise. That aside, this is one of those films you'll find picked over in the bargain rack of a B&M. Not entertaining in the least and tremendously predictable from start to plodding finish.

Audio/Video:

The audio and video is almost as disappointing as the film itself. The audio is a DD2.0 surround platform that punches all the aural material through the fronts and rears. No surround effect to speak of and no LFE involvement at all. The dialogue is easily understood and clean. The video is a full frame platform that has that "shot on video" look to it. The resultant image is very sharp and clear. There were no transfer errors worth mentioning.

Extras:

The extras for the disc are plenteous as well as very short. There's a making of featurette lasting not more than 5-minutes as well as an interview with composer Conrad Pope. Several featurettes regarding the lore of the lost Pirate ship, the concept of Teen romance in the desert and cast interviews maxing out at roughly a minute and a half per interview. In all, the extras total close to 25 minutes. A music video for the song "Burn Me up" by the group "Fresh" is included. A neat usage of the angle button enables you to zoom in on your "favorite" band member and watch them sing through the video. For the DVD-ROM set, there are coloring books for the kids as well as a kid's screenwriting course for your budding author, photo albums of the kids in the film.

Overall:

This is a kidz movie if ever there was one. Malibu High, And that annoying Saved By the Bell series with the guy named Screech were the start of this kind of production. For an entertaining bit of fluff, you could do a lot better and a whole lot worse. Since there are really no redemptive elements in this film's effort, I'd suggest looking elsewhere for your needed cinematic satisfaction. Skip it