HelenMary Patrick Swayze was perfectly cast for this; outdoorsy, rugged, handsome and clearly physically able. He was very believable as Alan Quatermain and I loved him in this role. His chemistry opposite Alison Doody was great and she is very beautiful and elegant but she remained far too groomed throughout the adventure, which detracted from her believability and she looked too modern although acted the part well. The cinematography was stunning; beautifully filmed on location with convincing sets and village, and the sweeping vistas and scenes added to the overall entertainment of the film/miniseries.I've watched it a number of times and it never fails to entertain and is enjoyable family viewing. The ensemble cast are all good, especially the actors playing McNabb (Gavin Hood) and Umbopa (Sidede Onyulo), Dr Maitland (John Standing), Twala (Hakeem Kae-Kazim) and the stand out character for me was the beautiful, fey and eldritch Gagool the witchdoctor (Lesedi Mogoathle) who's performance stays in the mind long after the film has finished especially the "Stop breathing" scene. Scary! Swayze really was wonderful in this role, the romance between Quatermain and Elizabeth is perfectly staged - he is a perfect gentleman - and the story, the screenplay, is gripping and exciting. Made for TV as a mini-series it's one of those films that can be watched over and over again and never becomes tired. I recommend it although it is what it is; Indiana Jones/The Librarian type archaeological adventure straight out of a "Hollywood" studio. Old fashioned entertainment.

TheLittleSongbird Not that I was expecting it to be, but sometimes I do get a feeling that although you think you are going to enjoy it that there is a chance you'll be let down. I was pleasantly surprised. Of course it's not perfect, I do think it is too long with a few scenes that drag in pace and some of the supporting cast sport accents and quite badly done ones too. However, it does look great with beautiful scenery and skilled camera work. The soundtrack does give a sense of adventure, without feeling plodding, over-bearing or generic, while the script even with the odd stilted line is witty and the story has the right amounts of suspense and thrills with well choreographed and edited action sequences. Patrick Swayze I was dubious about as this was not the sort of role I associated him with, but he does do credibly. The female lead Alison Doody is beautiful and quite sassy and John Standing and Roy Marsden give solid supporting turns, thankfully not being plagued by the accents issue. So all in all, not bad, could've been better but I can think of worse ways to waste my time. 6.5/10 Bethany Cox

Robert W. I like Patrick Swayze, I've liked him since his early days when he was on top of Hollywood with the incredible Ghost, RoadHouse, Dirty Dancing, and Point Break. He really was a star and proved he could act too with his incredible role (which should have been Academy Award Nominated) in To Wong Foo Thanks For Everything. His career then slid into oblivion and he hasn't had a comeback yet sadly but he's still around and I was more than anxious to check out King Solomon's mines and see him in action. There is nothing awful about this film, it's well done, well acted, the setting for the film is breathtaking (filmed on location in South Africa.) The film is filled with cultural information whether partly fictional or not it's well worth seeing for those interesting tribes and people. Swayze's Allan Quatermain is emotional, brooding, sad, tough, a real fighter and honest and the perfect good guy.I was just struck with how old Swayze looks in this film, worn and tired. I realize the man is well into his fifties but he's still Johnny Castle to me. King Solomon's Mines tries to be less action and more drama and adventure and it scores in that vein but there is so little action that the 3 plus hour movie drags so heavily. It might not have felt so long had I seen it on Television in different parts as a mini series but watching it all on DVD, it seemed to go on forever...walking, walking, more walking, searching, and so on and so forth. The whole story relied entirely on the characters and as good as they were they couldn't support the whole film without some different story lines. Leading lady Alison Doody does a good job playing the rather proper Miss Maitland while still being an adventurer of sorts. She seemed a lot tougher back in her Indiana Jones days but then the character was very different. Roy Marsden, Sidede Onyulo, Ian Roberts, all did a great job as supporting cast. They all had a very different characters and they all added to the story in their own ways. Hakeem Kae-Kazim as the evil king Twala was excellent but not nearly as well used as a great bad guy should be. His scenes were brief and I think he really could have been used in a much bigger way. One of the great characters in the film is the spooky witch of the tribe Gagool played by first timer Lesedi Mogoathle. Her role is disturbing and although she's not an evil character in the film but rather someone who really does look out for her tribe. Her make up and character is very cool!! I don't know if they simply signed on some of the local people to be in the film but they do a great job. Anyone looking for a rebirth of Indiana Jones in this film won't find it. It's a completely different genre and it's not entirely lacking action. There are some gun fights and some fist fights and an elaborate battle to the death in the end, but it's just sparse.The film has a very classic feel to it, it's a very family friendly, modest, clean film. I was struck by a very nostalgic feeling while watching the romance between Elizabeth Maitland and Allan Quatermain because director Steve Boyum really gave it that old Humphrey Bogart saves the girl kinda feel to it...a classic love story. Overall probably a good family film but most adults on their own will want more action out of it. It could have been much better done with a much director as Steve Boyum tends to strike out frequently. Come back SWAYZE!! 6/10

Alphonse_van_Worden This is the worst imaginable crap. The novel by H. Rider Haggard is very entertaining and dramatic. The makers of this worthless movie don't follow it closely. Well, old novels aren't sacred and making free versions of them is fine with me if one has ideas of one's own. If all one can do is changing things and replace them with uninteresting and watered-down clichés one should stick to the original. If they had done that this film would have been at least twice as good even with worse actors and if filmed inside a studio with huts made of cardboard. BUt there's no imagination at all only tiredness. This should be bought or watched only by collectors of Victorian novels made into movies.Just a hint, and not a spoiler I think, to make those of you who have read the novel understand what has taken place and what you may expect if you decide to watch this on TV or - God forbid - waste money on buying this. Gagool an old baddie witch in the book and some precursor to Gollum has been turned into a nice gal!