Where to watch King Solomon’s Mines
2 Stars
Allan Quartermain (Richard Chamberlain) has been hired by Jessie Huston (Sharon Stone), the daughter of a noted geography professor, to find her kidnapped father. Professor Huston is being held captive in the African jungles by a Turkish henchman, Dogati (John Rhys-Davies) and his partner, German Army General Bockner (Herbert Lom). Quartermain frees the elder Houston but not before he has divulged the location of the legendary King Solomon’s Mines. This sets in motion a series of action sequences that continually proceed one another until the movie becomes a checklist of possible obstacles, crocodiles, cannibals, cannons, fire, water, etc.
While the screenplay tries to ape Spielberg’s highly regarded Indiana Jones series, the brassy score from Jerry Goldsmith is strikingly similar to his work on another jungle adventure from 1985, Rambo: First Blood Part 2. Chamberlain sports the appropriate stubble and tough-guy banter, but he is un athletic in the film’s fight scenes and looks ill at ease handling weapons and Ms. Stone. In one of he fist roles a young Sharon Stone bounces obnoxiously around the screen, a barrage of constant whining intermingled with gasps, screams, and shouting ‘Quartermain” with various vocal inflections. King Solomon’s Mines is a poor-man’s substitute for the comparatively dazzling craftsmanship of the Lucas/Spielberg collaborations.
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Stars: Richard Chamberlain, Sharon Stone, John Rhys-Davies