The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines

Plot synopsis:
Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle), a year after his first mission as the Librarian, has been on many more death-defying missions to protect the world from evildoers, including a trip to Utah to recover a mystical crystal skull. Upon his return to the Library, the audience is introduced to more mythic artifacts stored there: The Head of Medusa, the Trident of Poseidon, the Shroud of Turin, and the Pipes of Pan. He has moved out of his mother's house into his own apartment, but still feels held back by Judson, his supervisor, who tells him that "sometimes you have to give up what you want for the greater good" in order to go from being a "good librarian" to a "great librarian".
Meanwhile, at Flynn's birthday party, his late father's friend, "Uncle" Jerry (Robert Foxworth), tells Flynn about how Flynn's dad courted his mother. Flynn remembers the "silly bedtime stories" and the amulet his father had, which his mother says came from a secondhand shop. When Flynn goes home, he discovers that someone has trashed his apartment; he is ambushed and robbed of a scroll he received in the mail that day. It transpires that the scroll is a map containing clues to the location of King Solomon's Mines. Flynn, in typical high-adventure fashion, cannot allow the thief to find the rest of the clues and thus, the mines themselves. Judson (Bob Newhart) tells him that possession of the Book of Solomon, hidden in the mines, will give the reader of it control over time and space, so that the secret must be kept hidden.
Flynn is en route to Morocco, to find part of the key to the scroll among some Roman ruins, where he meets Emily Davenport (Gabrielle Anwar), an archaeologist who, as it turns out, holds 3 more degrees than Flynn and can argue convincingly about ancient history, Biblical texts, and geography. Flynn and Emily are attacked after finding the piece to the map legend and discovering a hidden meaning to the amulet, which links him to the brotherhood of the Masons, one of whose members helps them escape and tells them where to find the remaining part of the map legend. Emily, recognizing the code on Flynn's piece as being in the Akon language, insists on coming with Flynn to Gede Province in Kenya. The men who attacked Flynn, led by a General Samir, turn out to be on the trail of the mines as well. They torture the man who helped Flynn escape until he tells them where Flynn was headed.
After a ride on a honeymoon tour bus—where Flynn runs into Debra (Lisa Brenner), a former blind date, with her husband Carl (Jonathan Frakes), who reports their meeting back to Flynn's mother, with disastrous results—and several days' hiking across the Serengeti, Flynn and Emily literally stumble across a man buried up to his neck in sand as punishment for stealing a neighboring tribe's crops. The two adventurers dig him out; he insists on being their guide in return. Flynn shows Emily the drawings he made as a child to accompany his father's "silly bedtime stories", his mother having slipped them into his bag. They show scenes of laughing rocks, upside-down valleys, and other fanciful places. Emily, in turn, confides to Flynn her obsession since childhood with the mysterious Queen of Sheba, wife of Solomon. After several more days of hiking, they finally reach a village. There, as their guide Jomo (Hakeem Kae-Kazim) tells them, a fortune teller can help them. Unknown to them, the fortune teller's shop has been appropriated by the men chasing them. Just as Flynn finds the other piece of the map legend there, Emily sees the enemy coming and they flee.
To their amazement, they run into Flynn's Uncle Jerry, who is in Kenya to pick up some stock for his import-export business, and he hustles them aboard a train on which he has reserved some space. Jerry feeds the pair, gives Emily a skimpy Maasai dress, and quizzes Flynn about his "secret life", while Flynn in turn shows Jerry the amulet his father left him. After dinner, Flynn checks Emily's cabin to find her tipsily analyzing the Akon code. It turns out to have a connection with the Biblical Song of Solomon, which leads to a romantic interlude. This is unfortunately ruined when the two argue over the translation of the love poetry. Next morning, Flynn and Emily, having solved the code, travel to Three Witches Mountain near Mombasa, and find that the terrain reminds Flynn of his juvenile drawings. Eventually he realizes that his own father must have known about the mines' location and told Flynn stories to plant clues in his memory, giving him the amulet in case he ever needed to guard the secret and enlist the help of other Masons. With the antagonists in pursuit, the two manage to penetrate the caves where Solomon's treasure is hidden. Gold, jewels, and other treasures litter the caverns; a huge head of Queen Sheba, carved out of the stone wall, looms over all. Flynn spots a book resting on a pedestal, opens it, and realizes that this is the book of which Judson told him. As he glances through it, the text seems to be attracted to his hand, beginning to glow in a sinister fashion.
