Allan Quatermain and the Temple of Skulls
Release date: 2008-04-29
Votes: 36
Genres: Romance, Adventure, Action
Filmed on location in South Africa, a retelling of H. Rider Haggard's classic novel "King Solomon's Mines," featuring the adventurer who was the inspiration for Indiana Jones.
Reviews
Wuchak
_**Grim, low-budget version of “King Solomon’s Mines” shot in South Africa**_ Needing quick cash to get his son through college, Allan Quartermain (Sean Cameron Michael) accepts a gig to help a young noble woman (Natalie Stone) & her beau (Daniel Bonjour) find her lost brother who was on an expedition to find the legendary King Solomon’s Mines in remote southeast Africa. Unfortunately for them, an evil mogul wants the map they’re using (Christopher Adamson). “Allan Quatermain and the Temple of Skulls” (2008) was put out by The Asylum just before “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” debuted. The company is notorious for releasing cheap knockoffs of major releases to steal some of their thunder. The Asylum has certainly put out some cartoony dreck (e.g. "30,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and "Mega Piranha"), but they can also surprise you with some worthy low-budget stuff (e.g. “6 Guns,” "The Land That Time Forgot" and "Grimm's Snow White"). In other words, this movie is a mockbuster, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it HAS to suck. The plot was taken from “King Solomon’s Mines” (1985), but it lacks the over-the-top dynamic fun of that movie, which is wildly entertaining. Instead, this is a grim tale about a small group of people searching for the fabled King Solomon’s Mines in remote South Africa and trying to survive the many challenges. On that sparse level with its low mockbuster budget & dubious F/X and fight choreographics, it can be enjoyed for what it is. There are some highlights: It was shot entirely in scenic areas of South Africa, which is true to the Allan Quartermain mythos since his family was from Durban, South Africa; the tribal women are blatantly top nude (not that I care, but I found it realistic & daring); there’s a cool talon tool used for executions; and there are some quality story elements, like Umbopa’s arc (Wittly Jourdan). The film runs 1 hour, 38 minutes. GRADE: C
CinemaSerf
A straight remake of H. Rider Haggard's "King Solomon's Mines" that really does beggar belief! Aside from some decent location photography, this is about as action free an adventure film as I think I have ever seen. A mean and moody Sean Cameron Michael takes the title role, with Christopher Adams really pretty hammy as baddie "Hartford"; Natalie Stone pouts magnificently as "Lady Anna" with the weak and feeble, almost preppie, Daniel Bonjour ("Sir Henry") bringing up the rear as they search for the latter man's long lost brother "Neville" (Nick Everhart). Simply, this is an howler with virtually no redeeming features aside from being marginally less static than my television screen-saver. The dialogue and score offer little by way of a lifeline for this totally unnecessary re-versioning of a great adventure story reduced here to some posh accents, way too much chatter and hardly any actual vitality at all. There is a slight twist at the end from the book, but that really can't make anything like enough of a difference to rescue this from then doldrums of abject mediocrity in which it belongs. I just wouldn't bother, if I were you.
Movie Recommendation
Hello2013-10-17The film tells the story of three best friends named Ako, Aki and Awang, who are well-known in their village for their mischievous and humourous pranks. The trio work for Pak Man. One day, they are assigned to pick up his daughter Misha, who has just returned from overseas and dreams of becoming a doctor. The trio have been in love with her for a long time but she does not pay them any heed. When Misha is robbed by a snatch thief one day, she is rescued by a doctor named Shafiq. Her face reminds the doctor of his late wife, and he begins to pursue her, which annoys the trio.More...
PorNO2010-02-01Max films his friends having lecherous fun at his own birthday party; unaware of how it will change his life. Just out of high school, by haphazard, he becomes a big porno producer. His father, a principled police major, chases porno makers, not suspecting that one of them lives in his own apartment. Hoodlums and girls from good families, corrupted policemen, petty dealers find themselves in a luring and scary world of porno.More...
Hello2013-12-23I wouldn't answer if I were you' Hello is the story of a young lady who falls prey to an evil killer.. alone in her apartment, eagerly awaiting the return of her boyfriend, the phone rings...More...
Panda! Go Panda!1972-12-17Cheerful Mimiko has a wonderfully strange family—a Panda for her Papa; and his son Panny, calls her Mom! When Panny follows Mimiko to school, he must pretend to be a teddy bear so Mimiko won't get into trouble. Despite his efforts to behave, Panny causes trouble in school and now the school is after Panny! Then, Panny makes a new friend, Tiny, a baby tiger who's wandered off from the circus.More...- Le ali della vita 22001-11-26There is no descriptionMore...
