Re-watched and it's great stuff!

I just watched this film again last night with my brain fully turned off and surprisingly it managed to ever so slightly turn it back on in terms of sheer enjoyment.

I have to admit I saw this film when I was 8 years old and a mere year after seeing Temple Of Doom also so the nostalgia factor is strong indeed but I was surprised at the amount of decent action/adventure that was within the film.

Ok so Cannon have made an obvious Indiana Jones rip off, even going so far as to hire some of the same cast with John Rhys-Davis in what is basically an evil Sallah but I have to say that most of it is done pretty damn well with only some really cheesy lines and "Oh come on!" situations cropping up here and there but for the most part it's solid enjoyable fun with lots of fun action. Richard Chamberlain is a good lead, not quite as three dimensional as Harrison Ford but small nods to the differences between the two like Quartermain so easily losing his hat really make for some geeky fun viewing.

It's good seeing Sharon Stone at the start of her career in an obvious Willie Scott clone role and her acting here could have so easily led to a fairly prosperous career in porn but I'm glad she stuck it out seriously so she could flash her hoo-ha at us in Basic Instinct.

A special mention I think goes to Jerry Goldsmith. How Cannon managed to blag him I have no idea but his score here is actually a priceless look at his work in that era with echoes of previous scores and future ones too. You can clearly hear movements and arrangements that sound like Supergirl, Star Trek, Krull, Total Recall and Innerspace and they all work together tremendously.

I can see this films faults a mile off but they make up about 20-30% of it which leaves a good solid chunk of smashing adventure and I would even say this is better than Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull in terms of sheer fun.