THE RELIC IS AN ACTION HORROR MYSTERY SCI FI THRILLER FROM PETER HYAMS THE DIRECTOR OF OUTLAND, 2010: THE YEAR WE MAKE CONTACT, TIMECOP, BUSTING, CAPRICON ONE, THE STAR CHAMBER, RUNNING SCARED, THE PRESIDIO, NARROW MARGIN, STAY TUNED, END OF DAYS, THE MUSKETEER, A SOUND OF THUNDER AND BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT AND STARRING PENELOPE ANN MILLER FROM KINDERGARTEN COP, THE FRESHMAN, CARLITO’S WAY, THE ARTIST, HOTSHOT, ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING, BILOXI BLUES, BIG TOP PEE-WEE, DEAD BANG, DOWNTOWN, AWAKENINGS, OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY, YEAR OF THE COMET, THE GUN IN BETTY LOU’S HANDBAG, CHAPLIN, THE SHADOW, LITTLE CITY, BREAK UP, OUTSIDE OZONA, ROCKY MARCIANO, FOREVER LULU,
ALONG CAME A SPIDER AND FULL DISCLOSURE, LATE TOM SIZEMORE FROM HEAT, STRANGE DAYS, BLUE STEEL, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, RED PLANET, BLACK HAWK DOWN, WYATT EARP, TRUE ROMANCE, HEART AND SOULS, PASSENGER 57, LOCK UP, BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER, GUILTY BY SUSPICION, POINT BREAK, HARLEY DAVIDSON AND THE MARLBORO MAN, WHERE SLEEPING DOGS LIE, STRIKING DISTANCE, WYATT EARP, NATURAL BORN KILLERS, DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS, WITNESS TO THE MOB, ENEMY OF THE STATE, THE FLORENTINE, THE MATCH, BRINGING OUT THE DEAD, WITNESS PROTECTION, GET CARTER, PEARL HARBOR, BIG TROUBLE, SWINDLE, DREAMCATCHER AND PAPARAZZI AND LINDA HUNT FROM THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY, SILVERADO, KINDERGARTEN COP AND POCAHONTAS AND I RENTED ON VIDEO AND DVD.

"The Relic" is a tough one to grade. On the one hand it's a decent story about a creature brought back from an expedition to Brazil. I won't give away the coolest part of the movie, but when Dr. Margo Green (Penelope Ann Miller) says "I know ___ you are...", it makes a lot of the not so good moments a little more tolerable.

Let's spend a second or two on the characters. Dr. Green, played by Miller, is about as unsympathetic as they come through the first half of the movie. She finally started to win me over once she warmed up to Lt. D'Agosta. Lt. D'Agosta is a hard-as-nails cop with a heart of gold played by the always entertaining Tom Sizemore. The rest of the cast are the typical hackneyed gritty cops, snooty rich elite, or insufferable know-it-all scientists. I mostly hated all of them which is good because most of them were killed with significant gore by the ancient beast.

The monster itself is original and is probably the best thing about the movie. That is, when you can actually see it. There either wasn't enough of a budget to light this movie or they were purposely trying to hide shoddy effects. I actually didn't think the effects were too bad, so I'll just state that the whole movie was darker than it needed to be. The characters were constantly using flashlights. You can't see much of anything for the last third of the movie. I suppose it could have been the Netflix streaming copy that I was watching but I doubt it.

With a few more lights and a little more monster this could have been a very good Horror flick.

More than a little genuinely funny dialogue, and I think the creature had a pretty cool design... I'm pretty sure? I don't know though, because every time it appears it's in virtually complete darkness.

_Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole._

Pot's a misdemeanour. Decapitation seems a bit severe.

The Relic is directed by Peter Hyams (also cinematographer) and based on the best-selling novel written by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. The film stars Tom Sizemore, Penelope Ann Miller, James Whitmore and Linda Hunt. The music score is composed by John Debney.

The Museum of Natural History in Chicago takes delivery of some crates from South America. Sent by an employee, John Whitney, one of the crates appears to be just full of leaves. However, just as the museum prepares to launch a major exhibition, where all the city's top brass will be present, a security guard is horrifically killed. Can superstitious cop Lt. Vincent D'Agosta (Sizemore) and evolutionary biologist Dr. Margo Green (Miller) get to the bottom of the mystery before it's too late?

From the bunch of creature feature movies that surfaced in the 1990s, The Relic may not win prizes for originality of plotting, but it scores high for tension and gloopy fun. Though the decent budget is evident ($70,000,000), the film has all the old fashioned values to make a creature feature work. Rank and file staples come thick and fast; boo jump moments, characters refusing to accept the un-normal, silly kids, silly coppers, a potential hero and heroine, possible romance, some sci-fi babble, a curse, and of course the creature itself - a big hybrid of god knows what! with the "Kothoga" being a snarling, slimy monstrosity that goes about the museum lopping heads off some inept human beings with carefree abandon. What's not to like there?

Though Hyams is no genius director, he is, as his CV suggests, more than capable at crafting a polished movie. Such is the case here, where the "B" movie story is given good technical treatment. The lighting (you may have to adjust your settings here) and editing serve the atmosphere well, while the sound work is of the required horror requisitional standard. More importantly, though, Hyams is aware of building up the tension by not unleashing the creature far too soon. We know it's the killer, and we get little snippets of it here and there, but it's not until all hell breaks loose at the big museum event that we get to see the monster, and it's not a let down. Part animatronic/part computer effect, the "Kothoga" is original and it is scarily great fun. So much so it (thankfully) steers the viewers away from the pedestrian performances of the cast. Not bad exactly, but just doing grizzled and spunky beauty (Sizemore & Miller respectively) doesn't really grab the attention. The best actor on show is Whitmore (tracing a lovely creature feature line from Them! in 1954 to here), but he is badly under written and under used.

Still, the minor acting issues matters not, for this is ready made for a Saturday night in with the beer and some snacks, so give it a go and you may just enjoy yourself. 7/10