Shot simultaneously with King Solomon's Mines this has an even worse reputation but I found it amiable.... for the first half hour. Then it just got sillier and sillier and in the end was a chore.
Okay the positives:
* location filming in Africa
* it surprisingly faithful to the novel Allan Quatermain
* I always enjoy Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone
* James Earl Jones pops up as Umslopogaas - and we see Umslopogaas
* Elvira pops up as a sexy vicious queen
* Henry Silva is in it
Now for the negatives:
* the lost civilisation just looks stupid full of white people and everyone walking around in robes - I know this is in the novel but surely there was a way of doing it that was less dumb
* the conflict between the sisters is undercooked, the mechanisms in the kingdom was confused
* Henry Silva looks ridiculous in a turban and brownface
* they go nothing with Umslopogaas they may as well cut him out of the film
* there's no romance when people get there - Chamberlain and Stone are coupled up giving Stone nothing to play
* Chamberlain's brother is played by Martin Rabbett with toothpaste model teeth and shiny blonde hair who looks like a cardigan model... and his presence only makes sense when you realise he was Chamberlain's partner in real life (Chamberlain does seem particularly animated in their scenes together) - Rabbett's romance with Aileen Marson is really undercooked
* they waste Elvira
* Robert Donner's comically cowardly Arab feels like typical Cannon Film anti-Arab bias
* the action scenes and jokes are dumb.
Ugh. It's just bad. I liked the first movie! Not this.
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