Nullarbor2011-02-25An animated road-movie set across the vast and barren landscape of Australia's Nullarbor Plain.More...- Can We Save Planet Earth?2006-06-01In the second of a two-part documentary, David Attenborough explores just how much climate change is altering our planet. He looks ahead to find out what needs to be done to save Planet Earth from the worst impact of global warming and discovers what could happen to the planet once a 'tipping point' of carbon emissions is reached. He also discusses the solutions we can all adopt to prevent catastrophic change.More...
Silas Marner1916-02-18After having been wrongly accused of murder and robbery, a heretofore kindly and gregarious weaver becomes a nasty, bitter, lonely old miser. Originally a seven-reel picture, a three-reel re-release survives.More...
Re-Elected2020-07-04Friends battle former U.S. presidents when they come back from the dead as zombies on the Fourth of July.More...
3 peonies2018-11-07A brief, poetic 16mm film on a simple sculptural action. What becomes apparent is the humor possible in material interactions and the tender and sometimes melodramatic symbolism of cut flowers. What begins as a reverence for natural beauty ends up pointing towards the abstract expressionism and color field work of high modernism which, in many cases eschewed the banality of such 'natural' beauty. The collaged soundtrack suggests weightier concerns, gently insistent behind the flatness of the utilitarian sounds of ripping tape.More...
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Final Episode1974-06-29While Hirono is in prison, his rival Takeda turns his own crime organization into a political party, whose two executives stir up new tensions in their thirst for power.More...
Main Street2020-02-07A woman living in main street goes to school in a rich environment, but she is full of loneliness. One day she saw a cloud and decided to go to Sinchon Station, so she met a new man. Her little lie started the meeting between the two.More...
From the Life of the Marionettes1980-10-08An account of the events before and after a murder committed by a disturbed businessman in a strained marriage, and what led him to perform such a shocking act.More...
Songs Overheard in the Shadows2025-03-16Balanced on the edge of what is visible, everything comes from nothingness and returns to nothingness. Strands of consciousness trying to convene with each other. Forms of personal significance in a time of crisis, set free into random motion through chance operations. Recurring details point towards a center.More...
The Cave of the Golden Rose 31993-12-20The powerful evil wizard Tarabas gets knowledge about a prophecy that a king's child will defeat him. So he sends out his army of dead soldiers to kidnap all royal children. When the soldiers attack Fantaghiro's castle to steal the babies of her sisters, the battle seems to be lost until she discovers the secret to defeat the solders but by doing that she loses Romualdo. Now Fantaghiro must find the evil wizard Tarabas and convince him to break the spell and bring back Romualdo.More...
Gloria1999-01-22After serving a prison term for her boyfriend, a streetwise, middle-aged moll named Gloria stands up against the mobs, which is complicated by a six-year-old urchin with a will of his own, whom she reluctantly takes under her wing after his family has been gunned down.More...
The Man Who Would Be King1975-12-03Tired of life as soldiers, Peachy Carnehan and Danny Dravot travel to the isolated land of Kafiristan, where they are ultimately embraced by the people and revered as rulers. After a series of misunderstandings, the natives come to believe that Dravot is a god, but he and Carnehan can't keep up their deception forever.More...
Easy Sex2003-10-24Packard Schmidt is a burnt-out, middle-aged college English professor. In a desperate attempt to restore some sense of vitality to his lonely existence he embarks on a series of impulsive romantic exploits resulting in a cavalcade of disaster both personally and professionally. These disasters change and educate Pack and serve eventually as a meditation on the meaning and power of desire, loss, and love.More...
Gunpowder1985-03-25At the end of September 1941, Soviet artillery troops in besieged Leningrad realize that pretty soon they will fire their last shot, and after that the defense of the city will be doomed. The film is based on a true event: a small group of fearless soldiers transported a large supply of gunpowder through enemy lines to Leningrad.More...
19.20.212023-03-03The phase between the age of 20 to 30 is an important phase in everyone`s life. A phase which defines a person`s entire life. What if a person becomes a traitor in that phase? What if he/she gets arrested under stringent laws without a chance to get released? A story inspired by the true events of a student`s life.More...
Similar Movies
A Chinese Ghost Story...
1987-07-18A naïve young tax collector for the imperial government winds up spending the night in a haunted temple. There he falls in love with a beautiful woman who, unfortunately, is dead. With the aid of a powerful Daoist Swordsman, he must defeat undead hordes, overcome a sinister Tree Demoness, and descend to the pits of hell, to fight for the spirit he loves.The Devil at 4 O'Cloc...
1961-10-18A crusty, eccentric priest recruits three reluctant convicts to help him rescue a children's leper colony from a Pacific island menaced by a smoldering volcano.The Flame and the Arr...
