Allan Quatermain and the Temple of Skulls (1 Viewer)

[Richard--W]

The low-budget independent film company that piggybacked their home-video release of SNAKES ON A TRAIN to coincide with SNAKES ON A PLANE has done it again: ALLAN QUATERMAIN AND THE TEMPLE OF SKULLS has beat INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL to DVD. The cover art is pure Indiana Jones:

Amazon.com: Allan Quatermain and the Temple of Skulls: Christopher Adamson, Sean Michael, Wittley Jourdan, Sean Cameron Michael, Natalie Stone, Daniel Bonjour, Mark Atkins: Movies & TV

Has anyone seen it?

 

[Brett_M]

Asylum has a lot of these low-budget straight to DVD flicks. Check out their website. It's a grin.

The Asylum

 

[Steve Christou]

I saw Snakes on a Train and it was gawd awful, the dvd artwork shows a snake eating a train, little did I realise when watching the film that there would actually be a scene where a massive snake eats a train, it was bad.

 

[Ruz-El]

now I want to watch both of them...

 

[R-T-C Tim]

What ever happened to the European cinema industry, they should be cranking out these low budget rip-offs.

Still it is good to see that someone has still got the spirit. In 30 year's time us cult fans will be proclaiming these pictures as marvels!

 

[JoshuaB.]

That conjures up painful childhood memories of those awful Alan Quatermain films from the mid-80s--Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone, what an odd pairing!

 

[seanOhara]

It's really sad that Allan Quatermain movies only get made to cash in on Indiana Jones. I'd really like to see a modern attempt at King Solomon's Mines or She.

 

[Dave Simkiss]

Slightly OT, but... these are the kind of films that Riff Trax should be looking at.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Actually reminds me of Treasure of the 4 Crowns, a bad Italian Indiana Jones ripoff that was in 3D!

Doug

 

[Richard--W]

I wouldn't be surprised if Asylum bought the rights to a foreign film and dubbed it so that it becomes an Allan Quatermain story. Sometimes these foreign film conversions are sourced from very good films. In any case, I do admire their nerve.

With regard to Treasure of the Four Crowns ... at least the stereoscopic process was authentic and of very high quality. The film was a crowd-pleaser. As expected, the anaglyph conversion for DVD is of extremely poor quality and gives the wrong impression of the theatrical film and of the authentic stereoscopic process.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Shouldn't that be 'Trains in a Snake'?

 

[Douglas Monce]

I agree that the 3D in Four Crowns was quite good, however just as a movie I enjoyed Comin' At Ya! quite a bit more. It didn't take itself so seriously.

Doug

 

[TonyD]

is this the movie that touts itself as being based on the same story as the indiana jones movie, on the cover of the dvd.

 

[Brett_M]

"From the story that inspired Indiana Jones"

Shameless.

 

[seanOhara]

I think you mean "accurate" -- the original Allan Quatermain novels from the 19th Century were forerunners of Indiana Jones. The scene where Indy and Short-Round are going to be crushed by a descending ceiling while a beautiful woman is trapped outside the room is straight out of "King Solomon's Mines," among many examples. This particular film seems to be an original Quatermain adventure, but the tagline is as fair as if the "Flash Gordon" movie had billed itself as the story that inspired Star Wars.

 

[Brett_M]

It's not fair, though. The average consumer doesn't see that. They will equate one to the other. Flash Gordon = Star Wars. Allan Quartermain and the Temple of Skulls = Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls. The people reading this forum right now are not average consumers. People buy or rent these movies, expecting one thing and getting another.

I have no doubt that characters like Allan Quartermain, Solomon Kane and Buck Rogers inspired Lucas to create a smart and resourceful adventurer. Using that tagline to cash in on the new Indy pic is shameless. Their whole enterprise is shameless. Check out the DVD cover for AVH: Alien Versus Hunter-->

The Asylum

That's not shameless? This movie had a $5000 budget. They stole another movie's promotion (a very expensive one) and capitalized on it. People are suckers. It's not fair to take advantage of them because of it.

 

[Ruz-El]

William Katt is a legit actor, and that film looks as good as the one it's ripping off...

 

[Brett_M]

Okay...bad example.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Its called making a buck and people have been doing it for 10,000 years. They haven't actually done anything illegal. I believe Allan Quartermain is in the public domain.

There have always been quickie films made to cash in on big films. Destination Moon was a big Paramount film in 1950 but a little company called Lippert managed to get out a cheap film called Rocketship XM a few months before Destination Moon.

The Abyss had it's Leviathan and Deep Star Six.

They made a quickie TV movie of Titanic the year before James Cameron's epic came out.

This is nothing new, and I think MOST people can tell the difference between a knock off and the real thing just by looking at the cheap cover art.

Doug

 

[R-T-C Tim]

What is 'Fistful of Dollars' if not an attempt to pass off a low budget European production as an American Western?