King Solomon’s Mines should not be on there because it is a remake of the classic from 1950, which is a remake of the 1937 version, and they are all based on the novel.
The remake probably would not have been made if not for the success of Indiana Jones. That said, I’m all for more movies with Sharon Stone.
If anything, Indiana Jones is riffing on Allan Quatermain. (Among other pulp action heroes.)
This is like when Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine got called a Tomb Raider knockoff.
No, they were totally fair in saying that. As much as Tomb Raider is a knockoff narratively, Infernal Machine is even more directly a knockoff mechanically.
Magic Crystal is a rip-off 22 years before Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was made? It doesn’t even resemble that movie except in the loosest way possible. It’s a kids’ adventure movie with kung fu. As far as the themes go it owes way more to ET.
At least he acknowledges that King Solomon’s Mines inspired Indiana Jones:
It certainly mines a lot from Lucas and Spielberg, but given Quartermain’s adventures were part of the inspiration for Jones, it’s a little more full circle than full-blown rip off.
Although I’ve never seen that version because everyone seemed to hate it.
Armour of God owes more to 007 than Indiana Jones, but was definitely influenced by both. As a side note I’m a big Jackie Chan fan (I own and have watched nearly his entire filmography) and I don’t really like this one and the sequel, mainly because of the character he plays.
And to be fair to Romancing the Stone, this screenplay was written long before Raiders of the Lost Ark premiered. It’s a case of a studio exec yelling, “Quick! What do we have that’s like Indiana Jones?”
I always thought what was missing from Indiana Jones movies was more boobs.
That’s how Tomb Raider got popular.
Some fun stuff there.
The Golden Child is one I might rewatch. It’s been a while but I remember something about people eating bloody oatmeal and falling under a trance, like in The Temple of Doom.
The last time I watched FireWalker was decades ago so all I can say is I remember younger me liking it.
Romancing the Stone is one of the more well known and higher quality movies of this bunch.
The Golden Child is more like a rip off of Big Trouble in Little China with Eddie Murphy instead of Kurt Russell.
Ah, ok. It’s been a long time since seeing any of these except The Goonies.
Big Trouble in Little China is a classic. I just might hold my own 80’s adventure movie week.
Now come on I loved Romancing the Stone. I prefer it over the first Indiana Jones movue. The only one I liked was the 3rd.
But Romancing the Stone it had Danny Devto. Also TIL it was a knock off it was pretty original to me as a kid.
It never occurred to me that it was a knock off.
It isn’t if other commentary is to be believed it was written before Raiders. Now going go watch it and if I can find it the VHS tape and DVD. Buying that movie. Should have own it anyway since we have the DVD box set of Indiana Jones movies.
The Bad Movie Bible has a really well researched list on as many Indiana Jones knock offs as could be found. King Solomon’s Mines is my favorite but mainly because of John Rhys Davies and hearing him growl “Quatermane” (and mispronounce it as Quartermane).
How should it be pronounced?
Who could forget Tales of the Gold Monkey that was made for TV immediately after the original Indiana Jones dropped.
They missed the most obvious rip-off: Tennessee Buck starring David Keith (no, not Keith David). Maybe they’re still watching the Kathy Shower nude scenes.
What an absolutely shit take at every step of this “article”. Was this slapped together for the clickbait alone? What the actual fuck is wrong with this “author”? Even AI would be ashamed to be blamed for this.
Are any of them not just bait shit for video rental shelves?
Romancing the Stone was actually pretty decent. Goonies is also on the list which is a classic of course.
I don’t even know what the hell this list is. Calling romancing the Stone in Indiana Jones knockoff is bizarre.
Have you seen the movie? I think they’re very similar action adventure films with some comedy sprinkled in. Just look at the movie posters as one example:
Goonies is also on the list
Well you wouldn’t know that from the softcore title image.
Goonies is the opposite of a ripoff, it manifested its own genre. It’s also the only movie on that list that I’ve seen so I wanted to know if any of the others were genuine attempts at making a real movie or just VHS shovel garbage as that image suggested.
Hey, Captain America is an Indiana Jones ripoff because it has the hero killing paranormal Nazis, too!
Spielberg wrote the Gonies and directed Indiana Jones, it cant be a rip off if it’s the same people!!!
Yeah i wouldn’t call it a rip-off either but I do think they’re along the same vein and isn’t far off from what we see now with stuff like superhero movies. I was merely responding to whether any of the movies on the list were more than your bargain-bin direct-to-VHS crapfest even though I dont believe they’re copying Indiana Jones.
Well, King Solomon’s Mines seems to be a classic book I’ve never heard of.
It’s been made in to a movie in 1919, 1937, 1950, and this one in 1985.
Seems like it’s due for another remake.
There was also an animated version in 1986 and Tarzan visited in 1979.
So I dunno, I think I’m gonna check it out. 🤷♂️
