I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Five minutes into watching this, I had to look it up to see how many people had reported that Steven Spielberg had watched this before making Raiders of the Lost Ark. Then I found out it was the other way round. Same generic story-line, same costume for the hero, same role played by John Rhys-Davies (well almost). Train sequence, German army, lost treasure, pretty woman who needs to be rescued. How is it that the production wasn't sued? The only reason to watch this bad film is to find out how to get out of a cauldron when stereotypical Africans are cooking you for supper. Did they use plastic bananas and corn? Egad.

Ever in search of adventure, Allan Quatermain agrees to join Jesse Huston on a mission to locate her archaeologist father, who has been abducted for his knowledge of the legendary mines of King Solomon. As the kidnappers, led by German military officer Bockner, journey into the wilds of Africa, Allan and Jesse track the party and must contend with fierce natives and dangerous creatures, among other perils.......The Cannon Group, arguably the finest makers of really cheesy movies that were churned out during the finest decade ever...........The wonderful Eighties.Here was their chance to try and emulate the success of one Indiana Jones, but without the budget, it was always going to be a hard sell, and the fact that it's adapted by such a wonderful piece of art, was going to make it all the more difficult, so they don't even begin to try, and this is why it's just so watchable for all the wrong reasons.The predominant problem with the film is the fact that Chamberlain isn't even trying with the character of Quartermain, he's obviously been told by the producers to do his best Harrison Ford impression, and while he's perfectly average in the film, that's all he is, a poor mans Harrison Ford, and he just doesn't put any effort into the actions sequences or the one liners, he just looks like Ford a bit, and moves like a constipated middle aged man with a hangover.Stone fares little better, but to be fair on her, she was at the beginning of her career, and she just plays the eye candy in peril.But the mind boggles as to why Herbert Lom decided to appear in this. Here is a man who is such a prolific actor in his own right, he didn't need to be in something so absurd. It's like imaging Charlton Heston appearing in a Van Damme movie..................oh wait a minute....But there is a lot of fun to be had. The special effects are so bad that the green screen should have been credited as a main character, and then there's the escape in the large cumbersome cooking pot, and the spider, one of the poorest special effects ever committed to the big screen.See it for all the wrong reasons, it's a film for lovers of bad movies, it's nothing seriously awful, because it's so stupid, but the sight of Chamberlain riding rail tracks like water skis does stay with you.......

Jesse Huston (Sharon Stone) hires adventurer Allan Quatermain (Richard Chamberlain) to find her father who has been captured by German Colonel Bockner (Herbert Lom) and ruthless slave trader Dogati (John Rhys-Davies). They are using her father Professor Huston to translate a map to King Solomon's Mines. Quatermain, his tribesman assistant Umbopo and Jesse go on a quest to rescue her father and find the legendary mines.The quote unquote comedy is so broad and so bad that the workable adventure has no chance to succeed. I would like to see them play this straight with a few jokes to spice things up. Chamberlain is good as Quatermain but Stone is bad as the clumsy Jesse. She's not that wide-eye innocent damsel-in-distress. I do like the adventure part which is similar to Indiana Jones except looks much more inferior. The constant stream of weak jokes border on spoofing the genre.

Okay, so somebody at Cannon decided it would be a good idea to make an Indiana Jones rip-off, utilising a 19th century boy's own adventure novel that hadn't been adapted for the screen for around forty years. Perhaps perceiving the ineptitude of the ensuing production, they did away with attempts at seriousness in favour of out-and-out comedy.This is a terribly, terribly poor film.I find comedy highly subjective, and as I have an unusual sense of humour I tend to dislike the genre (apart from rare treats like PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES). This is no exception. The jokes are lame, the overacting whiffs of embarrassment, the supporting characters are racist stereotypes. One of the "highlights" sees Quatermain and his love interest inside a huge cooking pot which they manage to tip over and roll down a hill. It's that kind of film.The backdrops are okay, but the special effects seem particularly dated for the age (case in point: the silly blue-screen effects used to convince us that Chamberlain is hanging over a pool of crocodiles). Chamberlain himself seems mildly embarrassed - and so he should, as his acting career never recovered from this double debacle (a sequel was shot at the same time). Sharon Stone, playing a dumb blonde sidekick, is the worst I've ever seen (equally as bad as Erica Eleniak in UNDER SIEGE). John Rhys-Davies seems to be reprising his role from the Indiana Jones films, while the only performance I enjoyed was Herbert Lom as a comic-book German colonel.Experienced action director J. Lee Thompson manages to give this film a decent pace and sense of momentum, but the woefully unfunny script scuppers it from the outset.