Product Description

NO ONE KNEW THE IF THE FABLED TOMB EXISTED. THOSE WHO HAVE SEARCHED FOR IT NEVER RETURNED. IT'S BEEN SAID THAT WHOEVER FINDS IT WILL BECOME THE RICHEST SOUL ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH - SOME SAY THE MOST CURSED. NOW, ONE BRAVE MAN HAS BEEN HIRED TO FIND OUT WHAT IS TRUE & WHAT IS MYTH.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10971 in DVD
• Brand: LIONS GATE HOME ENT.
• Released on: 2004-09-21
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 177 minutes

Customer Reviews

Best movie adaptation!
This movie was an unexpected pleasure and really fun to watch!
Swayze does a great job as Quartermaine & Alison Doody is wonderful as the female lead. There are never annoying moments of disgusted "They'd never do that", or ridiculous temple-of-doom type comedy lines. The screenplay and plot were terrific, the adventure was compelling, and the entire movie was heartwarming. Villains were even well-wrought. Scenery was breathtaking.
Well done, highly recommended, and perfect for family viewing on a Sunday afternoon or early Saturday evening.

Long but of interest
Clearly, King Solomon's Mines is made for television. That's its main weakness. The movie, probably a miniseries, is drawn out to fill nearly 3 hours. It's never boring but it lacks the cleverness and frequent action of a movie like Raiders of the Lost Ark, the gold standard for such adventure yarns. The characters and plot are interesting enough to keep you viewing. Some of the characters like the evil African king and his witch doctor are surprisingly very good, if only minor roles. Patrick Swayze puts in a credible performance as do most of the supporting cast. The cinematography is generally very well done and some of the scenery is eye popping. A little more budget and we might have actually gotten a decent tour of the mine filled with traps, treasure, twists, turns, and wonderous sights. Alas, that's not really the payoff here. It's about the characters on the journey, not the journey itself.

Passable entertainment
This is a fair action/adventure movie, along the Indiana Jones lines - but Quartermain was there long before Indy. It's got something for just about everyone: fatherhood tested, family loyalty, evil pursuers, magical treasures, and a last-minute romantic interest. Swayze does a fair job in the title role. He seems to be maturing as an actor and does a good job here, but certainly won't be taking any new roles that require male beauty.

This appears to be a TV mini-series, with all the pieces strapped together into one feature film. That seems to explain a lot of the slightly discordant notes. There aren't many special effects here, but that works just fine. The pace and action are more subdued than you'd expect in a regular movie, but the it keeps plugging along at a fair pace. It even steps over the jumps between segments without stumbling, mostly. Swayze's "loyal father" role may not be true to a story written so long ago, but is almost a checkbox item for establishing a 21st century male character as a good guy. The romantic interest seems to pop abruptly out of nowhere, as if the scriptwriters got to the last segment and realized they'd forgotten something. Well, I've seen lots worse.

This is longish, almost three hours, but never seemed to drag. It's a bit tame by theatrical standards, but moves along well and won't offend those who prefer chaste flicks. Maybe you could do better than this one, but you could certainly do worse.

//wiredweird