Their pursuers come upon them and drag in a disheveled Uncle Jerry, who begs them to give General Samir the book in exchange for his own life. Flynn complies, only to find that the General and his thugs work for Uncle Jerry, who wants to turn back time so he can fulfill what he thinks was his destiny; to win Margie Carsen (Olympia Dukakis), who he feels was stolen from him by Flynn's dad. It turns out Jerry is the unknown figure who shot Flynn's father, after Carsen refused to tell Jerry about the mines. As Jerry enters a cave filled with hundreds of mummified bodies and a bubbling lava pit, he begins to read aloud the incantation that will give him power over space and time, stirring up ghosts as he does so. Flynn and Emily are flung into a pit, which fills with water and features a slowly descending, spike-laden ceiling. After Flynn experiences a vision of Judson on a white beach, he finds that he and Emily are being rescued by the faithful Jomo, who has followed them to fulfill his life debt.
Flynn confronts Jerry over the book, wrestling it from him with the incantation unfinished. As Flynn is about to throw the book into the lava pit, he begins to see visions of his father in the pit. Jerry seizes the chance to try to convince Flynn that they can change time together. Flynn begins to finish the incantation. Emily and Jomo burst into the cave to find Flynn uttering the incantation and an army of ghosts circling the cave. Emily uses a reflective spear to shine light on Flynn's amulet, which catches his attention and reminds him of his father's trust. When Flynn throws the book into the lava pit, Jerry jumps after it and falls into the lava as Flynn, Emily, and Jomo flee. As the cave crumbles, the evildoers are crushed by falling rock.
In a brief epilogue, Flynn assumes Emily will be coming back to New York with him, but she decides to pursue her search for the Queen of Sheba in Tunisia, leaving Flynn with only fond memories. In a scene reminiscent of Casablanca, Flynn, in a trench coat and fedora, wanders toward his plane, musing, "Of all the gin joints in all the world, she had to walk into mine."
Flynn returns to the library and tells Judson that he threw the book into the lava which he believes was "not very librarian" of him. Judson reminds him that by giving up the chance of seeing his father by destroying the book, he sacrificed what he wanted "for the greater good", and was now a "great librarian". When Flynn asks Judson why he did not tell him about his father's connection with this journey, Judson explains that it was a lesson Flynn had to learn on his own, and Judson is sure that wherever Flynn's father is, he is proud of his son. The film ends with a humorous discussion about Flynn's vision of Judson on a beach back at the mines.

Tags: violence, action, flashback

Review:
Noah Wyle returns as the Librarian Flynn.
This time he sets out to find King Solomon's Mine together with the help of fellow "nerd" Emily Davenport (Gabrielle Anwar).
I think the character Flynn makes this movie.
I also enjoyed the addition of Gabrielle Anwar, whose love/hate relationship with Flynn creates some nice laughs.
The sequel to "The Librarian" is just as good and maybe even better.
It is full of action,adventure,nice special effects (remember it is only a TV production) and a lot of comedy.
Everything was in its place and geared up to thrill you.Having dispensed with the background of how Flynn becomes the iconic librarian, this second chapter hits the deck running from the get go, never stopping to catch its breath.The twists on Solomon's story were creative and exciting.
The sequel holds up well thanks, in part, to the return of Jane Curtin, Bob Newhart and Olympia Dukakis, but Wyle is the heart of the film.
Simply put, this move tracks the adventures of a man named Flynn Carsen to find the riches of King Solomon and protect their secrets.
He meets Emily Davenport, a brilliant, beautiful woman, who is obsessed with the Queen of Sheeba, and the two go off together to find the "Mines" where the treasure, and a very dangerous book of spells, is hidden.OK, this movie is very cliché.
If Harrison Ford was in it and the script, acting, and special effects were slightly better, it could be Indiana Jones.
The acting is fairly bad and the plot jumps from place to place, never really certain who feels what and who does what.That said, it is one of those movies that is so bad, that it's good.
Think of it as cute and a good family movie (except for maybe one scene).So watch this knowing that you won't be awed by it, only relatively amused..
