Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

King Solomon's Mines Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 31, 2021

In the Old Testament book of 1 Kings, Solomon, son of David, requested wisdom from God and was granted that request, and because he chose his gift selflessly, he was also granted the gifts of great honor and incalculable wealth. From Solomon's wisdom comes much of the book of Proverbs while the Bible's romance poetry book Song of Songs is often accredited to Solomon as well. Solomon greatly enriched Jerusalem, and himself, throughout his reign and his wealth has since been the fascination of treasure hunters everywhere. Be that as it may, King Solomon's Mines isn't overly concerned with much of anything to do with King Solomon, his treasures, or anything else about one of the Bible's more fascinating OT characters. Director Steve Boyum's miniseries is instead something akin to an overlong, not-as-good Indiana Jones adventure-type film in which dueling parties, with disparate motives and methods, find themselves on the same path that may lead to legendary treasure. The heroes are in it to save a life. The villains to find fame and fortune, a dichotomy reflective, perhaps, of the opposing possibilities for Solomon's own wish for wisdom over power and wealth. For the film, there are no surprises in the end, but it does make for an agreeable little diversion, anyway, with Patrick Swayze making for a fine rough-and-tumble hero with a conscience and a heart.

Swayze plays Alan Quartermain, a man who is handy with a gun and knows his way around Africa’s most prized hunting grounds. He’s also a man of honor and integrity, refusing to stand idly by while clients slaughter scores of innocent animals. When a particularly arrogant and heartless hunter kills a family of elephants and his himself killed in the aftermath, Quartermain hangs up his hat, vowing never to return again. But when a young woman, Elizabeth Maitland (Alison Doody), approaches him with news that her father has been kidnapped, Quartermain finds himself drawn back into the country, now with a purpose in his mission and a map to the fabled treasures of King Solomon in play. But it turns out Elizabeth’s father has run afoul of both local tribes and Russians eager to get their hands on Solomon’s treasures. It’ll take all of Quartermain’s considerable skill, and some luck, to come out alive and complete the mission to Elizabeth’s satisfaction.

With this story and style it's a stretch to drag the movie to three-hour miniseries length. There's a lethargy in play here that's almost too much for the film to overcome. Time and again it feels like plot points, character details, and other necessities are stretched thin to accommodate the runtime. But even if the movie could stand a serious trimming to average feature length instead, its core still yields a worthwhile, if not fully familiar and entirely superfluous, movie watching experience. The film shuffles along with a full slate of mostly tired and trite genre conventions, crutches, and clichés at work, doing its best to hide its uncreative proclivities through a serious façade and a broad feel for classic rollicking adventure. But seasoned movie watchers will quickly find the material tedious with gains coming intermittently as the story advances, albeit in predictable fashion, with just enough energy and enthusiasm to carry it to a modest level of success.

From a production perspective the film earns similar marks for its core capabilities and its obvious shortcomings alike. The production design is fairly complex and does well to effectively set the time and place and tenor, even if there's no imagination at work; the movie feels like it's been made from standard off the shelf components. There's no unique character here, just, again, more rehashing established elements. Paired with a story that offers little incentive to really invest, the net result is simply a film that asks its audience to stick with it far longer than is necessary for almost zero gain. Likewise, even as the cast gives the movie a professional effort, there's nothing here that draws the audience into the adventuring party, no work that stretches the confined limits on the script page to breathe life into the characters. It's a basic assortment that brings secondhand and familiar arcs and frameworks to the story. None of the cast bothers to kick into a higher gear, all satisfied to simply show up and add a blandness to an already bland production.

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

The picture is quite impressive all things considered. The grain structure is steady though to be sure a little on the spiky, hard-edged side. There are often small compression artifacts swirling about as well, disrupting the natural flow but not to such a degree as to render the picture ineffective in conveying its essential filmic structure. More breathing room on the disc by way of a higher bitrate would have certainly allowed for a more perfect picture, but as it is the presentation isn't sorely wanting for a vastly superior presentation. A fine-tuning, absolutely. But no major overhaul is needed.

Essential detailing is usually quite strong. Whether period clothes and guns, complex environments with unique local flavors, arid African exteriors, or skin close-ups (which range from basic pores and hairs to complex applied paints), the picture rarely struggles to bring a quality spread of sharp, dependable, filmic details to the screen. It can range from extremely impressive to slightly troubled but it far more often than not favors the former; look at a sequence around the 25-minute mark for a great example of the image's textural command. Colors are pleasantly neutral, appropriately lively and bold, and rarely appearing overly flat or faded, even when the picture is dominated by earthy browns and beiges. Lower light interiors as the team travels down into a subterranean locale in part one's final minutes can be a little more challenged for both color output and textural richness, and understandably so. Black levels here hold up well enough. Skin tones appear accurate for the duration. The picture does show some spots and speckles and random vertical lines as well as some scattered lower resolution shots and some jagged edges in digital inserts (look around the 24-minute mark for a few examples) but Mill Creek's presentation is otherwise in fine shape. It's actually impressive in sum, much of the time, as its issues remain apparent but never overtly detrimental to the overall viewing experience.

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

King Solomon's Mines features a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Of course, this track lacks the finer finesse a lossless track would provide, but even as it's limited in its tech specs the presentation is not at all poor. It's quite capable, in fact, in all facets: music, action, ambience, and dialogue. Music finds a good bit of body and spacing along the front. Mill Creek's track is not shy about spreading it wide and finding all the right little touches to amplify instrumental detail. Action scenes, often blended with music, feature robust spacing and good movement. Gunshots aren't lifelike but do hit with some authority and depth. Natural world atmosphere is pleasantly integrated and surprisingly spaced and nicely detailed. Dialogue is clear and images to the front-center stage area.

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

This Blu-ray release of King Solomon's Mines contains no supplemental content. The main menu screen only offers the option to play parts one and two. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

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

This is not a poor movie by any stretch of the imagination. It's just pointless. It plays well enough at a very baseline level but never stretches the content -- story, production, performances -- even a mite beyond a safety zone. There's little reason to watch, particularly at three hours, to slog through a film that is at best a forgettable time killer, albeit one with enough essential elements in working order to get by as a "decent" movie altogether. Mill Creek's featureless Blu-ray delivers surprisingly decent video and audio. Final verdict: ehhhh...