Such a frustrating disappointment

Just perfect...

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This new agreeable version from H. Rider Haggard adventures follows again Allan Quatermain (one of the members of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) played by an old-looking Patrick Swayze . He is leading a safari in search of legendary diamond mines and save the damsel's father (John Standing) . He is accompanied by a gorgeous woman (Alison Doody) and a captain (Roy Mardsen) , among others . They are pursued by Russian soldiers and must confront natives , wildlife and several dangers and risks until they find the King Salomon's mines .This overlong television picture displays exciting action , numerous shoot-outs , extraordinary adventures and outlandish cliffhanger situations abound . Patrick Swayze (unforgettable in Dirty dancing) as Quatermain is wooden , Stewart Granger in the classic of the 50s (directed by Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton with Debora Kerr) is incredibly missed . Alison Doody as his mate and lover is better than Patrick . After filming ¨Indiana Jones and the last crusade¨ roller-coaster which made her a successful star , Doody played a few more films and did some publicity but in 1994 she retired and went back to Ireland where she married a magnate . Alison finally came out of retirement since she realized how much she missed acting though she never regretted quitting movies to take care of her family and after divorce she has decided to give another chance to her acting career and is slowly coming back to performance and shooting this remake . Other versions of this known story are the followings : directed by Robert Stevenson (1937, in which the main role was performed by the singer Paul Robeson) , Kurt Neumann (titled Watusi with George Montgomery and David Farrar) and J.Lee Thompson (with Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone) . The film was well produced by Larry Levinson and Robert Halmi , famous producers of big budget television movies based on historic events or remakes . The motion picture was professionally directed by Steve Boyum (Time cop II).

I picked this movie on the cover alone thinking that i was in for an adventure to the level of "Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom". Unfortunately I was in for a virtual yawn. Not like any yawn i have had before though. This yawn was so large that i could barely find anything of quality in this movie. The cover described amazing special effects. There were none. The movie was so lightweight that even the stereotypes were awfully portrayed. It does give the idea that you can solve problems with violence. Good if you want to teach your kids that. I don't. Keep away from this one. If you are looking for family entertainment then you might find something that is more inspiring elsewhere.

The movie is an extra-long tale of a classic novel that completely fails to capture the original adventure's spirit. The quite horribly American Patrick Swayze is cast as the British hero Allan Quatermain despite the obviousness of his nationality.The movie continues throughout to "Hollywood-ise" the story by changing both the plot and the characters to fit more comfortably into the accepted mold. The movie manages to be predictable throughout, even to those who are not familiar with the story and is plagued by some extremely bad acting and terribly disappointing fight sequences.All in all, a terrible addition to the already quite bad collection of movies based on the legend of King Soloman's Mines and Allan Quatermain.

True, it does not follow the book very closely, but it's still a very entertaining take on the story. Swayze was far better in the role than I expected. And Doody avoided the "silly woman out of her depth in the wilderness" portrayal most of us probably expected (cf. Kate Capshaw in "Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom").At any rate, it's amazingly better than Richard Chamberlain's awful pair of Quatermain flicks.It is very reminiscent of a western in many ways. About the only thing I didn't care for was all the mysticism, but I guess that is part and parcel of the genre. Like "how can you have an African adventure story without witch doctresses and preternaturally wise wandering tribesmen?" Heh.