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 o sue me, but I didn't know "King Solomon's
Mines" was a TV mini-series before watching it. Had I known, and
considering my general aversion to TV mini-series (what, I gotta wait multiple
nights to see how it all ends?), I wouldn't have bothered. As it stands,
"Solomon" could have been better. For instance, take out 90
minutes of it (that is, one whole night) and you'd have a decent standalone
action-adventure. But as a two-parter, I'm afraid one can't help but notice
that during much of the first half nothing really happens.
"King Solomon's Mines"
stars the ex-dirty dancer himself, Patrick Swayze, as literary hero Allan
Quatermain (played with gruff invincibility by Sean Connery in the
big-screen "League of
Extraordinary Gentlemen"). While this version of novelist H. Rider
Haggard's hero remains a gritty adventurer (helped in no small part by
Swayze's lined face), he's also a single parent with a teen son he hasn't
seen in years. Having left his cherished Africa for England in hopes of
getting his son back, Quatermain gets the bad news that his deceased wife's
parents plan on adopting the boy as their own.
While Quatermain is drowning his sorrows in booze,
spunky Englishwoman Elizabeth Matiland (Alison Doody) requests his help to
rescue her father, an archaeologist who is being held in Africa by the
power mad Twala (Hakeem Kae-Kazim). Elizabeth is ordered to bring her
father's map, which shows the way to King Solomon's mines, to Twala or her
father will be executed. Quatermain, an old friend of Elizabeth's father,
agrees to help, but he hasn't counted on the dogged pursuit of Sergei
(Langley Kirkwood), a nationalistic Russian soldier who has tracked down
Elizabeth at the behest of his Czar. To make matters worst, leading Sergei
and his band of killers is McNabb (Gavin Hood), a skilled tracker and
Quatermain's archenemy.
With over 3 hours to kill, the mini-series starts off
painfully slow. Our main characters don't even arrive in Africa until the
30-minute mark, and nothing of particular note really occurs until -- you
guessed it -- the end of the first part. (It's called a cliffhanger,
doncha know.) Much of the first part consists of Quartermain's group
traveling across the endless plains of Africa as McNabb and the Russians
plot to take away the map. Every now and then the two factions skirmish,
but for the most part the narrative remains at a stalemate until the
fast-paced second half.
As a mini-series with delusions of being epic,
"Solomon" will delight those who buy the notion that Africa is
the last, great untouched land. Mind you, I'm not disagreeing with this
notion, but only saying that if you buy stock in the idea, then there are
plenty of grand vistas to behold. Director Steve Boyum, last responsible
for the under appreciated "Timecop
2", is working from a modest budget. The action scenes are
decent, but nothing to hang one's hat on. In fact, compared to treasure
hunting films in general, there's a decidedly lack of an
"adventure" feel to the "King Solomon's Mines".
Which leads me to this observation: "King
Solomon's Mines" should have been a 90 to 100 minute movie. As a
3-hour mini-series, there's just not enough adventure in the script to
carry the day. In-between Quartermain and McNabb's respective groups
skirmishing (to break the monotony of endless walking, one presumes),
there's an interesting subplot about an exiled African king who uses
Quatermain's quest to his advantage. The exiled king is played by Sidede
Onyulo ("Nowhere
in Africa"), who is quite a good actor and brings a certain class
to the whole thing. In fact, the screenwriters might have felt the same
way, because for a while the whole Solomon's mines angle seems to fade
into the background.
As for the primary cast, Patrick Swayze is far from
his glory days in "Ghost"
and "Dirty
Dancing", and one can't help but notice that very obvious limp
he's sporting nowadays. (The result of falling off a horse, according to
the always informative IMDB.) And to be honest Swayze doesn't make a very
invincible Quatermain; I suspect that the film goes out of its way to heap
pathos upon the man courtesy of a dead wife and an estranged son. Alison
Doody, who broke onto the scene like gangbusters with "Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade", finally returns to the screen after
a 10-year hiatus. And let me just say that Ms. Doody is just as gorgeous
as ever; she's so beautiful, in fact, it's hard to notice the sweeping
African background whenever she's standing in front of it.
For those interested in epic adventures, "King
Solomon's Mines" might meet your needs -- that is, if you're not one
of those really demanding viewers. It's not nearly as epic as it could
have been, and the script seems to lack enough adventures for a 3-hour
film. The result is a lot of walking with little to show for it.
Another point of contention is the antagonism between
Quartermain and McNabb. As written, the audience will be hardpressed to
develop the need for blood that the two characters seem to be exerting
toward one another. Maybe I just have a thicker skin than Quartermain and
McNabb, but a business dispute and a whack to the back of the head doesn't
seem like something to get, you know, all blood vendetta-ish over. Then
again, maybe that's just me.
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