Arabian Adventure
November. 21,1979An evil caliph (Christopher Lee) offers his daughter’s hand in marriage to a prince if he can complete a perilous quest for a magical rose. Helped by a young boy and a magic carpet, Prince Hasan (Oliver Tobias), has to overcome genies, fire breathing monsters and treacherous swamps to reach his prize and claim the hand of the Princess Zuleira (Emma Samms).
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Reviews
It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.
Absolutely brilliant
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
Arabian Adventure is directed by Kevin Connor and written by Brian Hayles. It stars Christopher Lee, Milo O'Shea, Oliver Tobias, Emma Samms and Puneet Sira. Music is by Ken Thorne and cinematography by Alan Hume.A prince is sent by an evil sorcerer (Lee) on a quest for a magical rose. Should he succeed, he hopes that as a reward he will win the hand of the princess.Sometimes to moderately enjoy a film of this type, you just got to take yourself back to a time when simple children's adventure movies were made with simple film making techniques. This obviously doesn't hold up well these days, where even given the year it was made it was way behind advancements that were being made in special effects. Thus it's highly unlikely that the prepubescents of today would have the patience or care for such a production. Yet it doesn't lack for charm.Is charm enough? Well it's not a great or very good film, it's heavy on chatter, the effects are indeed a little crude, acting and accents are borderline dire, and it seems to take an age to get going, yet it's not insulting like many far bigger budget pictures have been: even nowadays! It's best just to roll with it, enjoy the whimsy and the many small roles by the likes of Peter Cushing, Mickey Rooney, Capucine and, erm, John Ratzenberger. Forgettable once it's over, but harmless with it. 5/10
This was a really nice rediscovery on UK DVD for me; I remember I've watched 'Arabian Adventure' on TV in the 1980s but not since then. I mean, you get flying carpets, jinns, belly-dancers, a beautiful princess to save and Christopher Lee as an evil wizard turning people into toads ("You call yourself my servant?") - what more could you ask for? 'Arabian Adventure' knows the genre standards and delivers. Lest I forget, fire-breathing metal monsters and Peter Cushing with a silly beard are in it as well. One has to admit that the limited budget shows in the set decoration, as the palace looks more like cardboard than marble, and then some effects like the superimposed jinn are rather TV quality than big screen. But fairy tales from 1001 Nights don't need realism that much, I found I could successfully switch into fantasy mode and simply enjoy it. It's an old-fashioned production like they did in the 1940s and 50s, maintaining the same naive charm and that's fine for such kind of things.
this film is pathetic the acting (if you could call it that is cardboard and predictable) the plot again is predictable and so clichéd (with no real attempt to even disguise the cliché). I didn't know that thieves had cockney accents in 'arabia'. what makes it even worst is that all the actors are supposed to be Arab but just have lots of fake tan on. it looks like everything from every fantasy and storybook has been thrown into a bag and pulled out in some random order. the story doesn't seem to focus on one magic thing to the next this is too dull a film to mention in fact i couldn't get through the whole thing without giving up and deciding that this is a wholesale waste of my time. i was very surprised to see that this film had been made in 1979. i mean, star wars had been made by then, Indiana Jones wasn't far off. jaws had been made and yet the effects in this film are pathetic. i could not justify giving this film any more than a one as a rating.
I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!!...Yet I haven't been able to find a copy of it for years.. As a child I watched this movie constantly, esp' due to my love of LEE..And it has remained as a special movie to me. It seemed to be one of those movies back then, that was one of the newer 'style' movies in the late 70's (effects and stuff)..so back then i just loved it..It's a true fantasy!! I think most children would absolutly love this film..though if i saw it now, i'd proberly laugh at the effects! But no one i've met has ever heard of it..I think it's a hidden gem..hopefully not lost forever!!!