Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1986)

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!

Some films are made so bad that they are funny. "Allan Quatermain And the Lost City Of Gold" falls under that category; this is far beyond the most awful film I have in my collection. The script I'm sure disappeared on the first day of shooting, the acting is even worse and the special effects look if it had a budget of a couple of pounds. This is all elements which becomes the force of the film. You're not laughing because it's fun, but because it's bad. Maybe that's why I can still be entertained by it."Allan Quatermain And the Lost City Of Gold" is the adventure genre's "Plan 9 From Outer Space" (though the special effects are slightly better), and I can still enjoy watching this delightly dreadful disaster of an adventure film.

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!