Second part of the Librarian series with lots of entertainment and fun.
This second outing in the popular ¨The Librarian franchise ¨(1ª Quest of the spear-2004- by Peter Winther and 3ª The curse of the Judas Chalice-2008- by Jonathan Frakes) concerns on Flynn Carsen(Noah Wyle), the roughest, toughest,silly, and botcher hero with 22 university degree .
Our unpredictable heroes risk their lives and limb against a set of the nasties(Erick Avari) villains you've ever seen.Entertained TV movie plenty of action-packed,tongue in check, adventures, love story and extremely funny.
Along with a sympathetic Noah Wyle appear the habitual secondaries, as a deadpan Bob Newhart, Jane Curtin and his likable mother well played by Olympia Dukakis.
One year later we find out intrepid hero (Noah Wylie), an experienced Librarian and his bodyguard is no longer needed.In a nod to Indiana Jones, he brings back the Crystal Skull in the opening sequence before he sets out on his real adventure that brings him into contact with Gabrielle Anwar ("Burn Notice", who did manage to turn in such an impressive performance that the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films gave her a best supporting actress nomination.What is it with these English heroines?
Well, this isn't Body Snatchers, so we won't be seeing her ta tas.I won't reveal the bad guy here because it would spoil it.Besides Indiana Jones, you see bits of The Mummy, and even Casablanca in the movie.
It is popcorn fun for fans of those movies and Wylie does a great job..
The first was mesmerizing at times, cheeky at others, but most of all it was good, quality entertainment (when was the last time you could say that about a movie you watched on TNT on a Saturday afternoon?).
Noah Wyle has gone from geeky doctor to geeky librarian with the skill and poise of a very capable veteran actor.
Unfortunately the entire premise of the sequel, the existence of the fabled King Solomon's mines is just way too preposterous.
After retrieving the Crystal Skull in Utah, Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle) receives a map by mail with the secret location of King Solomon's Mines.
Flynn heads to Casablanca to the ruins where he is chased by a group of mercenaries leaded by General Samir (Erick Avari) that also wants to find the location of King Solomon's mines.
"The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines" is another exciting adventure of Flynn Carsen in the style of Indiana Jones.
The charming and gorgeous Gabrielle Anwar shows a wonderful chemistry with Noah Wyle and they form a pleasant lead couple.
Indiana Jones/007/Harry Potter-like hero, Noah Wylie (charming and boyish) finding his destiny and a few fabulous treasures along the way.
His 22 advanced degrees and adventurous spirit equip him to hold his own with another archaeologist, Gabrielle Anwar, whose 25 degrees make her a formidable barrier as he looks for clues to the whereabouts of Solomon's mine.
This time the theme is good old King Solomon's mines...
The ending is predictable, but fun.Noah Wyle again does a very entertaining smart job as Flynn.
The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines i like adventures..but not so promising..movie is about..hunting for treasure and guys chasing........this movie is got lots of adventures form....the location is amazing if it is real..not all of them but may animation.....which is awesome.........makes screenplay very realistic......story line goes similar to Indiana Jones or may be mummy(returns) ...the librarian, Flynn (nerdy) seems to get always saved by Emily(other librarian or Lara croft rather) clutching the enemies is cool...climax is weird, the fighting is unrealistic......over all the movie is a good pass-time movie....
Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle) has learned a lot in the year which has passed since he took the Librarian job, that makes him more of a traditional action hero with a clear idea of what he wants to achieve instead of stumbling accidentally into an adventure.
So why not try and find the most dangerous book in the world in King Solomon's Mines?
The first part of Librarian was a good project (a lot of humour, pretty good plot, Sonya Walger great as Nicole No one) and I really enjoyed it.
Fortunately they've made a sequel, unfortunately they've taken completely different author for the scenario which was a huge mistake.In the second part the casting wasn't impressive (especially Gabrielle Anwar didn't fit in), the plot was weak, another huge mistake was moving toward the family themes (his father, uncle, etc.) and together with Nicole No one character the chemistry was gone and the humour just wasn't good enough.It was a good try, but creators missed the first movie example by miles..
This isn't as direct a copy of stuff in the Indiana Jones films(meanwhile, they do go to a well-known and loved classic, as well as Tomb Raider), though the main concept remains the same.
