Fabrizio del Wrongo writes:

Even more than “Star Wars” or “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” this cheery travesty from the Cannon Group seems to start in the middle. The hero, Allan Quatermain, is given no introduction, and the details of his mission — such as it is — are daubed in perfunctorily between bursts of silly action. In some ways it beats Lucas and Spielberg at their own game: It’s structurally looser, more improvisatory in feel, than anything the Bearded Duo ever came up with. (The movie can be taken as a spoof of ’80s blockbusters.) The screenplay, developed by Gene Quintano and James R. Silke, dispenses with most of the architecture of its source material, the 1885 novel by H. Rider Haggard; the plot is just one damn thing after another. But the movie’s knowingness and its honesty concerning its own dumbness are often fairly compelling. I particularly enjoyed a languorous bit in which the heroine, played by a young Sharon Stone, lounges in the jungle clad in lingerie. The “Penthouse”-style lighting makes her look gift-wrapped, and the tribe of ersatz Ubangis attending her has some of the cheek of the early Weissmuller Tarzan films, still the gold standard for ludicrous jungle fare. Here, at the start of her career, Stone is distinguished by a gangly American obliviousness. From a traditional acting standpoint her performance isn’t much, yet her physicality and diligence are memorable — she’s like a cheerleader giving her all for her team. (When she wants to communicate urgency she rapidly bobs up and down like she has to pee, and when attempting to fly a plane she throttles the controls and yells, “I’m drivin’ a car — vrooom!”) Veteran director J. Lee Thompson sustains a uniform tone and keeps everything moving at a brisk tempo. The gags are well-timed, and the energy doesn’t flag until the end, when the action becomes strained. In the role of Quatermain, Richard Chamberlain maintains an admirable blandness even while saying things like, “It’s right there between your legs! Pull on it!”