King Solomon's Mines (2004) (TV)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Steve Boyum

Writers (WGA):

H. Rider Haggard (novel)
Steven H. Berman (television story)

Release Date:

6 June 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure

Plot:

An adventurous quest for a treasure hidden in King Solomon's mines, based on H. Rider Haggard's timeless tale. |

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Cast

Patrick Swayze	...	Allan Quatermain
Alison Doody	...	Elizabeth Maitland
Roy Marsden	...	Captain Good
John Standing	...	Dr. Sam Maitland
Gavin Hood	...	Bruce McNabb
Sidede Onyulo	...	Umbopa
Ian Roberts	...	Sir Henry Curtis
Nick Boraine	...	Ivan Fleekov
Hakeem Kae-Kazim	...	Twala
Lesedi Mogoathle	...	Gagool
Godfrey Lekala	...	Khiva
Mesia Gumede	...	Ventvogel
Langley Kirkwood	...	Sergei
Morne Visser	...	Petre
Robert Whitehead	...	Bitter

Runtime:

USA:173 min

Country:

Germany | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:K-13

Filming Locations:

Cape Town, South Africa

Company:

Enigma Pictures

Trivia:

The word Nomolos, the name of the fight to the death, is meaningless in Zulu. It is simply Solomon backwards.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Quartermain carries and uses a lever action rifle with a tubular magazine (underneath the barrel) throughout the movie but the ammo on his shoulder belt and the cartridge he holds up then drops on the ground for Macabe to find (when he says, "Come to papa") has a pointed bullet. Lever action rifles with a tubular magazine do not fire pointed bullets due to the danger of one bullet point hitting the primer in another in the magazine causing the gun to possibly explode if dropped or bumped. This is the reason such lever action rifles are limited to a select number of calibers that have rounded or flat tipped bullets. Quartermains cartridges look to be .30-'06 or .270 calibers and no lever action rifles with a tubular magazine are made that fire these. The only lever action chambered in these rounds is the Winchester 1895, which has a box magazine just like bolt action rifles.

Movie Connections:

Version of King Solomon's Mines (1937)

Enjoyable and worth watching again.

Watched both parts twice. Enjoyed the story and enjoyed seeing an older Patrick Swayze as the hero. He was very believable as the hunter Alan Quartermaine and certainly bested the performance of Richard Chamberlain. I do admit that I would have preferred seeing someone else as the "Lady in Distress". Alison Doody should stick with modern and not period pieces. She didn't have the look of the woman of the 1800's. The rest of the cast were terrific and followed the plotlines very well. I am glad to see that the actors of this generation are not afraid to try on different characters and are not afraid to be seen as getting older. Age is inevitable, but let's not hide from it. A man at 50+ can be much sexier (and , Patrick truly is sexy) then a green youth, no matter how pretty. Hoorah for character lines to go along with a great smile.