Frakes does a nice job directing(and appears briefly in a role, as well), and the action here isn't half bad.
I've always like this kind of "adventure movie", so one Sunday afternoon with nothing to do would be best spent to watch one of this.
Also one thing which I've always wondering when watching this kind of movies.
For the Sci-Fi channel The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines is not too bad.
The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines had some lavish sets and photography, some decent action and special effects and a rousing score.
Noah Wyle is a likable lead and Jane Curtin and especially Bob Newhart are subtly deadpan.
The humour in the script comes across as contrived and unfunny with a lot of quite stilted dialogue, and the storytelling is dull and derivative of Indiana Jones except with more predictability and less of the thrills, suspense and fun.
The characters are clichéd, that's not a problem but it is if they are not written well or not interesting, and generally while not as problematic as other Sci-Fi films that was the case with The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines.
Obviously even the idiots in charge of making decisions to finance the first Librarian movie realized where they had gone wrong: a writer, who had delusions of grandeur and a director who couldn't direct if Christopher Nolan was directing *him*.
The sets in this second movie no longer look laughable, they are actually passable.
Another great movie in the Librarian Series.
And sadly there are whole conversations and scenes where I may be able to understand what one person is saying but the other person's lines are completely unintelligible, usually Gabrielle Anwar's lines but sometimes Noah Wyle's are too.
I can not give this film a 10 just because of Gabrielle Anwar, how can anyone watch this acting skeleton, tell this girl to put some meat on, I mean really this actress makes the thin model image to the extreme, this is not the message we want to send to our daughters, to say this is the shape to be, and to have the gall for her to wear a native costume was utterly disgusting to view.Other than that, My wife and I both agree this film if for family viewing and for passing a pleasant 2 hours, entertaining, comedic, adventurous.Not the next Indy series of movies but none the less a very good film..
This movie gave the impression of being very low budget and in this era of fantastic special effects, the film gave you the feeling that each and every cost had been spared.
The animation/effects were quite good but the end of the movie they get worse.
There isn't a train from Malindi (where Gedi Ruins are) to Mombasa, and the train looked really fancy in the movie but it is nothing like that.
Maybe it makes more sense if you see the first one but after seeing this I wouldn't want to watch the 1st one and I wouldn't recommend this movie..
The movie makers have done a fine job with special effects, but that is like saying the chef has done a fine job selecting the table linen.
Special effects are important only as a SUPPORT to a good plot.
Librarian-turned-adventurer Flynn Carsen returns in enjoyable sequel.
The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines is a Hugely enjoyable sequel to the original 'Librarian',There is plenty of Action,Mystery,Intrigue and suspense, Beautiful Locations, Very Good Special Effects for a Made for Cable (TNT) Movie, Likable Performances from all the cast, and it looks like quite a bit of money was spent.You'll like this if you're a fan of The Indiana Jones Quadrilogy or National Treasure Series.***1/2 out of *****Followed by The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice.
No transition from scene to scene.The fight with a sword at the beginning was a laughable debacle, up to that point I was almost interested in the movie, But the absurdity of it all had me trying to follow the story for almost 15 minutes before realizing I was wasting my time trying to piece together some semblance of a plot.I therefore switched of my brain and followed it along in a child like manner, which was very successful for a while, But then I noticed the predictability of it all and my brain came back into adult mode I almost felt I was turning into a psychic is was so easy to predict the next move.The special effects were, lets say, Er, Not, special?
The effects were OK to start of with, but obviously, just like the viewers, the people programming them must have got bored halfway through, because in the end they were worse than a third-rate 2-dimension video game.
The actors were hardly better, especially that skeleton who looked like all she had in mind was the pay at the end of the month.
The Librarian, Return to King's Solomon's Mines?
Like most sequels, this movie suffered from lowered expectations ...
and you shouldn't be surprised that happens since the first movie was a very weak take-off of Indiana Jones, Lara Flynn and National Treasure.Using myth and legend to spin a story as if it were fact, is a very hard thing to do.
often a VASTLY inferior take on the original.The Librarian series is this kind of movie.
Recently learning that there had been two sequels to the first Librarian movie, which I vaguely recall probably liking, I decided to watch them both.
This is a fairly good action adventure movie harking back to the days of Indiana Jones.
The hero in this movie is Flynn Carson.