1950-07-07Dardo, a Robin Hood-like figure, and his loyal followers use a Roman ruin in Medieval Lombardy as their headquarters as they conduct an insurgency against their Hessian conquerors.Surviving Evil
2009-07-10A TV documentary crew arrive on a remote island in the Philippines to film a survival special. Their back-to-the-wild adventure proves to be more terrifying than they ever could have imaginedSnake Island
2002-08-01A group of American tourists heading down an African river make a brief stop at Snake Island, an island that has been virtually abandoned for years. When they end up getting trapped on the island overnight, they find thousands of deadly snakes intent on reclaiming the tropical island for themselves.Alien from L.A.
1988-02-26When her archaeologist father disappears on an expedition, Wanda sets out to look for him. What she finds is a secret underground world, where no one believes in life on the surface and where she and her father are taken for spies.Gray Lady Down
1978-03-10The USS Neptune, a nuclear submarine, is sunk off the coast of Connecticut after a collision with a Norwegian cargo ship. The navy must attempt a potentially dangerous rescue in the hope of saving the lives of the crew.Free Willy: Escape fr...
2010-03-23After young Kirra leaves her Australian home to summer with her grandfather in South Africa, she soon discovers a baby orca stranded in the lagoon near her grandfather’s rundown seaside amusement park. She names the lonely whale Willy--and embarks on a great quest to lead the little guy back to his anxious pod.Mia and the White Lio...
2018-08-02A young girl from London moves to Africa with her parents where she befriends a lion cub.Lara Croft: Tomb Raid...
2003-07-21Off the coast of the volcanic island of Santorini, the intrepid archaeologist Lara Croft makes the unexpected discovery of a pulsating golden orb able to guide its holder to the mythical Pandora's Box. As the legendary artifact contains ancient mysteries of unfathomable power - said to contain one of the deadliest plagues on Earth, Lara is tasked by MI6 to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. With the aid of former Marine turned mercenary Terry Sheridan, she travels the world in pursuit of the precious item in a race against time; she must beat the unscrupulous Nobel Prize-winning scientist turned bioterrorist, Jonathan Reiss, to it.National Treasure
2004-11-19Modern treasure hunters, led by archaeologist Ben Gates, search for a chest of riches rumored to have been stashed away by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin during the Revolutionary War. The chest's whereabouts may lie in secret clues embedded in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and Gates is in a race to find the gold before his enemies do.The Three Investigato...
2007-11-07The hobby detectives “The Three Investigators” want to take a little break. So they take advantage of an offer from Peter's father, who has accepted a job in South Africa and wants to take the detectives there. But Jupiter, Peter and Bob wouldn't be the three investigators marks feared by the criminal world if they just lounged around in the sun on their vacation. So it's no wonder that the clever boys soon have their next case to solve...The Guardian
2006-09-28A high school swim champion with a troubled past enrolls in the U.S. Coast Guard's 'A' School, where legendary rescue swimmer Ben Randall teaches him some hard lessons about loss, love, and self-sacrifice.Catch a Fire
2006-10-27The true story of anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, and particularly the life of Patrick Chamusso, a timid foreman at Secunda CTL, the largest synthetic fuel plant in the world. Patrick is wrongly accused, imprisoned and tortured for an attempt to bomb the plant, with the injustice transforming the apolitical worker into a radicalised insurgent, who then carries out his own successful sabotage mission.Jurassic Park III
2001-07-18In need of funds for research, Dr. Alan Grant accepts a large sum of money to accompany Paul and Amanda Kirby on an aerial tour of the infamous Isla Sorna. It isn't long before all hell breaks loose and the stranded wayfarers must fight for survival as a host of new -- and even more deadly -- dinosaurs try to make snacks of them.Rust Road
2023-09-22Two brothers are torn apart after they steal a bag of money and are hunted down by a ruthless killer.Our Hospitality
1923-11-19A young man falls for a young woman on his trip home; unbeknownst to him, her family has vowed to kill every member of his family.The Stolen Princess
2018-03-07This wonderful story happened in the age of valiant knights, beautiful princesses, and battling sorcerers. Ruslan, a wandering artist dreaming to become a knight, met beautiful Mila and fell in love with her; he didn’t even suspect that she is the King’s daughter. However, the lovers’ happiness wasn’t meant to last too long. Chernomor, the evil sorcerer, appeared in a magic vortex and stole Mila right before Ruslan’s eyes to transform her power of love into his own magic power. Without further ado, Ruslan sets out on a chase after the stolen princess to overcome all obstacles and to prove that real love is stronger than magic.Treasure Planet
2002-11-26When space galleon cabin boy Jim Hawkins discovers a map to an intergalactic "loot of a thousand worlds," a cyborg cook named John Silver teaches him to battle supernovas and space storms on their journey to find treasure.Shanghai Noon
2000-05-26Chon Wang, a clumsy imperial guard, trails Princess Pei Pei when she's kidnapped from the Forbidden City and transported to America. Wang follows her captors to Nevada, where he teams up with an unlikely partner, outcast outlaw Roy O'Bannon, and tries to spring the princess from her imprisonment.