Such a frustrating disappointment

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Directed by Gary Nelson, Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold re-teams Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone from J. Lee Thomson's 1985 version of King Solomon's Mines, with equally bad results. Based on the creations of H. Rider Haggard, the emergence of Allan Quatermain onto the screen again was a desperate attempt to grab the coat tails of one Indiana Jones' success. Given how bad King Solomon's Mines (1985) was, you would be forgiven for wondering how on earth a sequel was given the go ahead, but this is explained by the fact both films were filmed back to back. More's the pity. Plot has Quartermain and his lady Jesse Huston off on some adventure to find Quartermain's lost brother at the fabled Lost City of Gold. Along for the ride are Umslopogaas (James Earl Jones) an axe wielding warrior, Swarma (Robert Donner) a nutty spiritual guru, and some other no mark plebians. What they find is a whole bunch of trouble via creatures and a despotic high priest (Henry Silva). Action is badly staged, effects work poor, while acting and dialogue is woefully inept (Chamberlain cheese sandwich/Stone shrill/Silva and Donner embarrassing). The best "Z" grade movies have fans and entertain because they know what they are, unfortunately this doesn't, it genuinely thinks it's a great adventure movie. Even the musical score is insulting, credited to Michael Linn, he basically just hacks into Jerry Goldsmith's score for "Mines", and produces a piece that is just two chords away from John Barry's iconic Indiana Jones music. As for the racist undertones... Bad film making. Period. 2/10

At the plus end of the scale (both entertainment-wise and budget-wise), I really enjoyed "Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold" (1987), despite its bad reviews. I thought director Gary Nelson captured the spirit of Rider Haggard's African fantasy rather well. Many of the movie's detractors have obviously not read Haggard and are thus unaware of its strong "Boys' Own Paper" quality. One of my greatest pleasures in life was reading the Quatermain books as a schoolboy. I wouldn't read them now, that's for sure. But I thought the movie equally thrilling. It would have knocked my socks off if I was a lad. True, the last sequence in the temple does tend to out-stay its welcome, and Mr Silva makes a ridiculous high priest, but my eyes are still dazzled, and then some!

Take every bad Africa legend and stereotype, sift carefully to remove all traces of logic, place in food/word processor, top with stupidity, mix crudely and serve with a thick garnish of corny. It wasn't that there were dumb stereotypes of Africa in this movie; it's that there were so *many* of them, strung together with a plot as rich as your average porn movie and horribly overwrought sound. The beginning was kind of cheesy but maybe could go somewhere. As I watched, it did indeed go somewhere - downhill. It just kept getting stupider. I was hoping for fun and campy, if somewhat stupid, in an Indiana Jones & Temple of Doom sort of way. Nothing big or fancy, just an entertaining action/adventure flick. But I had been hoping for something somewhat less formulaic and thick with clichés.I have some pretty stupid goofy movies in my collection, for when I want something mindless. But this is going straight in the garbage. I don't ever want to see it again as long as I live. I picked it up for a pittance at a thrift store and clearly spent too much money. Thanks to IMDb for at least giving me the pleasure of excoriating it in public.

At this moment Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold is at the IMDb bottom 100: #89 and I really disagree.It has a good cast which includes Richard Chamberlain,Sharon Stone,James Earl Jones,and Henry Silva! It has very good music,and very beautiful scenery and good action.What is wrong with the movie?I really don't know what else to say except if you haven't seen it yet rent it!Its a good movie!