Trying to find the key to unlock the treasures of King Solomans mines, Flynn meets Emily Davenport and with her help, Flynn tries to stop bad guys and ends up uncovering the secrets of his father's death.
The first Librarian movie was full of action, suspense, and just enough character development to keep me happy.
But, this movie was great and it was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon..
My cable provider has TNT right next to Discovery Channel and I thought I was watching a movie about Liberia (I'm a bit of an Africa buff).
That being said, I watched a good ten minutes of "The Librarian" before I realized it was not a Steve Erwinesqe safari program.
My poor reading of TV Guide, and my waning remote control skills, turned out to be a blessing as I was engrossed for a full hour and a half in this wacky adventure story.I am not going to repeat here how awesome Newhart was (duh!), and how much growth we see in Wyle as an actor, but I do want to address head-on the whole Anwar Controversy.
You can have a great plot and a great cast, but if your directing is bad, you've got no femur, and everything is just a little bit off.
If I were to base this review simply on commercial success, I would have to give a 3 or a 4, however Noah Wyle makes this movie a hidden gem.
Don't take it too seriously, because they don't have the budget for high quality special effects, but the acting is good (except for a few of the baddies) and it is definitely worth a watch.Gabrielle Anwar provides a great opposite to Noah in this episode and there are a couple of twists that were unexpected.I've been pretty happy with the whole librarian series, but again....don't take this stuff too seriously!
This was actually much better than the first movie, but I suspect that it had something to do with a director who has a awful lot of experience.
In fact this is actually one of the better pieces that Frakes has directed since most of his stuff tends to be very touchy feely mushy mushy Star Trek features (he played my least favourite character on Next Generation, being Commander Ryker – which isn't saying much because I am so not into Star Trek).Anyway, this is set a year after the first film, and suddenly the characters actually have a bit more of a life in them.
In this one Flynn goes off in search of King Solomon's mines, but it is also a search for finding out what happened to his father.
First off, it is obvious to me that everyone that gave this "movie" good reviews is either a).
I know, I know, sci-fi this, sci-fi that, but they put out a lot of crap, so I'm used to a bad movie.On to the actual movie.The acting is OK at best; the plot is painfully predictable (Flynn and Gabrielle fall in love.
The special effects are sub-par, but not the worst I've seen.Probably the Biggest insult To the audience, is that this movie is just a straight rip-off of Indiana Jones(Indiana Jones being, of course, good).
The even tried (and failed disturbingly) at creating a catchy theme song akin to that of Indie's.In addition, There are many Historical inaccuracies in this movie: Flynn Says something about the Sumerians Helping out the Greeks or the Romans (you remember, when the two mental patients people call "actors" twist the globe around and open it up).
These slip-ups, however, are no big deal, as the average person won't know or care about these.I Give this movie more like 2.5 stars because they did surprisingly well at copying and executing an Indiana Jones Rip-off with such a low budget.
Also, since these guys have such a low budget, I'll cut them some slack I understand that this wasn't meant to be taken too seriously, but even with this in mind, it still reminds me of something I would see come out the backside of a dog.I Really hate to have to say all this, because it is obvious that the actors, writers, producers, director, etc spent a lot of time, effort, and money into making this, but it is just not very good.
If you are one of those people like me who are used to crappy sci-fi movies, even this will be hard to trudge through.
It was a really good movie though, but I didn't like the new chick he fell for, she was very whinny and arrogant..
BTW, a much earlier version of "King Solomon's Mines" was a very serious film with Clark Gable (?) and a host of very big stars, and very well-done.Like some other user who posted a comment here, I couldn't get it straight why the main characters were doing all that walking.
What a shock to learn at the end of the film, the guide already knew where the mines were.....guess he needed the money, too.
I, too, thought the scenes with the beautiful African natives were a little tacky, and wasn't the least bit awed by the female lead (whoever she was) wearing one of their ancestral outfits.Although Noah Wyle's ("Flynn Carsen") acting was a bit more polished than in "The Spear," I liked him better in his nerdish, dumb role.
Otherwise, I'll only watch it when TNT feels compelled to present its own films.Bob Newhart ("Judson") and Jane Curtin ("Charlene") portrayed their roles well, but Curtain's drunk-scene was a bit much and out-of-character.