High Adventure

"High Adventure" stars Vampires' Thomas Ian Griffith as gambler and adventurer Chris Quatermain. His last name may sound very familiar to Allan Quatermain. He's his grandson just like Griffith explains in the movie. "High Adventure" is suppose to be an action/adventure movie but lacks of originality because of a small budget. Griffith travels to Africa to recover Alexander the Great's treasure hidden somewhere in cave. His trusty assistant Johnny Ford (Harry Peacock) and his love interest (Anja Kling), have to join forces to find the treasure before ruthless gangster Lorenzo gets her hands on it. Bad action, quite long even though it only lasts 94 minutes and no cool scenes. The only good thing might be Thomas Ian Griffith's grade-B performance when he pulls off funny one liners like (a man just saved his life) "We owe him a beer !" and (a woman kisses him when he's got a fake mustache on) "You should try without the silly mustache." Overall, I think it's more of a lightweight comedy with a little bit of action from martial arts master Thomas Ian Griffith. I rate this movie 5/10.

And, we have it, right here… a low budget Indiana Jones rip-off. Mark Roper is a director of low budget action films, but all of a sudden he wanted to direct some adventure film that resembles Indiana Jones. And guess what? He didn't make it. The filming locations, the ambient of the movie, the atmosphere, the sense that something adventurous is going to happen… is weak. It's just a low budget action film, masked into a cliché adventure film, starring Thomas Ian Griffith, who starred in most low budget, action-martial arts films. Griffith, being a martial artist, good one to say, and also a good, classically trained actor, I watched this film because of him, he was OK, in whatever he do, he is good, he gives us a solid performances, but his looks and martial arts knowledge always leads him to C crap, action movies. Griffith plays Chris Quartermain, the grandson of the great fictional adventurer Allan Quartermain… how odd is that? Well, they needed some famous character to attract adventure movie fans. Weak script, weak story, nothing's that special, not even the comic element which is pretty much around. The other actors did as much as they could with their performances, but not good enough… that actress that played a leading villain Karol Lorenzo, man, she was irritating… bad acting, and no charisma at all. He also have Gotz Otto here, he is known from "Tomorrow Never Dies" and "Beowulf" (1999), and by his appearance here, I knew that him and Griffith would have a fight scene. They are both tall and lean and they seem evenly match. Predictable… So as the rest of the movie… avoid it… if you want to put yourself to sleep.

Yes....for those who never knew this is the official third and final entry of the famous made in the 80s alan cuatermain movies starring Richard chamberlain in the lead role. first we had the king Solomon mines 1985 and then the 1986 sequel called alan cuatermain and the lost city of gold. 15 years later Thomas ian Griffith played the grandson of alan called rick quatermain in the final entry with an official whopping title called....high adventure aka rick quatermain and the lost treasure of alexander the great...(the worldwide title) While the first two movies were the best by far this final entry although it's weak compared to the 80s versions is still have it's own worth if u are a fan of this genre and especially of Thomas ian Griffith who alone saves this movie up to a point. this worth a look maybe one or two views but it's worth to add it to your adventure - treasure movies collection and don't forget it's the forgotten alan cuatermain third entry in the series and the movie also refers to the previous movies so if u are a completist u will buy the dvd. once more I recommend this only if u are a fanatic fan of the genre and of Thomas ian Griffith but if u only searching for the greatest quatermain movies then skip this one and stick only to the 1950s entry with Deborah care and the 1980s versions while the Patrick's 2003 version was in between those films and this one in terms of greatness. so there are a lot more better versions than this one but at least this is not one of the worst either and at least it's better than the atrocious 2008 effort called......alan cuatermain the temple of the skulls which in my opinion is the bottom of the barrel and those who made that tv movie should be arrested for insulting the real alan quatermain myth and his numerous fans all over the world.

Grade // C (5 out of 10)