Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

King Solomon's Mines Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 20, 2017

J. Lee Thompson's "King Solomon's Mines" (1985) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of independent distributors Olive Films. There are no supplemental features on the release. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Allan Quatermain

This film is so awful it is actually borderline brilliant. It rehashes a lot of what made the Indiana Jones films great but in such an amateurish fashion that it is flat-out astonishing it was completed. Trust me, it is definitely worth seeing.

The opening credits claim that the film is based on H. Rider Haggard’s popular novel, but the narrative is expanded with all sorts of new subplots and kooky secondary characters. During the pre-production someone probably thought that it was a good idea to embellish things a bit and give the film a unique identity, but the end result is so chaotic and so utterly ridiculous that it is hard to believe that there were sane people that believed that the script could be anything else but a blueprint for a massive disaster.

The fearless adventurer Allan Quatermain (Richard Chamberlain, Shogun) and the beautiful blonde Jesse Huston (Sharon Stone, Fading Gigolo) arrive in an unnamed exotic country where her missing father was last seen. Shortly after, they learn that before the old man disappeared he had a very rare map revealing the way to the legendary mines of King Solomon. With a bit of luck, they recover the map and decide to travel to the mines, but also attract the attention of an outspoken German commander (Herbert Lom, 99 Women) who wants King Solomon’s fortune for his country and an evil Turk (John Rhys-Davies, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark) who just wants to get rich quick. While following the route described on the map, the four constantly try to outsmart each other and clash with hordes of wild savages.

The narrative is broken into multiple uneven segments in which the legendary adventurer and his companion are given endless opportunities to prove that they could be heroes in the most ridiculous of ways. The majority of the time it is really Comedy Central material, overflowing with silly jokes and sugary romance that flat-out stinks. (In one of the most ridiculous segments, the two heroes decide to make love in front of a lazy lion with a big heart just moments after they have miraculously escaped from a small army of cannibals).

And yet this mish-mash of silly action and overcooked romance can be remarkably entertaining because for some unknown reason all of the big stars that step in front of the camera act as if they are in an entirely different and much more respectable film. Frankly, it feels like there is a complete disconnect between their minds and bodies but not a single supporting actor seems to notice. It is perplexing, it is bizarre, and yet the genuine enthusiasm on display makes the film surprisingly entertaining.

*According to various reputable sources, producer Menahem Golan wanted Kathleen Turner to play the blond beauty but his people accidentally hired Stone for the part. He stuck with her and she also appeared in Gary Nelson’s sequel Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold.

King Solomon's Mines Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, J. Lee Thompson's King Solomon's Mines arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films.

The release is sourced from a very nice master that must have been prepared fairly recently. My guess is that someone did some sort of a remastering job -- not a full-blown restoration job -- because some minor fluctuations remain but the entire film looks remarkably healthy. Many of the outdoor close-ups boast very pleasing depth, with density in particular being consistently very good (see screencaptures #1 and 8). The wider panoramic shots also retain good depth and fluidity is mostly very pleasing. There are no traces of recent problematic degraining and sharpening adjustments, but with some specific encoding optimizations grain could have been exposed even better. Nevertheless, the current presentation has a solid and quite convincing organic appearance. Colors are stable and natural, but I feel that saturation should be even better. There are no serious stability issues. Lastly, there are no distracting large cuts, debris, damage marks, stains, or warped/torn frames to report in our review. My score is 4.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

King Solomon's Mines Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The audio is stable and clean. There are various action sequences where the dynamic intensity is quite good, though I have to speculate that the original mixing was probably far from from impressive because it seems like a lot of background action routinely gets dropped out. It is difficult to be absolutely certain but the important point is that the original sound design is in fact somewhat dated. The dialog is clean and always easy to follow. For the the record, there are no purely technical anomalies, such as dropouts or distortions, to report.

King Solomon's Mines Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Most unfortunately, there are no supplemental features to be found on this Blu-ray release.

King Solomon's Mines Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Someone needs to produce an in-depth documentary about the production history of J. Lee Thompson's King Solomon's Mines because this film is so atrocious that it actually seems like a brilliant project. It does everything wrong and yet all of the big actors that step in front of the camera appear remarkably enthusiastic about their characters. If you enjoy bad films with an attitude, you can't go wrong with King Solomon's Mines. It delivers big time, and then some. Olive Films' technical presentation of the film is very good. RECOMMENDED.