Quick Review: The Librarian

I got a chance to watch a made for TV movie called the Librarian: Return to King Solomons Mines.

This is a sequal to The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, that aired in 2004. The star of the movies is Noah Wyle as Flynn Carsen.

Flynn works in a library that collects legendary artifacts from across the globe to be stored in the library. Everything from Excalibur to the Spear of Destiny, and hundreds of other artifacts.

Flynn's job is to go out and procure these artifacts and return them. It is very similar in plot lines and story telling to Indiana Jones.

Start film with him going after minor artifact, stealing it from the bad guys. Run away from bad guys. End up jumping in the river to get away. Come back home, 2 mins of him there, get mailed ancient artifact. Go chasing across the world, bad guys chasing him the whole way. Find keys he has to put together to locate the artifact. When he finally solves it, he is betrayed by someone close to him in the movie. Only to overcome this, save the day and either retrieve the artifact or destroy it.

In this particular case, he was going after the Book of Solomon. He was mailed the map to find the book. Because as it turns out he is a direct decendant of one of the 12 masons that built the Mine of Soloman. He finds the 2 pieces that make up the key to the map. He had the map stolen, but he finds it and retrieves it, and solves the mystery and locates the Mine in a matter of a day.

So instead of at this point returning with the map and the key, so that the mine is safe, he goes after the book. Of course he is followed and when he gets into the mine he is betrayed by his "uncle" that is really his fathers dead best friend. But as it turned out really shot his father. Huh??

Instead of just shooting them, they throw them in a trap room, that they just happened to know was there and figured out how to work it. This room would fill up with water and had spikes on a cieling that would come down and kill you also. Who the hell makes a room like this in a hidden treasure chamber? Solomon I guess. Luckily the guy they had just happen to have run across in the desert and saved his life, showed up and saved them. Lucky them.

They then beat up the 3-4 henchmen and made it up to where the evil uncle is using the book to try and go back and change history. Flynn gets there and fights him off, gets the book, where his evil uncle talks him into using it to bring back his dead father. But half way through, the girl heroine distracts him and he comes to his senses and throws the book into the lava.
Lots of ghosts flying around ala Raiders, they even do the beautiful one that turns to a screaming skull.

Overall you have to give this movie a thumbs up, but no originality at all. They even stole the theme of the story from the Qurtamane movies and the plot line was pulled directly out of a combination of Raiders and The Holy Grail Indiana movies.

But still I liked it. He is a much nerdier hero, who uses his book knowledge and 22 degrees to try and save the world. Where my slogan for him, "Feets don't fail me now!" is his battle cry.

Not nearly good enough for a movie theatre, but for a nice evening of a cheap, fun, campy low budget movie, it is a good time that I recommend.

Check both of them out if you get the chance.